Culture: Intelligence, Competence, Awareness

Published: Dec. 10, 2014, 10:02 a.m.

b'The increasing globalization of society has paradoxically led to a fragmentation of cultural homogeneity. In the past, cultural competence meant that you knew enough about a country or society to avoid offending the people with whom you interacted. You can no longer assume that the social context of any geographic region, even your own home, is culturally unified. This is an even greater problem when working with short-term teams that include members without cross-cultural experience. In this session we will discuss the challenges of team building with culturally diverse team members. Our discussion of Trans-Cultural Intelligence (T-CQ), an innovative approach to building effective multi-cultural teams, will benefit both short-term and long-term missionaries. The session focuses on simple effective ways to develop shared motivation, information and trust and the importance of these characteristics when strategizing in the context of culture diversity.'