4 Ways to Embrace Cross-Cultural Difference on Your Team

DIFFERENCES ON YOUR TEAM

4 WAYS TO

EMBRACE CROSS CULTURAL

The world we live in isbecoming increasingly

diverse with each day, fromour schools to our

workplaces, government andon TV.

If you’re reading this whilesitting in a busy office,

chances are your colleaguescome from a variety of

different cultures.

When exposed to the samesituation, people of different

cultures might react indifferent ways. Embracingcross-cultural differencescan help to avoid or limitmisunderstandings and

miscommunication.

Here are 4 waysto embrace

cross-culturaldifferences on

your team

1. Identifycultural diversity

If you don’t know how diverse yourteam are, you won’t be able to cater

to their needs or make culturallysensitive decisions surrounding

things like team building efforts andoffice rules.

2. Ask Questions

If you don’t ask, you won’t know. One

of the best and easiest ways to find

out more about the cultural

differences of the people in your team

is to ask them questions such as:

Which festivals are you observing

this year?

How many public holidays do they

observe in your country?

How many languages do they

speak in your country?

What’s your national dish?

Who are your neighbouring

countries?

3. Allow fordifferences

People learn, lead andinteract in different

ways

Some cultures aremore vocal and bold

While others are morepassive

4. Learn fromone another

The great thing aboutdiverse teams is that

there is so muchopportunity to learn from

one another.

With diversity comesdifference of opinions,

thoughts and ideas.

A diverse team can offer avariety of viewpoints and awider range of experience,which improves decision-

making and problem-solving.

Cross Culturallearning in action

Qingdao in China, is one ofthe 14 cities the ClipperRace passes through.

720 crew members with 44 nationalitiesare being represented in this year’s race,

and each and every one of them have hadto learn to embrace and understand the

different cultures on board.

A task that can be quitechallenging at

times, especially when you’rein the middle of the ocean,tackling Mother Nature's

toughest conditions!

To tackle this challenge, Clipper Race crewand Skippers were invited to a local primary

school as part of Qingdao’s cultural exchangeprogramme. The programme included lessons

in martial arts, Chinese calligraphy andorigami.

The Clipper race used the stopoveras an opportunity to learn about aculture many of the participantsdidn’t know a great deal about.

During the visit, Clipper Race crewand Skippers also learnt about

Chinese gift giving traditions, musicand dancing, and were able to see

first-hand how people in thecommunity live and work

The Clipper Race will be headingto Seattle in the United States

next, a world very different fromAsia, and an additional

opportunity for participants tolearn about another culture.

Connect with us onLinkedIn to discover whatwe’ll be getting up to as

the Clipper Race conquersthe mighty pacific.