What makes culture intelligence unique and how does it differ from emotional and social intelligence?

Cultural intelligence is the ability to assess the cultural elements that are relevant to inter-personal dynamics where culture may play a role in furthering or hindering understanding. As I had discussed before, the most useful way to understand culture is as the intersection between the answers to the questions “who am I?” and “who are we?” An additional concept that is useful in this framework is the notion of cultural distance – cultural distance is a way to measure the extent of differences that exist between one culture and the other. As we all have various cultural layers that make up our identity, we are often simultaneously culturally close and culturally remote from any person with whom we interact. Of course there are collective cultural constructs that are significantly more distant than others, but there is always some level at which we can relate with other people if we are patient enough and committed to understanding. It should be noted that there is also a metacultural layer that often comes into play when engaging in inter-cultural communications: this refers to elements that are not expressively identical across two remote cultures but possess relatively similar importance and prominence in both cultures despite their differences. Food, for example, is different between Mexico and Morocco, but dwelling on the specifics of differences in ingredients, techniques, presentation, etc. would miss the amazing opportunity of focusing on the important role that food plays in both cultures – the metacultural level. This appreciation for similar abstract joys, despite what could be vast expressive differences, offers the best opportunity to develop inter-cultural understanding, as I will discuss below.

 

Discuss each specific element of the ABC’s (Acquire, Build, Contemplate, and Do) of Cultural Intelligence.

Acquire: This element focuses on gathering knowledge (cognition) on the cultural elements at play in any interaction. Since the cognitive process is about what is culturally relevant, we should focus on both external and internal cultural elements that are at play as we gather information. Who am I? Who are we? Who is s/he? Who are they? Self-identity, own collective identity, other individual identity, other collective identity. Culture is exceedingly dynamic and organic so we may flow in and out of all these categories multiple times as we try to understand the cultural opportunities and challenges before us. Acquiring information about our own identities will help as we try to understand the intersections at play when engaging others.

I will propose that we also acquire information about useful metacultural elements that will help us create a common language and open doors to cultural understanding. I define my list of most relevant metacultural elements as the 8 F’s: family, friends, faith, face, food, football, fine arts and f*@&. These is my own list but I’m sure other elements can be added. The idea with these elements is that no matter the differences in how they are expressed, all cultures express them and as such they provide a great way to build a common language around close cultural elements to subsequently build bridges to understand remote cultural elements.

Build: This element focuses on the metacognitive process of using cognitive assets to build awareness of a particular situation. With the groundwork laid at the cognitive level, we sift through the information to assess what parts of the information available is relevant, what assumptions we can establish from what we already know and observe and what interpretations we can derive from what we understand to proceed. In other words we take all the cultural information we have acquired from our I, we, you, they assessment, we determine cultural distance between various the identities we find and we seek to home in on the most relevant and useful cultural and metacultural elements for that particular interaction.

Contemplate: This element is about determining your posture going into an inter-cultural environment. Will you actively seek to engage your counterparts/audience? Will you sit back and listen? Having identified the relevant cognitive and metacognitive cultural elements at play, you now have to understand your place in the particular cultural environment. Contemplating is applying the tools of cultural awareness that are used to understand the context to ourselves in order to understand our own inner cultural realities and calibrate our responses accordingly. Is our own perspective furthering or hindering understanding? One of the questions I often ask myself at this stage is “Am I the problem?” Finding the answer to this question in a cultural context will help us address our part in creating obstacles to cultural understanding. In many cultures, the deference that is expressed by someone who is undertaking earnest efforts to contemplate about their role in understanding and adjust their cultural approach is enough to make major inter-cultural communications breakthroughs.

Do: This is the stage at which we proactively engage with others. At this point we should know what we want to achieve with our cultural communication efforts, what relevant cultural elements are at play, what our own cultural equities are and what the particular cultural environment is.

For many years, I worked traveling around the US with delegations of people from multiple countries and I came to see culture as a tool to ensure successful visits. As I have explained before, culture is a construct – once you identify relevant cultural elements, you can actually build a common culture with a group, no matter how small. One of the most useful cultural dimensions that I focused on developing when on trips was the notion that we were all on the same boat while traveling. Many visitors would be put off by what they say as excessive security measures at airports in the aftermath of 9/11; some felt unfairly singled out and would feel embarrassed and frustrated that they were invited on a visit and then treated with what they interpreted as mistrust. My simple strategy here was to keep keys in my pocket to go through metal detectors to ensure that I would get the full wand and pat-down treatment as well. It was a hassle, but it helped defuse discomfort and create a common experience for the delegation. Another strategy was to pick up on a harmless joke or experience and highlight it subtly a few times so the group would center their memories on that common recollection. I used the 8 F’s framework often to spur conversations that helped build that sense of common experience as well. I spent countless hours on buses and airport departure gates exchanging notes on the differences between tacos, arepas (Colombian and Venezuelan) and pupusas.

From experience, we should not limit our engagement to understanding other cultures and expressing our own, but on creating a common culture with groups of people every chance we get. If we are successful in this effort we can transition from that core common culture to our close cultural elements and, ultimately, cut the distance between our remote cultural elements.

 

Emotional intelligence is about the moment and our ability to read emotions and react to a situation on the spot.

Social intelligence is about what lies ahead and how we react to social situations to preserve the social equities of a particular group in the future.

Cultural intelligence is about the elements in our past that shape our understanding of both social and emotional intelligence elements. It’s what explains our feelings and reaction to a particular situation and how we have been socialized to assess social equities and norms. Cultural intelligence is a more encompassing subject in that it does not limit its focus to expressions of intelligence but it seeks to understand the underlying construct that explains why those expressions are thus. As we have discussed, cultural intelligence applied effectively can also help us forge culture.

 

What makes cultural intelligence particularly valuable in terms of a leadership competency in today’s global market?

Leaders need to understand the world around them to help influence and shape it. Cultural intelligence principles can help leaders build cultures around their organizational objectives and leverage all relevant and useful cultural elements, close and remote, that will help maximize their resources.

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