“It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.” Nelson Mandela

Organizing a SIETAR USA conference starts with selecting the dates, a city, and hotel. For the 2019 SIETAR USA conference those are: 29 October to 3 March, in Atlanta, GA at the Marriott Gateway Hotel at the airport. The next two things that have to happen are to populate the Conference Committee and select a theme. We are fortunate to have Karen Lokkesmoe as the Conference Chairperson this year. Her Conference Committee is coming together with some old timers and some new faces. There are a few positions still open, which means you have an opportunity to join the organizing crew—if you act fast. Working on the conference has given me insights into the field, the people, and how to manage a complex operation. The satisfaction of seeing months of planning in fruition is well worth the time and effort. Think about it—and if you are interested, contact us at info@sietarusa.org.

The Call for Proposals is currently being prepared for the SIETAR USA conference in the Fall of 2019, which means it is time to consider sharing your work, projects, thoughts and ideas. As a guide to your consideration we are pleased to present the conference theme and tracks:

2019 SIETAR USA Conference Theme and Tracks

From Adversity to Diversity: The Role of the Interculturalist

The world has become an ever more complex, and polarized place. The gap between opinions, perspectives, and facts has widened and become increasingly more confusing and challenging. As professionals in a range of fields, public and private, we are called upon to move others from increasing adversity to welcoming diversity. How do we envision the Role of the Interculturalist in the myriad challenges facing our societies today? When and how does the interculturalist have a place at the table?  We need a clear message—that articulates and embraces our similarities and differences to better engage, communicate, and cooperate with one another. Working and learning together, we can clarify our roles and share best practices that enhance our capacities to bring people together and foster greater workability for us all.

As always, in addition to the traditional three pillars of SIETAR USA: Education, Training, and Research, the 2019 Conference offers three tracks as a focus for proposals. 

Track 1: The Role of the Interculturalist: Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. This track addresses interculturalists as agents of communication within and between communities. Have you ever wondered where the intercultural field and the world of diversity and inclusion meet, connect, or differ? Do you ever question the dichotomies of intercultural vs diversity and inclusion, domestic vs global? Proposals for this track could address such topics as the role of interculturalists in addressing unconscious bias; overcoming communication barriers between ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations and more; polarization; difficult conversations with positive outcomes; bridging the gaps; communities in need of dialog; human and civil rights; and the impact of privilege.

Track 2: The Role of the Interculturalist Working with Specific Cultures. This track emphasizes working with specific cultures whether domestically or internationally. Proposal topics might include working with immigrants and refugees; or with joint ventures or multinational companies; working with global virtual teams; orienting newcomers to the United States (or abroad); working with cultural groups in the education system; or research and resources that make a difference.  Sessions in this track will focus on one or two specific cultures and what the presenter(s) have learned about best practices within that cultural context.  Presenters or co-presenters from the highlighted cultures will be especially appreciated.

Track 3: The Role of the Interculturalist: Building Skills and Taking them to the Market Place. What are the essential skills of the intercultural teacher, trainer, coach or scholar?  How does one hone those skills and how does one market them effectively to the broader community?  This track focuses specifically on how we learn and share our skills as interculturalists with each other and our communities. Suggested topics for this track could include: marketing and branding your business; educating the market; using social media to grow your business; websites and how to use them effectively; positioning yourself in the market; how to pick conferences and professional development opportunities that will help; networking; and best practices.

Did you know that the SIETAR USA Board of Directors holds an annual retreat meeting? At the beginning of March, the members of the Board of Directors flew to Atlanta and stayed in the 2019 conference hotel (the Marriott Airport Gateway) spending several days getting to know each other better, learning how to work together (we have 4 new Board members), and working on association issues. We even had a Board member join us virtually from Cuenca, Ecuador. It was good to have the Local Groups Director, Julia Gaspar-Bates chiming in on the discussions.

One of our goals for the retreat was to test out the hotel to make sure it was the right place to hold the conference in the Fall. We were all pleasantly reassured that the hotel has a SIETAR USA vibe. Outside the session rooms are groups of tables and seating areas for networking, resting, or reflecting. The Gateway Marriott could not be more convenient to the airport—just a free, 5-minute ride on the Skytrain. The area around the hotel is not a mass of airport parking lots; there are trees, grass, and flowers. The hotel is well soundproofed—you can be aware of planes but not overwhelmed by them. Come see for yourself!

