Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Culture: the customs and social norms an individual subscribes to and is influenced by. Culture affects just about every aspect of our lives, including how we cope with difficulties, approach problems, and seek help for difficulties.
An individual’s culture may comprise family of origin, ethnicity, spirituality, sexuality, life philosophy, as well as the norms of their profession and workplace… Cultural influences are pervasive and often subconscious.
In a globalised world, and especially in heterogeneous societies like Australia, we are more likely to encounter people outside of our own culture than ever before. Engaging effectively with someone’s culture is a powerful way to establish and build deeper and more productive working alliances.
Preparatory attitudes and awareness:
- Curiosity about people and cultures
- Learning about people and cultures
- Awareness of own biases and judgements. We all have them. The problem is not having them. The problem comes from how to act on them.
Early engagement:
- Assuming a blank slate; with minimal assumptions about the individual’s culture.
- There may be no outward indicators of someone’s culture.
- Listen to hear what their culture may be and how that affects them. A person from a collectivist culture may prioritise collective interests more than individual ones.
Deepening understanding:
- Identify elements of our cultural experiences with theirs, see parallels (even tenuous ones), to better understand how things may be like for them. For example, there are elements of collectivism even within a strongly individualist culture; such as peer groups.
- Over time, our blank slate becomes filled with real points of commonality. Commonality that is rooted in connecting with and understanding the other.
- This understanding then enables us to work towards more culturally-appropriate (thus more practical and sustainable) solutions to their problems. For example, telling someone from a collectivist culture to “just leave your group and look after yourself” is often not that useful.
We can be from seemingly wildly divergent cultures and still get each other.
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Another aspect to consider is the elements that cultures project onto us. We may be able to hold a blank slate, others may not. How do we deal with that?