By Charles Muthui

Culture is not just a buzzword but a reality that plays in businesses, workplaces and households.  Culture is the collective behaviour, beliefs and norms of a particular group or society. Organizational culture is a collection of beliefs, practices and attitudes that influence the collective behaviour of a team.  

Culture has come into play everywhere including at home. Some households begin with morning prayers while others don’t. Some families do barbecue parties during birthdays while others just do a cake celebration. I am sure you’ve come across the term ‘family tradition’ and that is what shapes family culture. Organizations also have their own culture that stems from a hierarchy. There are organizations that have even gone to the extent of training new entrants about their culture. Examples include banking institutions that have training facilities that teach people on their norms, dress codes and mannerisms. Across the globe, there’s Apple University, Hamburger University owned by McDonald’s and Disney University among others. This truly shows that culture is a big deal for organizational teams because it shapes perception and attractiveness.  

However, Cultural Intelligence is the bigger deal. Cultural Intelligence or Culture Quotient (CQ) is the ability to work and adapt to cultural differences. The teams of the modern century unlike before are becoming increasingly diverse. We are living in a working environment where the office has a blend of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. This century has witnessed the emergence of women, differently-abled people (no longer called people living with disabilities) and multi-national citizens joining the workforce. This definitely brings a clash of cultures which if left unchecked or not acknowledged can be detrimental to sustainable collective performance for a team. This clash stems from divergent cultural references, attitudes and assumptions that are deeply rooted. 

Diversity is evident when you look at the inclusivity happening to gender, generations, nationalities, minority groups and differently-abled people (no longer called people living with disabilities). Diversity brings differences in opinions, perspectives and perceptions. Agile and future fit teams cannot afford to live in denial about emerging diversities and the differences that come with it.  

Different cultures and genders have their particular norms which need awareness. Team leaders and organizational culture architects need to be cognizant of the demographics of their teams as well as take time to understand their respective customs and how they can contribute towards aligning the collective team culture. Ignoring this leads to employee disengagement that contributes to low morale, poor performance and a feeling of abandonment. Cultural differences don’t just manifest in ethnicity, gender, beliefs or nationalities but it also emerge across different departments in an organization.  

Possessing cultural intelligence enables you to; 

• Make informed and objective judgements based on observations rather than cultural stereotypes. 
• Become compassionate and sensitive to divergent opinions and perceptions. This enhances empathy within a team setting.  
• Build stronger relationships. CQ fosters positive and respectful relationships across teams as well as with clients and partners. 

A culturally intelligent individual thrives at the ability to understand behaviours that are ambiguous and unfamiliar. This brings more focus on making observations which leads to clearer decision making. Possessing a high CQ also gives someone an edge when handling international assignments and engagements as it enables one to adjust more easily to dynamic cultural environments.  

From a team and employee engagement perspective, cultural intelligence brings advantages that include; 

• Building a positive spirit that embraces differences and builds curiosity towards learning about divergent norms. 
• Enhances a collaborative team that is cross-functional and leverages synergies across different departments, professions, cultures and generations. 
• Improved communication that results from increased interactions. 
• Increased interactive learning attained by the knowledge sharing on different cultures of diverse team members. 
• Relationship building within the team grows which enhances psychological trust that deepens cohesion and belonging. 

Cultural Intelligence should not just be applicable to in-person teams but also to remote and hybrid teams. Remote and hybrid teams utilize a lot of video conferencing which is heavy not just on verbal but non-verbal communication. Multi-national and culturally diverse teams need to understand that some non-verbal cues may distort the message depending on how they are perceived and interpreted. The okay or thumbs up hand signal that is commonly used in Kenya, Africa and America may mean that all is well but in France and the Middle East it carries a vulgar meaning. So imagine you may be doing the okay and thumbs up signal to your French or Middle Eastern colleagues via a Zoom call but I’m hindsight it’s taken as an insult which doesn’t go down well. Lack of awareness about such cultural norms can even lead to loss of business.  

Let’s give cultural intelligence a chance. Future fit teams and leaders with CQ have an edge when it comes to adaptability.  

Take this as food for thought. 

Charles Muthui is a Founding Partner at Adept Advisory. Adept Advisory is a Pan-African people experience enabler with the purpose of challenging the status quo of employee engagement through creatively curated skills training, management retreats and experiential team building for organizations in the private, public and NGO sectors.