What do we do at the Board Retreat? Good question—and it varies with each President, Board, and situation. At the 2019 retreat we used tasks related to SIETAR USA issues to get better acquainted. For example, we want a mechanism to reach out to members and get to know them better, as well as helping members get to know who shares their membership in SIETAR USA. We tried out a getting-acquainted exercise then worked on fleshing out the idea, developed implementation plans and we intend to roll this out soon. Stay tuned for this in the Newsletter and on social media.

We also spent time working on our Standing rules, which document our policies, procedures, definitions and job descriptions. This isn’t glamorous work, but needs to be addressed periodically. We had robust discussions about professional development ideas, plans for the fall conference and future conferences that will support SIETAR USA’s mission while building excitement for the Society.

The retreat agenda was full but it allowed time for some in-depth discussions as well as fun. After 2 ½ days, we felt that we accomplished a lot, reached clarity regarding the structure of the Board and our roles on it as well as learning how we want to work together as we go forward. We concluded with a list of Kia Ora questions to acknowledge each other and reflect on our time at the retreat. We headed for the Skytrain renewed and excited about the health and future of SIETAR USA.

If you have ever thought about taking a leadership role in SIETAR USA or any other professional organization, contact a Board member and ask how they felt about the Retreat. What did they get from it for themselves? What did it do for their ability to contribute to the association? What do they see for the future of SIETAR USA?

Sandra M. Fowler

President SIETAR USA

Holly Emert (Immediate Past President); Monica Mumford (Advisory Council); Justin Sitron (Secretary); Sandy Fowler (President); Julia Gaspar-Bates (Local Groups); Sherri Tapp (Membership Outreach and Diversity); Karen Fouts (Administrative Officer); Melinda Bullen (Professional Development); Brett Parry (Communication)

If you are working with a group of multicultural participants who speak different languages, this playful jolt will deliver a major impact. Based on an improv activity, this jolt requires the ability to think on your feet. I frequently use Closing Gibberish as a review activity near the end of my training session.

In the description of this jolt, I am assuming English is the language of instruction. My apologies if you’re training in some other language. You should have no difficulty making suitable adaptations.

Purpose

To review key concepts from the training session.

Participants

Time

5 minutes

Flow

Brief the participants. Near the end of the training session, announce playfully that you have recently acquired the amazing ability to understand any language spoken anywhere on the planet. Explain that you are going to use this ability to conduct a review of the training content.

Invite a speaker of some other language. Ask for volunteers who speak a language other than English. Select one of the volunteers and find out what language he or she speaks.

Ask a review question. Come up with an easy, open-ended question and ask this question in English.

Listen to the answer. Ask the respondent to provide a brief and accurate answer in the non-English language. Listen intently to the answer while mentally rehearsing a suitable answer that would likely be given by the responder. When this person finishes answering in the other language, immediately give a fluent answer in English, pretending to translate what the respondent said.

Repeat the question-and-answer interactions. Thank the respondent for giving such a thoughtful answer. Ask for any other volunteer who speaks a different language. If no one else is available, work with the same respondent. Ask another review question in English and “translate” the answer from the other language. Repeat this activity a few more times.

Empower volunteer translators. By this time, most participants would have caught on to what you are doing. Tell everyone that you are transferring your linguistic skills to a few others in the room. Ask anyone who feels a sudden increase in his or her linguistic intelligence to stand up.

Continue with a new question. Invite the volunteer to ask a review question in English. Ask a respondent to answer this question in some other language. When the answer is complete, ask the volunteer to translate it into English. When done, congratulate the volunteer for his or her fluent mastery of the other language.

Learning Points

1. You can guess the answers given in other languages to your questions by paying attention to the context.
2. You can fool some of the people some of the time. If you do this in a playful spirit, your audience members will enjoy your make-believe expertise.

1. Why did you write this book?

I wanted to help people develop skills at recognizing culture-based attitudes and behaviour for themselves, instead of relying on static country generalizations and external experts. I also wanted to offer systematic solutions for recognizing and managing difficulties caused by cultural difference. And I wanted to emphasize the potential for synergies that enable intercultural collaborations to perform brilliantly.

2. What is the most important thing you want readers to take away from this book?

That cultural variation is not simply a source of problems to be solved—that diversity can yield huge advantages, and that working towards a goal of cultural agility leads to personal growth and achievement.

3. Name one or two books in our field that influenced you the most, that you think all interculturalists should be familiar with? Why?

