Diversity Training: Engaging Confidently with Other Cultures

Sara:

Hi, everyone and welcome to today’s webinar, Diversity Training: Engaging Confidently With Other Cultures. Hosted by HRDQ-U, and presented by Dr. Judith Myers. My name is Sarah, and I will moderate today’s webinar. The webinar will last about an hour. If you have any questions, go ahead and type them into the question’s area on your GoToWebinar control panel. You may have to click on that word, so it drops and opens up a box. You can type in there, click Submit, that will come over to us, and we’ll either answer questions as we go along, we’ll answer them at the end if we have time. We will definitely answer after the session by email. So, do not hesitate to send in those questions, that’s right when you go to webinar control panel. It’ll either say questions or chat at the top, and you can type in there and send that over to me.

Sara:

Our presenter today is Dr. Judith Myers. Dr. Myers is a clinical and forensic psychologist, currently in private practice in San Diego, California. Dr. Myers is also an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the psychiatry clinical volunteer facility faculty. She also serves the public sector as a forensic psychologist, an expert witness by consulting with attorneys, the courts and the criminal justice system. She is a former senior clinical psychologist with the forensic evaluation unit, San Diego County Superior Court, and past president of the San Diego Psych-Law Society. She consults with major television networks regarding selection for reality show contestants, and the shows often include international locations. Dr. Meyers received her undergraduate degree in Secondary English Education, and a Master’s Degree in Education from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sara:

She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the former Hahnemann University and Medical College in Philadelphia. And Dr. Meyers has taught high school English and reading, as well as undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology. She is the co-author of the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, a widely used self-assessment and training tool. She also uses this instrument for the express purpose of working with consulting services, to assist in the selection of expatriates for international assignments. Her collaboration in the development of the CCAI reflects her interest in other cultures, her skills in clinical assessment and her eclectic clinical pursuits.

Sara:

Welcome, Dr. Myers, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Judith Meyers:

Well, thank you, Sara. And I really appreciate that introduction, and I also welcome the attendees to this webinar, and I thank you for your interest and your time. I’m very excited to be here, because I love talking about cross-cultural adaptability and relating effectively to other cultures. For the purpose of this presentation, the cross-cultural competence issues will be within the context of diversity training. And I wanted to give what my working definition of diversity training is, and then we’ll take off from there. Workplace diversity and inclusion, promotes acceptance, respect and teamwork, despite differences in culture and ethnicity, gender, gender orientation, age, including generational’s ages, religion, disabilities, language and sexual orientation. So, I’ll be discussing the key competencies that can be incorporated into your diversity training, so that you are reaching people at a very fundamental level, so they can make the changes that make for a more inclusive workplace.

Judith Meyers:

So, you heard something about what I’m bringing to this webinar, but I’m very interested in learning about what brings you here today and what your interest in today’s topic is. For example, what motivated you to enroll? What are you curious about? And what would you like to learn more hard skills about? So, if you could just take some time and chat in something about that, and then, I know, Sara will be giving me the feedback. And in that way, I can know what your interest and goals are, and I can tailor the presentation a bit to reflect your interest. So, if you wouldn’t mind chatting in.

Sara:

Sure, so we have some that have already come in here. Courtney says, “I want to learn to be more sensitive to different cultures of my staff that I manage.” Lydia says, “Changing demographics in our city.” Becky says, “Differences between cultures and being more sensitive.” Wanda has, “Working on my diversity and inclusion certification. The more exposure I get, the better success I will have rolling out the program at her credit union.” “I work at a university that talks much about diversity. And so, I just want some more information about it.”

Judith Meyers:

All right, well, that is a really good scope of questions. Some people are learning about the area, some people are implementing programs, and other individuals want to improve their skills in relating to other cultures or dealing with changes around them, such as the demographics in a city, which is a very good observation. All right, well, let’s get started.

