Positive cross-cultural communication requires self-awareness, openness, and mindfulness.
Here are 5 strategies for improving your cross-cultural communication.
1. Feel first. The next time you are communicating with someone who is culturally different from you, observe what is going on inside you emotionally. Shine an internal spotlight on the emotion and acknowledge that it exists. Tell yourself, "This is anxiety that I'm feeling" or "I'm excited to learn."
2. Change perspective. You see people, places, and things everyday though your own cultural lens. See what you can learn by trying on the cultural lenses of others.
3. Suspend judgment. Suspending judgment does not refer to personally refraining from evaluating someone else's behavior. Suspending judgment means that people in conversations "hang" their beliefs, values, and assumptions out so that they can be examined, discussed, and, as a result, better understood.
4. Be mindful. Being mindful means being "fully present" and listening to what and how information is being communicated. Mindfulness requires that you create time and space for being with another in conversation. Don't worry about running out of time, not finishing your point, or how you are being perceived. Just be.
5. Educate yourself. Travel. Take a class or a seminar. Get out of your comfort zone. Get into your community. Talk to people who don't look like you. Grow.
Having studied cross-cultural communication for more than 10 years, there are many other ways to communicate positively across difference. What's missing from this list? What has worked for you? What challenges are you still facing in creating high-quality cross-cultural relationships?