I gravitate to books that facilitate understanding and evolution. I greatly appreciate Glen Fisher’s book Mindsets: The Role of Culture and Perception in International Relations for its practical insights on progressing towards a global perspective. I use Craig Storti’s Cross-Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief Encounters with Cultural Difference in my teaching to illustrate the subtle ways that cultural perspectives show up in day-to-day interaction.

4. What is one of the most significant, most memorable cross-cultural experiences you have had?

An important one was when a classmate from Latin America told me he struggled with certain U.S. norms. An example he gave was that when someone inconvenienced others (e.g., by thinking about their order in a fast food restaurant only after they were at the counter), he and his friends would laugh off the delay, rather than criticizing, as his U.S. classmates seemed to. In my own family, respecting others’ convenience was seen as very important, and indignation and annoyance were considered the natural reaction to someone’s being “inconsiderate”. My friend’s observations suggested that my reactions to many situations were learned, rather than innate, and that I might even be able to choose his gentle, relaxed perspective over the one I had been taught. That realization contributed to my motivation to do this work.

5. If you could pass on only one insight/one lesson learned to others about crossing cultures, what would you say?

What is most helpful to me is taking time to explain myself and ask about others’ perspectives so we can understand each other and avoid misinformed judgments.

The Culture Solution: How to achieve cultural synergy and get results in the global workplace, by Deirdre Mendez. Nicholas Brealey, 2017. 340 pages.

Reviewed by Craig Storti

I don't know how well this book is selling—intercultural books sometimes have trouble finding an audience outside our professional field—but it deserves the widest possible exposure, especially in the business community. The Culture Solution introduces eight fundamental intercultural concepts and then connects them to their everyday workplace and business consequences, thus making a very strong business and workplace case for the need for folks to identify and adapt to cultural differences.

“But a lot of books do that,” you’re thinking. “What’s so special about this one?” True enough. Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map and Barry Tomalin and Mike Nicks The World’s Business Cultures and How to Unlock Them, to mention only two, both do a nice job of this. What sets Mendez book apart is the amount of connections she finds between cultural tendencies and resulting behaviors and the wide number of business contexts she considers.

Mendez identifies and describes eight cultural dimensions, what she calls:

She then invites readers to respond to a series of scenarios vis a vis each dimension, creating their own cultural profile in the process, which she next invites them to contrast with the profile “of the person, group, or place whose cultural tendencies you’d like to understand.” So far pretty straightforward.

Then come the charts—and they’re dynamite! Mendez takes each of the eight fundamentals, connects each end of each dichotomy to the most common behaviors they cause or at least explain, in the process identifying and describing scores of very specific behavioral tendencies and preferences.

Then, having defined key differences, she presents another set of “advice” charts, setting forth very specific strategies for how folks with one set of tendencies and preferences can work effectively with folks with the opposite set. These charts are broken down into a variety of specific business and workplace contexts, such as: being persuasive, intercultural team management, strategies for hiring, job-seeking, and management, intercultural sales, intercultural negotiations.

These charts team with real life; if you can’t relate to the rest of the book—some business types might be in a hurry—the information in the charts will grab you. Here are a couple of examples:

On the status dimension, the two extremes are achievement and endowment. If you’re more achievement-oriented and are working with more endowment-oriented types, Mendez advises as follows:

As a senior you should delay making decisions or answering questions until you have the answers; indecision and acknowledging ignorance are perceived as weakness.

To the endowment types working with the achievement types, she advises:

As a senior it’s better to admit that you don’t know something than to hide it; being wrong is allright as long as you correct mistakes and learn from them.

On the emotion dimension, the two extremes are neutral and expressive. If you’re a neutral working with an expressive:

Don’t be intimidated by displays of annoyance or frustration; these may not indicate serious problems.

And for you expressive types:

Avoid showing anger or frustration which can be seen as unprofessional or even alarming.

There must be between 100-200 hundred of pieces of advice like that spread throughout the charts, and therein lies the real value of this book. Indeed, one slight quibble I have is that sometimes it’s not clear just where you are in some parts of this book or vis a vis some charts. What is the set that a particular series of charts are the subsets of? But the advice is so practical that it doesn't matter if you get lost now and then. You don’t always have to know exactly where you are in these pages to understand the points being made.

Every interculturalist should have this book handy against those times when a business person questions whether people from other cultures “can really be all that different.” Just hand them The Culture Solution and that will be the end the discussion.