Judith Meyers:

All right, so, what we have here is an introduction to the discussion of culture. And when we talk about engaging other cultures, we need to be sure that we’re on the same page regarding what we mean by culture and what culture is. So, I’m again going to go to a brief definition that’s taken from the cross-cultural adaptability facilitators guide on page six. And state that culture can be defined as ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling and behaving that are shared, and accepted and customary by a group of people. All right, culture can be seen such as in customs or mores, or traditional ways of doing things. Through dress, architecture, language. These values are seen, and they’re unseen. So, let’s just take a look at very quickly at this picture. And even though it seems just like a busy street, if we pay attention to what the possible cultural clues are, we can see that there’s differences in language. Differences in the density of the population, even how they’re managing traffic and pedestrian, how people are walking across the street or transporting themselves.

Judith Meyers:

So, you get an idea of, this is a culture different than the United States. And you can draw conclusions on things that are observable, as well as the unseen, like, values, assumptions and emotions. Cultures traditionally associated with nations and geographic locations. And [inaudible 00:09:03] that is true today, certainly, but culture can also cut across these boundaries. It can be religious, age groups, academic communities, et cetera. And it contains subcultures, such as, churches, schools, neighborhoods, industries. Think about when we talk about Silicon Valley, we think of that as a subculture unto itself, and that just involves in industry. And then, within that industry, there’s a complex community of different religions, age groups and ethnicities. So, you can see that culture is really broad and encompassing.

Judith Meyers:

Now, cultural background is closely tied to early experiences, and shapes a person’s cultural identity. And that really is our first introduction to culture. It is the sights, smells, music, faces, foods that you grew up with. Both cultural background and identity, shape our view of the world and they influence our cross-cultural interactions. Hofstede, who is a very famous writer and researcher on cross-cultural differences, called culture, the software of the mind. Because, we learn to see the world from views passed down to us by those who were instrumental in our first culture. Most people don’t pay much attention, or even aware of how cultures have influenced them. They might be aware of cultures as adults, but their original cultural influences began before they could even talk. We call that preverbal. And these influences don’t really register at an early age as culture, it’s just what envelops and influences you.

Judith Meyers:

Awareness of our cultural identity and experiences, and how they influence our perceptions, can be the first step toward changing our perspective on the world, and becoming more cross-culturally effective. So, we’re changing our perspective on the world and becoming more cross-culturally effective, as we identify what our own cultural identity is. Mutual discussions with others about cultural backgrounds and identities, can dispel misconceptions and expand our viewpoints. So, I like this slide in terms of cultural identity, because, the doors are, more or less, representations of the different types of influences and different types of cultures that make up a person’s identity. Yet, each one is unique.

Judith Meyers:

All right, so, I’d like to do a little poll now, to increase your own sensitivity and self-awareness about your cultural identity. And also, share with the group, what some of the early influences were, such as, family, community, neighborhood, schools, churches, relatives. What do you identify with? [crosstalk 00:13:11] this chat, if you could just write that in.

Sara:

Yeah, absolutely. So, we’ve got some that are coming in here. Church and family, is a lot, country, different language, school. Becky says she was raised in the southeast. Family, Roman Catholic, Hispanic, is what Rudy shares. Cordy shares, suburban. A couple of people are saying family. I see some that are saying heritage, is coming up a lot.

Judith Meyers:

Yes. So, we’re looking at broad categories, the people, the institutions. And when I say institutions, I mean, religion and community groups, as well as regional differences. Someone said they grew up in the southeast, I grew up in the northeast, and I’m aware of how much that influences my perception. So, thank you for sharing that.

Judith Meyers:

One of the things that is important when you identify your cultural identity, is be aware of what you carry with you into other cultures. And this picture, and I’m using the marker here to emphasize all the bags. And the metaphor is, the cultural baggage. What things that you learned or grew up with or were emersed with in your culture, that you bring with you when you interact from with people from other cultures. Basically, it’s what is your reaction to differences, based on what your original cultural identity was. Now, once we understand our cultural identity and we bring that to the table, the big question is, how do we bridge that gap? And this illustrates Mind the Gap on a number of levels. One, we’re talking about the gap between what our identity is in the culture that we’re interacting with. But also, in the international arena, gaps can be much wider, and differences can be greater.

