the mindful perspective suggests we can avoid harmful automatic and reflexive reactions to cultural difference

Mindfulness is a huge international trend. The phenomenon crosses cultures enabling mindful individuals to cross cultures more successfully too.

Mindfulness is intercultural. It is a fusion of Eastern ideas and Western aspirations. Mindfulness mixes aspects of Buddhism with Western preoccupations, such as purposefulness, the need for methodologies, the desire for stress reduction.

For intercultural trainers and global mobility professionals, mindfulness naturally gives us a fresh and practical perspective in our work.

Where mindfulness meets culture

Mindfulness has something useful to say about the interaction between cultures. Three key intersections of mindfulness and culture are:

• awareness
• acceptance
• stress-reduction

When we use our understanding of culture to make intercultural strategies we very often target awareness, acceptance and stress-reduction or anxiety especially among expatriates. Mindfulness can help us achieve these goals.

From concepts into practice

Through awareness of body and breathing, mindfulness is a monitor of cultural difference.

In traditional intercultural training we teach people to recognise their blind spots, to see the cultural iceberg below the surface. Sometimes we might ask people to consider the inventor of the ocean (“we don’t know who it was, but we are pretty sure it wasn’t a fish”). These metaphors for awareness are conceptual and intellectual.

Mindfulness heightens awareness without metaphor. Mindful can happen at a very physical level.

Through awareness of body and breathing, by reflecting on physical and emotional reactions, mindfulness is itself a monitor of the friction caused by cultural difference. When a traveller, expatriate or culturally-isolated person experiences excitement, frustration or anger, the feeling may be an indicator of cultural differences and unfamiliar situations. Monitoring feelings can alert us to cultural differences.

In fact, Mindfulness gives us deep insight into what cultural difference means at a person-to-person level.

To manage cultural differences successfully, the mindful perspective suggests we must first dissolve the mindlessness which leads us into harmful automatic and reflexive reactions when we meet other cultures.

When we achieve awareness of our own physical reactions we get an individual map of where our cultural boundaries bump up against other cultures.

Let go of the idea of a fixed culture

From a mindfulness point of view, the key idea for culture is that thoughts and emotions are transient. They come and go. They do not define you as a person and they do not fix the behaviour of an entire nation over time.

Cultures are made of thoughts and emotions, translated into habits and actions, which are also transient. When you realise that your culture is transient, it is easier to release yourself from your cultural framework. It is easier to recognise your own cultural iceberg, the above-the-surface behaviours and reactions and the deeper needs which drive them.

But if all cultures are made of transient things, does culture lose its meaning? No, we have always known that cultures change, that cultures have fuzzy edges, that cultures seem so solid from a zoomed-out perspective and yet seem to disappear as we zoom in.

Seeing culture as a temporary, moving thing, enables us to detach ourselves from it and view it with more objectivity, more awareness, more mindfulness.

Mindfulness does not ask us to give up the whole idea of culture. But it says we should look for more cultural categories, more perspectives and recognise that these cultural categories change constantly depending on the situation, all without judgemental evaluation.

Cultural difference is emotionally charged

Encountering cultural difference is rarely a neutral experience. For most people, it’s stressful. In the media, business and public life the dominant conversation says that cultural difference and diversity are positive and to be welcomed. For some people in some situations, that is undoubtedly true. But there are strong psychological forces behind group-think, driving our desire to be among people who are like us, to be on familiar ground, to reject the unfamiliar. For most people, most of the time, cultural differences make us stressed.

Mindfulness has something to offer here. With a mindfulness perspective, you can see the irritation coming, and avoid it using mindful techniques.

See the irritation coming, and avoid it using mindful techniques

There are many techniques available for mindfulness. Mindfulness apps such as Insight Timer, practices such as yoga, conscious breathing and stretching all offer moments of mindfulness and a chance for travellers to reflect on cultural difference.

In this way, cultural difference can live up to the hype: multiculturalism becomes fun and enriching, not anxiety-forming. Mindfulness lessens your attachment to your own culture, boosts positive perspectives when cultures collide, and enables you to focus on the beauty of the moment.

Mindfulness allows us to give an honest appraisal of cultural difference:

• true, cultural difference can cause pain
• no, you don’t have to fight back
• no, you are not required to love the challenge of cultural difference.

