Developing Cultural Adaptability: How to Work Across Differences. Jennifer Deal J.

       THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES

      This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.

      The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.

      Table of Contents

       What Is Cultural Adaptability?

       Why Is Cultural Adaptability Important?

       Developing Your Cultural Adaptability

       Examine Your Cultural Foundations

       Expect to Encounter Cultural Differences

       Educate Yourself about Different Cultures

       Experience Cross-cultural Interactions and Learn from Them

       Cultural Adaptability at Work

       Suggested Readings

       Background

       Key Point Summary

       EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      Thinking about cultural differences around the world isn’t just an intellectual exercise for managers working in an increasingly global environment. Being able to communicate effectively across cultural differences, understanding how to negotiate complex social situations, and being familiar with the customs and norms of many cultures are important skills in organizations today. Perhaps even more important than possessing those essential pieces of cultural knowledge is the skill of cultural adaptability – the willingness and ability to recognize, understand, and work effectively across cultural differences. Proficiency in cultural adaptability helps contemporary managers to build the relationships needed to achieve results in today’s global organizations, especially when those relationships are forged across borders and cultures. It enables them to interact effectively with people different from themselves, whether these people work on the next floor or on the other side of the world.

      What Is Cultural Adaptability?

      Today’s global workplace is more diverse and complex than ever before. When organizations have business units, customers, and employees scattered around the world, managers find they must work across time, distance, and cultures. To build and maintain relationships that allow them to work effectively with others in such circumstances, managers have to figure out what the differences and similarities are between them and others with whom they work. Those differences affect expectations, approaches to work, views of authority, and other issues. They make managerial work more complex, and call for a new kind of flexibility for handling differences and change – cultural adaptability.

      Cultural adaptability is the willingness and ability to recognize, understand, and work effectively across cultures. It presumes that such interactions will have successful outcomes (tasks are completed, goals are met, and the people involved are satisfied with their professional relationships). The implication for managers who want to be or remain successful is clear. Cultural adaptability is an essential competency for leading in a global environment.

      Why Is Cultural Adaptability Important?

      Employees at all levels of contemporary organizations bring different values, expectations, and perspectives – their culture – with them to work. Those differences affect how individuals in these organizations lead, manage, and interact with others, and how the work gets done.

      There are many definitions of culture, but one common idea explicit in all of the definitions is that culture is shared. Culture includes, among other things, beliefs

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