Judith Meyers:

And many times, we take for granted the degree of cultural distance, even though we believe that we’re interacting with like minded people. Getting back to the international arena, the difference between cultures is called cultural distance. And living in England, when I did for short period of time, I really thought that there would be minimal cultural difference. Because, we spoke the same language, we had a similar history et cetera. But then, getting to something like Mind the Gap, which is a ubiquitous sign in the tube stations, which means, watch your step, was an early indicator that there are cultural differences even in language under the surface. Another example that I could give [inaudible 00:17:03] that, is with a group that I’m working with in Alaska. And even though you would expect that the teachers who are being trained have a similar background, when the teachers are going to a rural area, there’s a much larger cultural distance, because of the norms and isolation in rural Alaska.

Judith Meyers:

So, a training was done to prepare these teachers for the experience, because they knew that the larger the cultural distance, the bigger the challenge. So, what are the skills that you need, in order to bridge this gap? And I’m going to be introducing you to key competencies that can bridge that distance. The competencies are four skill sets that I’ve taken from the cross-cultural adaptability inventory, in order to help you enhance your diversity training. It will help you make better connections, and have better insight, and better relationships, as well as tools to resolve differences. So, some background on the key competencies. So, the research on cross-cultural adaptability, started back in the 60s and 70s by inner cultures who were interested in the peace corps and adjusting to other cultures. So, the research gained momentum and in the 90s, they started looking at different characteristics and skills, to be a cross-culturally competent person.

Judith Meyers:

So, it moved from just the particular peace corps group that went to other cultures, to a broader interest in engaging with other cultures. And there was a lot of research that was being done on cross-cultural effectiveness, and trying to figure out what the competencies were to be a universal communicator. What came out of it, were agreed upon skills supported by the research. And they involve cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social skills and abilities. The other thing is that they were not easily quantified or observed. So, in other words, if one of the skills was being open-minded, it wasn’t easy from the onset, to determine whether you had the personality and skill set to be open-minded sufficiently to engage with people who are different than you. So, assessment became a very quick way to gather information that actually would become apparent over time, but this was a quick and easy snapshot.

Judith Meyers:

So, what Dr. Kelley and myself did in 1986, was to co-author the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, in order to translate the terminology that had been put out there, into quantifiable skill sets. Now, before we go a little further on that, there are factors that are easily assessed, that contribute to being effective dealing with other cultures. So, one of them is, do you speak another language? Do you speak more than one? So, it’s obvious that, if you’re doing training with a Hispanic group, then it would be very advantageous to speak that language, in order to enhance communication. Or, if you were going to live in another culture, to learn that language. But the research has also found that, people who speak more than one language, tend to be more adept in being open and flexible to other cultures.

Judith Meyers:

Another factor that influences cross-cultural adaptability is, have you lived in another country for more than six months? So, having that experience of engaging in another culture in real time, really enhances your potential to be successful in dealing with people different than yourself. And then, finally, have you studied the culture of another country? So, gaining knowledge about other cultures and developing an interest, either, the history, the politics, the food, the architecture. Having a motivation to learn about other cultures, is a factor that predicts future success. Okay, so, what I’d like to do now, is show you how the research combines to get an overview of cross cultural competence. So, the foundation, as I just stated, is knowledge and motivation. Do you have some interest in other cultures? Do you have some knowledge? And are you motivated to engage?

Judith Meyers:

The first critical skill is emotional resilience, and I will go into that more as this goes on. But this is a core competency to be able to be open and resilient and maintain a positive attitude. The next important skill is cognitive flexibility. You have to be open-minded and non-judgmental. And actually, learning another language also contributes to cognitive flexibility. The third major skill is cultural empathy. Are you able to take a perspective on the other culture, and see things from that point of view? And also, can you put yourself self in the other person’s shoes and see things from their perspective? Now, the next important skill is self-autonomy. And that would be a combination of being positive and emotional resilient, and open to new experiences, and then, you can be a self starter and be confident in your own cultural identity.

