Faiths & Cultures Awareness

Putting Learning into Action

Being More Culturally Aware

The training has helped us to become more aware of culture and how it differs, not just on the surface, but at a deeper level too, this will help us in future interactions! One important picture we explored on this was that of culture like a tree, with both visible and hidden parts, and yet connected.

Read the summary of these particular aspects of culture below and ask yourself:

What strikes me about it?
How has my understanding of culture changed during the training?

"Once you accept that people behave the way they do for a reason, whatever you may think of that reason, you can go beyond simply reacting to that behaviour and figure out how to work with it.

To understand where behaviour comes from – to understand why people behave the way they do – means learning about values and beliefs. The behaviour of people from another culture may seem strange to you, but it probably makes sense to them, and vice versa. The reason any behaviour makes sense is simply because it is consistent with what a given person believes in or holds dear."

- Craig Storti, “Figuring Foreigners Out” (emphasis added)

Cultural Characteristics Quiz

When we considered the roots of the tree, we saw that cultures varied in many different ways.

Read the review of the characteristics of cultures below, assessing where you fit yourself into each culturally.

Then click NEXT below to see if you can spot these characteristics within working life situations.

These are the different cultural characteristics that we met in the classroom part of the training:

Direct / Indirect Communication Style

Direct Cultures: People talk to exchange information and so they say directly what they mean.

Indirect Cultures: People talk to manage social relationships. For this reason, great caution is taken not to rudely affront other people, and so they need to rephrase words and speak indirectly.

Individualist / Group Oriented

Individualist Cultures: Personal rights and freedom of choice are strong cultural values. Western identity is sometimes described as being rooted in this.

Group Oriented Cultures: Identity and security come from group membership and so it is important not to bring shame to the group by what you say or do.

Equality / Hierarchy Oriented

Equality Cultures: There is tendency for equality in social structures, meaning that communication is more possible between members of society regardless of position.

Hierarchy Cultures: There is a greater communication distance between the most and least powerful people within the society.

Rules / Relationships Oriented

Rules Cultures: Rules apply equally to everyone regardless of who you are. A general set of rules of what is ‘good and right’ is defined and applied everywhere.

Relationships Cultures: People matter more than regulations. For deciding what is right to do, attention is paid to obligations of relationships and to unique circumstances.

One at a Time / Time for All

One at a Time Cultures: People value order and a sense of having an appropriate time and place for everything. Focus is on the job at hand and time commitments are taken very seriously.

Time for All Cultures: People like to do multiple things at the same time. Promptness is based on relationship rather than task. Objectives are more like desirable outcomes than must-do's.

Own Control / Outside Control

Own Control Cultures: Success is your own achievement, with no limits as long as you make the effort. Self-help guides and life coaches may be prominent.

Outside Control Culture, success can be a combination of effort and help from beyond. Lucky symbols and certain religious symbols may be prominent.

Being Culturally Aware at Work

Even if we know the differences between cultures, how can we apply this learning within our work contexts? We can start with 5 simple questions: WHO, WHY, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE.

These help us with the big question: HOW do we work with those from different cultural understandings?

Think of a meeting you might have soon with someone from another cultural background and use the 5 questions to help you prepare for it.

Select the relevant parts of each question in the PDF file given here (some apply more for work colleagues and others to service users).

Answer them as best you can to decide how you might be more culturally aware when you next meet.

Asking the Right Questions.pdf

WHAT NEXT?

WHAT NEXT is another crucial question. Some parts of our meeting will go well, but others may not. So what then?

We hope that the training has given us all confidence to learn through experience. We won't get learning from experience if we never try! So how do we learn through experience?

Here are some suggestions to make the most of our cultural learning opportunity:

We may get help from unexpected places – people know that we do not necessarily share their cultural understanding but the most important thing for them is that have tried to respectfully learn.
Reflect afterwards on what can be learnt for next time. This could mean sharing with a colleague or with a group of like-minded people.
Find a colleague who has relevant cultural understanding who can help us in meeting others.

Further Resources

British Culture (good if you work in UK but not from UK)

Watching the English (book on English cultural heritage)

The Culture Map (book on business cultures worldwide)

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