COMING EVENTS

March 26 – Webinar: Dispelling Myths about Muslims and Islam-Intercultural Interventions for Pluralism and Inclusion of American Muslims

April 26-28 –Families in Global Transitions Annual Conference

May 27-June 3 –SIETAR Europa Congress Building Dialogs on Diversity, Leuven, Belgium

July 7-10 –International Academy for Intercultural Research Biennial Conference

October 30-November 2, 2019 – SIETAR USA National Conference, From Adversity to Diversity: The Role of the Interculturalist, Atlanta, GA

March

March is Women’s History Month. Started in 1987, Women’s History Month recognizes all women for their valuable contributions to history and society.

March is also National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, which was established to increase awareness and understanding of issues affecting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

March is National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month. It was established to raise public awareness of the autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and assist those with multiple sclerosis in making informed decisions about their health care.

March 13-April 15: Deaf History Month. This observance celebrates key events in deaf history, including the founding of Gallaudet University and the American School for the Deaf.

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday started in Ireland to recognize St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who brought Christianity to the country in the early days of the faith.

March 19: St. Joseph’s Day, in Western Christianity the principal feast of St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

March 20-21: Naw-Rúz, the Bahá’í New Year is a holiday celebrated on the vernal equinox. It is one of the nine Bahá’í holy days on which work is suspended.

March 20-21(sundown to sundown): Holi, a Hindu and Sikh spring religious festival observed in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, along with other countries with large Hindu and Sikh populations. People celebrate Holi by throwing colored powder and water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before in the memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlada accomplished when demoness Holika carried him into the fire.

March 20-21: Purim, a Jewish celebration that marks the time when the Jewish community living in Persia was saved from genocide.

March 21: Nowruz/Norooz, Persian New Year, a day of joy, celebration and renewal.

March 22-24: Hola Mohalla, a Sikh festival that takes place on the second day of the lunar month of Chet, a day after the Hindu spring festival Holi.

March 27: Khordad Sal (Birth of prophet Zoroaster), birth anniversary (or birthdate) of Zoroaster, a spiritual leader and ethical philosopher who taught a spiritual philosophy of self-realization and realization of the divine.

March 31: International Transgender Day of Visibility, celebrated to bring awareness to transgender people and their identities as well as recognize those who helped fight for rights for transgender people.

April Holidays

April is Celebrate Diversity Month, started in 2004 to recognize and honor the diversity surrounding us all. By celebrating differences and similarities during this month, organizers hope that people will get a deeper understanding of each other.

April is Autism Awareness Month, established to raise awareness about the developmental disorder that affects children’s normal development of social and communication skills.

April 2: World Autism Awareness Day, created to raise awareness of the developmental disorder around the globe.

April 3: Lailat al Miraj, a Muslim holiday that commemorates the prophet Muhammad's nighttime journey from Mecca to the “Farthest Mosque” in Jerusalem, where he ascended to heaven, was purified, and given the instruction for Muslims to pray five times daily.

April 8: Buddha Day (Vesak or Visakha Puja), a Buddhist festival that marks Gautama Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death.

April 12: The Day of Silence, during which students take a daylong vow of silence to protest the actual silencing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and their straight allies due to bias and harassment.

April 14: Ram Navami, a Hindu day of worship and celebration of the seventh avatar of Vishnu (Lord Rama). Devotees typically wear red and place extravagant flowers on the shrine of the God.

April 14: Palm Sunday, a Christian holiday commemorating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is the last Sunday of Lent and the beginning of the Holy Week.

April 14: Vaisakhi (also known as Baisakhi), the celebration the founding of the Sikh community as the Khalsa (community of the initiated) and the birth of the Khalsa.

Holidays list courtesy of:https://www.diversitybestpractices.com/2019-diversity-holidays

Connect through Digital Marketing

An essential component to a marketing plan is to build and maintain an eye catching, user friendly website that clearly explain your services.  Consider asking for assistance in design, search engine optimized (SEO), and updates.  For my two websites, Cultural Business Consulting and the Global Coach Center, I provided the content to a designer and developer who will build the websites.   I found talented website developers on the website Upwork.com. There are ways to build a website yourself using pre-built templates if your intent is to learn a new skill and save money. One of the website development tools is WIX.   I employed the design services of freelancers on 99 Designs for the Cultural Business Consulting logo.  On this freelancer site, the process is to first explain your business and preferences.  Then many designers will show you logo ideas to compete for you business.  99 Designs is also a resource for you to find developers for websites and other graphic design needs.   For digital marketing, I also recommend investigating paid programs through Linked In and Facebook that promote various services using targeting marketing campaign technology.