Judith Meyers:

Combining cognitive flexibility and cultural empathy, you get openness. And in the CCAI, we talk about flexibility and openness. It’s a very important component of cognitive flexibility, as well as cultural empathy. All right, the next skill that’s very important, that comes out of cultural empathy, but also involves emotional resilience, is perceptiveness. And it’s very important to remain positive and non-judgmental, when you’re engaging with other cultures, so you can really be accurate in your perceptions. And then, finally, the core competency is EQI or emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence embodies, empathy, resilience, respect for other people. And emotional intelligence training is an excellent avenue for diversity training. Now, on the left hand side, we could think of these skills as self-management. What do you do to maintain these skills in emotional resilience and perceptiveness?

Judith Meyers:

The other is motivation and initiative, do you have an innate drive to learn about other cultures? Are you inherently interested? Because, that will drive you. Now, we have another kind of motivation and that’s the motivation that’s the payoff. So, after you’ve developed your cultural empathy and you have some success in dealing with other cultures, it’s very rewarding. So, you are further motivated to engage with people who are different than yourself, and continue the training and development process. And finally, it touches on the social and relational, we can’t talk about engaging other cultures, without considering the social and relationship context, and that comes out of cultural empathy primarily. So, that is a overall schema for what cross-cultural competence looks like, in the skills that you would want to bring into your diversity training.

Judith Meyers:

Okay, so then we have another important component, and that is called metacognition. And this is something that comes out of emotional intelligence literature. But it’s a term for making accurate attributions. So, after you’ve internalized all of these skills, the optimal outcome would be that you could go into another culture, and draw conclusions, and make assumptions that are congruent with that culture. That you are seeing it as the person from that culture would see it. All right, well, that was a lot of information. How do we get our hands around that research in a useful way? What are the central skills that we can use, that will make the difference between successful cross-cultural interactions, and ones that are discouraging and frustrating? This brings me to the cross-cultural adaptability inventory, which is where my experience and expertise emanates, in terms of the cross-cultural field.

Judith Meyers:

So, in 1986, when I first met Dr. Kelley, my co-author, there was no instrument that was available that would quantify these concepts that I just talked about. Since that time, there’s been an increase growth and interest in cross-cultural adaptability and diversity. I think, one of the participants wrote in, and said, this is a very important construct on campus now, and it is being reflected in global corporations, in study abroad programs. I’m amazed at how study abroad has become almost an integral part of a four year college experience. Diversity in the workplace, what we’re talking about today, all these involve cognitive emotional behavior and social skills. The core competencies that were discussed in the 80s when we developed the instrument, are still valid and relevant today.

Judith Meyers:

All right, here are the four competencies that we’re going to be discussing in more detail, emotional resilience, flexibility openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. Okay, now I’m going to turn this back to you, and I’m going to ask you to take a quick look inside, for your recent experiences with these types of challenging situations. Can you visualize or remember a cross-cultural situation where you were frustrated, disappointed, upset, or experienced another negative emotion? On a scale of one to five, how would you rate your ability to bounce back or remain positive and have a sense of emotional equilibrium in the face of these frustrations? So, quickly, how do you feel you were able to bounce back from set back? All right, so, it seems that over half of the people were a four. So, they felt really confident in their ability to handle themselves in a frustrating situation.

Judith Meyers:

The highest was about 15%, and there’s a fair amount of people who are in the middle, about 32%, who feel they did a fair job, but probably think that there’s room for improvement. So, let’s go and explore emotional resilience. So, this is just an example of what a frustrating situation could be when you’re visiting another culture or traveling, you lose your luggage. And perhaps, you’re in another culture, you’re giving a training, or your training materials are in there, as are your clothes. And you’re jet lagged and you’re dealing with a new accent or a new language, and you don’t know how to work the phone system. So, you can see that these situations can trigger negative emotions, such as, frustration, anxiety, disappointment. How do we get to emotional resilience where there is a more positive outlook or, at least, an emotional equilibrium?

