Cultural Intelligence- Food for Thought

We live in a world where English has become the lingua franca of the business community. Increasingly we all speak English at meetings, in email communications, on the telephone or during videoconferences. As a result, the "trap of similarity" - that dangerous assumption that we are all, despite our different nationalities, "wired" in exactly the same way, think, reason and react identically, is even more present than in the past. PRA

All organisations wrestle with cultural misunderstandings on a daily basis - sometimes confusion and misinterpretation is no more than a passing annoyance. On occasions it can jeopardise a project or a major deal. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is no longer a luxury or an optional extra. It is an essential tool for success. It can be taught successfully and then put into practice.  PRA

What I true is not what I say but what the other person understands.  Paul Watzlawick

The essence of effective cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing the right responses than with sending the “right” messages. Edward and Mildred Hall

What America does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is to understand others. Carlos Fuentes

An Englishman rarely lies to you but will very rarely tell you the absolute truth.  George Mikes

The English can never be convinced by arguments, only by facts. Jean Monet

The French always place a school of thought, a formula, convention, a priori arguments, abstraction and artificiality above reality; they prefer clarity to truth, words to things, rhetoric to science. Theodore Zeldin

The combined (German) catalysts of uncertainty avoidance, Angst, and peer pressure have produced over time a society that is both symbiotic and hermetic. Richard Hill

In Japan the word customer translates into "honoured guest in one's home".  Catherine Devrye

In a world of continuous barrage of information, the ability to create the bridge of mutual understanding is increasingly more important and difficult. Real communication involves trust, integrity and empathy. John Harvey Jones

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.  Chinese Proverb

The Law of Value - your true worth is determined by how much you give in value than you take in payment   Selling is giving: giving time, attention, counsel, education, empathy and value. In fact the word sell comes from the old English sell and which means to give. Burg and Mann