Mindful responses in cross-cultural situations

Mindfulness is above all a practice, and it is compatible with many other frameworks, including many of the frameworks we use in the intercultural world. We can apply mindfulness smoothly into cross cultural situations.

In very practical ways we can answer the question “What would a mindful intercultural manager look like?”

Being in the moment, not trying to act like the other culture does

When facing intercultural situations, mindful intercultural managers do not just toggle between cultures (switching on/off Japanese or Brazilian style). The mindful intercultural manager does not think “now I am being Japanese, now I am being English”. Instead we have to remove the entire concept of self, so that we can pay full attention to the appropriate reactions in the present situation.

Take different roles

Instead of automatically following a script, as if we are on autopilot, we should consider our different roles, and the other different roles relevant to the situation (colleague, subordinate, mentor, representative, professional, regional player, networker etc). The situation is always new. Mindlessness means that a certain stimulus always brings the same response. A mindful manager takes new roles and views information from various perspectives.

Released from a fixed idea about who you are

According to mindfulness, it is an illusion to believe that you are a fixed person, and an unchanging self. The mindful intercultural manager has no need to follow one single script for all situations.

Detaching from own culture

A mindful intercultural manager acknowledges that his/her own culture is of his/her own choosing and that there is also a choice to detach yourself from your original cultural limitations.

Breathing

When intercultural stress hits, when facing annoyance or frustrations which seem to be caused by foreign cultural practices, a mindful intercultural manager uses breathing exercises to maintain a steady and balanced approach. Increasingly, the mindful intercultural manager can sense these situations approaching, and learns to prevent the stress from ever occurring.

Mindfulness heightens awareness

So mindfulness has much to say about culture and the way that cultures interact. It is truly a reflection of our intercultural society, and the way that new ideas arise globally through dialogue and cross-fertilisation.

As mindfulness changes our ideas about culture, it can also lead us to changes in the way we do intercultural training.

Insha’allah, tawakkala, we will get there!

One time I was invited to lunch in the town of Sohar, which is a two-hour drive away from the capital, Muscat. I went to an Omani friend’s house, Hamed, to catch a lift with him. I arrived just in time to set off.

I sat myself in the car put my seatbelt on and sat there for half an hour whilst Hamed had a long conversation on his phone with his father.

After the conversation, we started driving towards the motorway but before we entered it, we stopped at a teashop for chai even though we were already running late.

After two casual cups of tea we started driving in the opposite direction of the motorway and picked up another friend who had rung up during our teabreak and decided impulsively that he wanted to join us for the lunch in Sohar.

After picking up Saïd, we got onto the motorway and promptly pulled in at the next petrol station.

Whilst Hamed filled up the car, Saïd and I took tea and got onto the conversation of “insha’allah” (God willing). I noticed that he had used a different word, “tawakkala”. It means to have a trust in God. ‘The difference to “insha’allah” is subtle but important’, he informed me as we slowly walked towards petrol station shop to pick up some sweets. I cannot remember if I actually asked what the difference was but, either way, he then spent 45 minutes in the doorway (seeming not to notice the doors automatically closing every fifteen seconds) explaining to me what that subtle difference was. As part of this explanation, he recounted his life story from his student days to his current position as company director.

Content with his story, we paid for the petrol, tea and sweets and continued our journey.

A while later, I asked our new friend, Saïd, why he had brought a traditional walking stick. He explained that Omanis take a walking stick when they go to a funeral.

‘We need to go to a funeral,’ he announced. Hamed simply asked where the funeral was. He made a detour and we went a funeral.

In the end, we arrived at our original destination five hours late for lunch. But in time for dinner.

Our hosts were content to receive us for dinner.

Surprises for Europeans

From my original European perspective, time, fate, tasks, directness, group membership and many more dimensions of culture can throw up surprises in Oman.

Over the years I have also been witness, participant or sympathetic ear to hundreds of other incidents involving Omanis and foreigners. I’m pleased to say that the insights are now available inside CultureConnector‘s newest national profile: Oman.

In the profile we follow CultureConnector’s 12-dimension approach and quickly go deeper too. There is a clear Omani pattern of behaviour in some situations, but for example a boss may be far more direct than someone lower down the hierarchy, even talking with people at the same level. Generalisations are a good start. The text you can read in CultureConnector adds some necessary depth.

Check it out. Comparing your own profile, you’ll quickly see that Oman may have some surprises for you too.