Judith Meyers:

The key aspects to emotional resilience. I just said, the emotional equilibrium, being on an even keel. Having a positive attitude, having a sense of adventure. Being able to tolerate ambiguity, very important, because things are not going to be certain and predictable, and being able to bounce back from setbacks. All right. So, those are your emotional resilience skills in dealing with differences. Now, let’s go to a poll again, where I’d like you to visualize or remember a cross-cultural experience, where you were with a new group or culture, and spoke with someone who had different ideas from yours. How would you rate your ability to be open-minded, or at least tolerant, in this situation? Okay, well, the results coming in are interesting. Again, the four has the majority, but there is much heavier load on five. I would say that three-quarters of the people who are responding, are four or five, and nobody was low.

Judith Meyers:

So, I would say as trainers, you are very confident in your ability to be flexible and open-minded. And here is flexibility, openness, just a bodily metaphor for being open to new experiences. Flexibility and openness is about being able to enjoy interacting with others, and learn from others, and embracing people who are different from you. So, it’s not only being open-minded, it’s embracing difference, particularly in social areas. So, key aspects would be, open-minded, liking different ways of thinking, embracing new ideas, wanting to be open and non-judgmental, enjoying different kinds of people, and enjoying diversity. So, you are open to new ways of doing things. And these can include, going into a situation where there’s a difference in how they conduct business. The degree that they are engaging in conversations about diversity, the amount of conflict that people are comfortable with in dealing with these ideas. And just in general, the pace and tempo of the group, I think is very important and isn’t always giving it enough attention.

Judith Meyers:

And I know that with diversity training, there’s a lot of emphasis on being innovative and creative. And certainly, developing flexibility and openness is critical to that skill. Okay. So, now, we’re going to do another poll, before we get to our third dimension. Excuse me, can you visualize or remember a cross-cultural situation where you were talking with someone who was different than yourself or it was a cross-cultural situation, how much did you focus on their body language or other nonverbal cues? How much information did you get, over and above what they were saying? So, on a scale of one to five, rate your ability to be observant of other people’s body language and verbal cues in this situation. Okay. All right, again, this particular dimension has one of the highest loadings on five, and four is also strong. And, again, about 75% of all the respondents.

Judith Meyers:

So, you as trainers are very good at perceiving how people might be thinking and feeling, paying attention to body language. And also, having empathy for other perspectives. So, this slide on perceptual acuity, is just a way to look at all the different ways that we take in information. So, if we were observant, we could learn something about the way people are dressed, what is the hierarchy in this company? We can see that it’s diverse employees. And I’m sure there are a lot more conclusions that you could draw, just from this snapshot, even the way people are positioning themselves in the workspace. So, this is the kind of development that you want to go through when you’re improving your perceptual acuity. So, here, if you’re being observant, you see, it’s pretty strong indicator that mean maybe people are bored or disinterested or worried or wish they were somewhere else.

Judith Meyers:

Okay, here’s the same group, and they have a different persona. So, very often, we deal with people’s roles that they put on and feel is appropriate in the workplace. And that is a good thing, impression management is a very important skill to know what to bring forth in what situation. But we also want to be aware of what is going on beneath the surface. So, key aspects would be, being attentive to verbal and nonverbal cues, being attentive to communication dynamics and context. Who is running the meeting? Who is allowed to speak? Being empathic, and this is very important. And dealing with other cultures we call it as we saw from the other slide, cultural empathy. But that inner personal sensitivity is really critical. And accurate perceptions and attributions, you want to make sure that the conclusions that you’re drawing, align with what the person wants to be communicating. And that’s where that metacognition comes in. With enough experience dealing with other cultures and paying attention, you can draw accurate conclusions and observations.

Judith Meyers:

Okay, so now we’re going to go to our last skill. And, can you visualize or remember a cross-cultural situation, where you were with someone or a group, where their values were really different than your own? On a scale of one to five, how would you rate your ability to be confident? Okay, all right. On this one, we have a little… we have more of an even distribution. And there are even people who are acknowledging that they are low on it, or need a lot of skill development. And I would say three, fours and fives are roughly evenly distributed, and maybe four and five are a little higher. And this is a difficult skill to master and it is personal autonomy. And that is the ability to maintain your own identity, while being in a group of others, while honoring your values and respecting the values of the other person, or the other culture.

