I believe that to really get the benefit out of diversity, the key question is: how to use cultural differences as a positive stimulus, while minimizing the risks of misunderstandings and unintentional exclusion. We should forget words like integration, but strive for participation. This means making people comfortable with ambuigity and creating flexibility towards changing routines.

In my work as facilitator/coach I find it important to enable people to manage the cultural dynamics between them. This means improving their intercultural competences and giving insight into the psychological processes brought about by experiencing differences. I found that many managers feel that these dynamics are not in their span of control. That is why I described the intercultural interaction proces in a hands on model called the Cultural Steppingstones, the steppingstones being: opening-up, exploring and creating. Each phase has it’s specific set of skills, knowledge, attitude and possible interventions. (Book: “Managing Cultural Dynamics”, available at http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Using this framework brings these sometimes complex cultural dynamics back into the circle of influence of people, resulting in using the divergent power of diversity in a team instead of allow it to become a negative spiral.

Curious to learn more about your approaches to improve and laverage cultural dynamics in teams and orgnizations.

Warm regards,
Jitske Kramer