Late for lunch

And if someone is waiting for you to arrive for lunch, consider whether they will view your arrival time from an Omani perspective. It may be better to arrive late having shown respect to an elder, a new friend and at a family event.

In a hurry? Stay for another tea.

In 2015 the Canadian Federal elections passed power from a Conservative government to a new administration under the Liberal politician Justin Trudeau.

There is real political change happening impacting society and it has been a good time to review and update the cultural profile of Canada in CultureConnector. By coincidence, the original Canadian cultural profile in CultureConnector’s predecessor service “Argonaut” was created about the time when political power was passing from the Liberals to the Conservatives in Canada in 2004-2006.

Even slow changes make a difference over ten years

For ten years, the Conservatives were a steadying influence on Canadian economy. They managed the country cautiously:

• rise of technology in the workplace
• globalisation of business and working life
• emergence of new values associated with Generation X, Y and Millenials, including the importance of work-life balance and job satisfaction, and less long-term commitment to a single employer
• greater opportunities for women at work, together with an aging population meaning more people are combining careers with family responsibilities

These changes are common to many developed economies. Canadians have adapted well, without great shocks or divisions and has managed the 2008 economy crises better than most developed countries.

Trudeau introduces a period of faster change

Since Justin Trudeau’s arrival as Canada’s Prime Minister last year we’ve seen the multicultural dream of his father resurface (Pierre Trudeau was a leading politician of the 1960s, 70s and 80s). That dream of a multicultural Canada is now promoted more than ever before. Today, the young Trudeau uses the media to be seen with various cultural groups or religious groups. He has also shown strong support for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans people and feminist causes.

The intense interest in multiculturalism is new in 21st Century Canadian politics. Trudeau has his supporters, the true believers, and his opponents, but it seems that the new attention to multiculturalism are really trying to accelerate some changes which were already happening in Canadian society.

No fear of culture clash

Some Canadians now tend to see the similarities between people but not always recognise the potential sources of culture clash in a deeper sense. We may be overlooking the challenges ahead.

Promoting mutliculturalism could lead to the regrouping of people from the same cultural background without integration to Canadian society. We don’t know the future social impact in the long run. Currently it is OK to be this kind of Canadian or that kind of Canadian. There are multiple ways to be Canadian. This is strongly reinforced by the Trudeau government’s multicultural policies.

Risks of multiculturalism without integration

Canada has quickly become a rainbow nation of diverse cultures. Multiculturalism can succeed with active participation from the intercultural industry, helping communities, companies and government agencies to integrate diverse team members or whole groups in our work projects, institutions and neighbourhoods. Currently, the speed of change could run ahead of the capacity of the intercultural industry to support it and maintain the positive, integration pathway.

Integration: a personal experience

In Quebec Province, where I am based, we have placed a focus on intercultural relations and integration. A good example of integrated multiculturalism is in Montreal. I live in a multi-ethnic area. On my street my closest neighbours are Czech, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, VietNamese, Chinese, Jamaican, Pakistani, Indian, some English and French Canadian, plus me and my multicultural household. This is not unusual in Montreal, in Côte-des-Neiges sector alone, 75 nationalities live altogether. Although zooming out you can still see that the West of the city is more English-speaking while the French-speakers are concentrated in the East and Plateau.

Best wishes for rapid change

There is a rush of interest and acceptance of diversity in Canada. Many Canadians welcome this, but good wishes alone are not enough to guarantee success. Integration of new comers goes hand in hand with finding a job. Canadian workplace requires systemic changes. Organizations need to take on a higher level their diversity and inclusion practices, kills, knowledge, understanding and techniques to run operations in an environment of great diversity.

The new imigrants I work with all call Canada home and are overwhelmingly determined to succeed and contribute to society and they are a great asset in the workplace. Think about it: experiencing immigration as an individual has required competencies any employer would benefit from, to name a few:

• Project management
• Adaptation
• Risk taking
• Achieving goals
• Flexibility
• Various perspectives
• Speak many langages

In Canada, we are living diversity.  Canada has received 320 000 immigrants this past year. A record not met since 1910 according to Statistics Canada, when the country was colonizing Western Canada. A lot of crosscultural challenges to be met, and we, interculturalists are making sure we meet the challenges for all to succeed.

_{Trudeau photo by arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com}