Judith Meyers:

So, one of the misconceptions about personal autonomy, is that, it means being independent. And the United States is a very individualistic culture, and there are other cultures which are more collective or group oriented. The personal autonomy applies to both group cultures and individual cultures. And it also applies to core values. It has a lot to do with self-confidence, and respect for your values and the values of others. It also means being a self starter. So, that combination of openness and motivation, allows you to begin things in a very autonomous fashion, which could even amount to reaching out to others. So, key aspects of personal autonomy involve a clear personal value system. A strong sense of identity, being self-confident, and having positive self-regard. Deciding from your own values, being self-directed, taking the initiative, but also respecting one’s own values, as well as the values of others. This is a very complex dimension, but the core takeaway from this is, can you engage with other cultures, who are different than you, and still remain solid in your identity and be self-directed?

Judith Meyers:

Okay. So, those were the four cross-cultural competency skills, for maximizing cross-cultural success. And one of the ways to improve them, is to practice these skills, strategize and plan cross-cultural interactions, analyze the gaps in your team skill level, where you want them to be and where they are now. And teaching them to use the appropriate competencies. So, these would be strategies that you would use in your diversity training, in order to maximize cross-cultural success, by using the four competencies. Okay, so, this brings me to one of the tools that you could use in your training. And I want to say that there are many effective tools out there that cover the basic components of cross-cultural competence, but I’m going to speak to the CCAI, which is published by HRDQ, and just to introduce you to the different… what? Materials that are available. So, there’s the self assessment tool, which you can take paper and pencil or online.

Judith Meyers:

It’s 50 questions, goes very quickly, and then you get feedback on those four dimensions. There’s an action planning guide, which takes the results and gives you steps to improvement. And there’s the facilitator set, which combines the key training tools, so that is in a package. And then, there’s also the workbook, that combined with the facilitators guide, is a standalone training module. So, if you look on the HRD’s website, you’ll get more of a description of these components. The advantage is, it’s easily and quickly completed, you can easily minimize resistance. It has been around since the 80s, there’s a lot of research that refers to it, and it’s looked at as the gold standard, and it consolidates the research. The language is uncomplicated and clear, the feedback is clear and it’s action based. So, you have strategies for improvement. And you can tailor the training to two hours, to two days.

Judith Meyers:

So, there are a couple of caveats. It has high face validity, which means that, when you’re taking it, you know it’s about cross-cultural adaptability and what the socially acceptable answers are, so you have to prepare for that. And you should not make predictions or selections based on that tool in and of itself, but you need more information and feedback. It’s very effective with mixed culture companies, which I would say is every company these days. Pre-departure training, if you’re working with employees who are going to be working abroad. Maybe you’re with a car maker, a Japanese car maker and you’re sending some of your top people to train in Japan, it would be very effective, preparing them for that experience. Ex-pat and global selection, if you want to decide who would be the best person for an international assignment. Team building for cross-cultural interaction and diversity training. And on a personal level, international travel.

Judith Meyers:

So, on a positive note, everyone has a potential for cross-cultural competency. These skills can be developed and leveraged. We don’t look at the answers as, what are you high and low in necessarily, it’s how do your skills compare to one another. So, we see what your strengths are, and how they can be used to improve your weaknesses. And in that way, you’ll have more intercultural success, and it will be reinforcing, and you will continue to engage and form relationships outside of your own cultural group. Okay, so, we’re coming to the end here. And what I’d like to conclude with, is, I see diversity training as a way to empower employees, to fill the gap and form the bridge to meaningful relationships. And you are the bridge, and these are the skills that you can develop to make that happen.

Judith Meyers:

All right, well, thank you very much. I’m wondering if there are any questions, I’ll turn it over to Sara.

