[MUSIC] Welcome back, this lesson focuses on the signature trait, cultural intelligence. Let's start with this story. When I was a chief diversity officer at a campus in the United States, a university employee who was from another country asked to meet with me. She felt that her supervisor was discriminating against her because of her cultural background. When she came to our meeting, her husband was with her. We introduced one another. I learned that he worked at the university in a different department than she did. To begin the meeting, I asked her to explain her concerns. He began to describe them. When I wanted to understand something he said, I looked at her and posed the question. She looked at him and he responded. I realized that this was probably how married couples from their culture, I don't know where they're from, participated in professional meetings. This was extremely awkward for me for two reasons. One, communication norms in the United States and in higher education include speaking directly to a person who is expressing a concern. Two, as a strong advocate for women's rights, including women being able to speak for themselves, I wanted to insist that she tell me her concerns. However, I tried not to let those norms influence how I communicated with them. I don't think I let my feelings show, instead I was warm and receptive. I nodded when I understood. Whenever I spoke, I tried to acknowledge both of them. When I expressed my regrets for what she had experienced, I almost looked only at her. However, I caught myself and I alternated my eye contact between both of them. In that situation, I drew upon my cultural intelligence, the ability to relate to people from different cultural backgrounds. Culture refers to deeply rooted patterns of values, customs, attitudes and beliefs that distinguish one group from another. Culture is learned and transmitted by members of a particular community. Culture subconsciously and consciously guides our behavior and thoughts. We tend to take culture for granted until we come into contact with something contrary to our cultural expectations. Then we must decide whether or not, and how to respond. We express culture through a variety of communication behaviors. This includes the explicit and subtle ways that we try to share meaning with one another. For example, spoken and written language as well as non-verbal cues like eye contact, gestures, volume and speed of talking, posture and use of space. We will explore communication in depth in another module. To communicate with one another, we tend to draw upon whatever culture is dominant within a situation. For example, in my meeting without thinking about it, I was prepared to communicate based on US norms about gender. Based on this definition, I hope you can see that numerous types of culture exist. Advice about culture in the workplace often focuses on nationality. For example, the Internet has a wealth of resources that explain cultures and customs of various countries. In addition, human resources representatives in organizations may provide training for employees who are planning to visit other countries. They will describe forms of greeting, decision-making, or other ways of interacting that differ from one's home country. Given the prevalence of multicultural and international organizations, this is logical. However, nationality is just one of many cultural spheres that can affect what occurs within the workplace. For instance, an individual's gender, race, ethnicity, age group, sexual orientation, and religion. In addition to individuals cultural identities, organizations have their own culture, and there usually are other cultural groups within those organizations. Take higher education for example, a university has an overall culture that includes values, norms, policies, language, rituals, and so forth. Examples include stories about the institution's history, school colors, mascots, the campus logo, general admission standards, university graduation ceremonies, and student codes of conduct. Within a university, schools, department and units have their distinct cultural characteristics. For example, academic departments tend to have different norms about time than student affairs offices. Faculty members typically don't have to record their time or be present at work for the traditional work day, like 9 AM to 5 PM, with time off for lunch and breaks. In contrast, employees in student affairs offices and administrative units usually have to adhere to those more structured norms. Students, staff, and faculty have numerous individual cultural identities like the ones I referred to above. They also have cultural identities associated with being a student, staff or faculty member. These various cultures can affect how people interact. What types of individual and organizational cultures might have influenced how my colleagues and I interacted in the opening story? List as many as you can. Here are some of the cultures that I can think of that may have affected my meeting with the two employees. My national culture, the United States, our university, university culture, the department office culture, the places where each of us worked, my office, the office of diversity and inclusion. The husband's academic department, the wife's student services office, our individual roles, senior administrator, faculty member, staff member, gender, nationality, age, religion. As we interacted with one another, we may have been affected both unconsciously and consciously. I became aware of gender norms when the employee's husband behaved in ways that did not align with my expectations. After I became aware that he was talking for her, I adjusted my behavior. During that interaction, I tapped into my cultural intelligence, which is also known as CQ. Next, I will describe ways that leaders can use their CQ to be more inclusive.