Sara:

Sure. Thank you so much Dr. Meyers. We do have some questions that have come in, and we have a little bit of time. So, if you do have a question, go ahead and use the questions chat area in your GoToWebinar control panel. You may have to click on it to open it up, there will be white space there, type in there, click Submit, send that over to us. So, I’d like to start, because we have with this first question, because we have multiple people that have asked the question, and they’ve talked about, on today’s session, you’ve mentioned that people have rent themselves maybe more on the high end than what you may see in typical training. And both people ask, how do you manage the fact that these are subjective self-rating questions, and that can tend to leave people overestimating maybe their own level of competence?

Judith Meyers:

Yes. Well, that’s an excellent question. And there are a lot of things to be said about that. Now, I’m trying to do it as quickly as I can and cover everything. First of all, it’s really important that you set the tone at the beginning, and let people know that this is self-assessment, that your honesty is important. Not that you’re dishonest person, but, answer how things really are and not how you’d like them to be. So, you have to set the mindset. The second thing is that, we look at skills as how they compare to one another. So, if a person does have a tendency to overestimate their ability, they probably do it across the board. So, the relationship of emotional resilience to their flexibility to the perceptual acuity, will probably be the same. As far as overestimating, that is something that’s common. People are always… Well, I shouldn’t say always, but, very often optimistic.

Judith Meyers:

And once they get immersed in a cross-cultural situation, and they were to take the test again, maybe their scores would be a little lower based on experience. So, I think the bottom line is just expect that this is very transparent, that some people will overestimate it. But look how the scores compare to one another, and maybe do a post test later on to see if there’s been a more realistic adjustment.

Sara:

Great, thank you. We have a couple more questions, it looks like we have a couple more minutes. So, go ahead and still send in those questions if you have them. Two that just came in from two different people are on the similar range here. So, I’ll give you one, and I think that’ll answer for a couple people. On a very basic level, how do you make cross-cultural progress in a company that lacks diversity and is resistant to honest feedback regarding meeting improvement?

Judith Meyers:

That is a hard question, thank you. What I would suggest is trying to start with the upper level management and the decision makers, and try and engage them in a training, such as the CCAI or something else to improve their cross-cultural or communication skills. And then you have the vocabulary for emotional resilience flexibility, that kind of thing. The other is to bring in the literature and the research, and show them how diversity is so critical to business today, in creativity and innovation. But, there are some companies that are very high on the personal autonomy, “These are our values.” And they’re low on flexibility and openness. And it’s a much slower task and you have to measure your progress in smaller steps in increments. So, I would say, start with the top and engage them in a non-threatening communication network and training. And also, share the literature about how diversity can improve the company.

Sara:

Great, thank you so much Dr. Meyers. Would you like to share how people can get in touch with you and get some more information?

Judith Meyers:

Yes. Thank you for that. So, my website is ccaiassess.com, or drjudithmeyers.com. And there is more information on the website, there’s a bibliography, there’s a place to contact me individually. If you have questions, and also if you are interested in a user’s guide to the CCAI, which is in a full fledge manual, but it does give an overview and get more of a sense of what’s involved in the materials and training, you can email me from my website, and I can get that [inaudible 00:59:23]. So, I would really hope that you check out the website, there is information and I’m available if you have any further questions.

Sara:

Wonderful, thank you so much Dr. Meyers for sharing your expertise.

Judith Meyers:

Well, thank you and it’s a very involved audience. I can see they bring a lot of skills to the table, and I hope I gave them something more to think about, motivated them to continue improving their training.

Sara:

Absolutely. And today’s session will be available, those who are asking, you will receive a recording. We will also get back to any other questions we didn’t have time to answer today. So, we’ll email those to you as well. And I know there’s some new people to HRDQ on the line. So, just to share a little bit about us, we publish research based experiential learning products that you can deliver in your organization. So, you can check out our online or print self-assessments and workshops, like the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, the foundation of today’s session. We also have out of your seat games, and reproducible workshops that you can customize. So, feel free to reach out to us if you’re looking for an expert trainer, either to certify or deliver the training on site for you. We also provide train the trainer services and on site delivery if you find that’s needed.

Sara:

So, thank you so much everyone for participating today, and we look forward to seeing you on our next webinar.