A great way to connect with potential clients and partners is to join social media.  This is an opportunity to post content, forward posts of others, and interact with a community with comments and “likes” of content.   Linked In is recommended due to its business intention where potential clients engage in discussions.  I’ve joined specific groups that are related to cross-cultural needs such as particular industries and professions. Other social media to consider is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others.  For example, if you work with expats, find your local expat group online, internations, and expat.com.   Your overall branding and exposure to others through social media and internet searches are critical in marketing your cross-cultural services.

The Commoditization of Intercultural Services
by  Michael F. Tucker, Ph.D., CMC

When company employees and their families are sent on international assignment, it seems obvious that their ability to adapt to cultural aspects of life and work in the country of assignment is critical to their success.  However, the ability to adapt apparently is not a high priority of many global companies, as recent data show that only 22 percent of 140 companies employ intercultural assessment tools for screening, selection and development of expatriates, and only 25 percent make intercultural training mandatory.

So why is this, since many of us believe that intercultural services have become mature over the past 40 years? There are many reasons, of course, but a major one may be what I call the “Commoditization” of our services. This is a shift from a true service focus to a “purchasing department” one, which is more commonly used to acquire things rather than services.  Company International Human Resources Departments have seen major downsizing due to cost cutting and outsourcing. 

“Cultural Orientation” is often a minor component of a global relocation contract and is purchased on a short time -of- delivery and cost basis.  This has resulted in our services delivered without high customization through needs and situation assessments of client company international businesses and projects and thorough needs assessments of the employee and family.  Commoditization has also resulted in short training programs of one day or less, and little or no follow-up evaluation in-country.  Perhaps the most problematic is for the assessors/trainers/coaches being cut off from the global client company.  They are considered a “third party”, working for the primary contract holder, with little or no direct connection to the company. 

A promising movement among global companies is the emergence of global talent and leadership development managers.  They are competing for the best global talent and want the best intercultural services for their future leaders.  They seem to be seeking best practices, even for intercultural competency assessment/coaching prior to assignment.  This is especially true for international assignments taken on for leadership development purposes.

To sum up, a true service approach is where the service delivery professional works directly in partnership with the client company to ensure that the needs are closely met and the partnership is considered a business asset, and not just a cost, by the global company. 

Meet the SIETAR USA Associate Editor: Chris Cartwright, Science Editor.          

In 1973 at age 14, Chris Cartwright had a life changing experience when he toured Romania for 3 weeks with his high school choir. He caught the travel bug and it hasn’t left him yet. He was fascinated by the differences between the culture where he grew up in Battle Creek, MI, and the Romanian culture behind the Iron Curtain. He is still in touch with pen pals from that time and serves on the board of a multicultural center there.

Chris’ Mother was the local newspaper librarian. He helped after school by cutting out the newspaper articles so she could mount them and file them based on categories that would help reporters when they had to write about the person or subject of the article. This experience taught him the importance of good research and keeping information well organized in order to write well.

There were several building blocks that led to his intercultural career. He is trained as a sous chef and while managing the kitchen at a Tex-Mex restaurant owned by a Romanian whose staff was all Romanians he had an early cultural challenge to overcome; the staff were baffled about Mexican cuisine so Chris helped by creating instructions for what to make and how it should look using pictures to overcome the language limitations. He said he learned that language and cultures can indeed be bridged.

He also had a warm, welcoming 1^st grade teacher who celebrated cultural differences. When this African American woman moved to Battle Creek from Chicago no one would hire her, but Chris’s mother was instrumental in getting her the teaching position. Returning to his elementary school as an adult, Chris was prepared to apologize to her for giving her a brooch and earring set in the shape of watermelon slices he’d given her on the last day of school as a child.  The gift could have been construed as an insult, but the teacher laughed and said that she wore them with pride to this day and always on the last day of school … ‘Watermelon’ was the tension release term used by the teacher and Chris’s mother whenever they encountered push-back for bringing an African-American teacher into the local school system.

Throughout college, Chris was endlessly intrigued with what the social sciences bring to life experience. The stories and the context that surround social science theories brought him in and keep him there still. He finds the process of teasing out the patterns from what initially seems like a mish mash of data, analyzing the elements to find patterns among the situations, the players, the behaviors to be what he most likes to be doing. This is the catalyst for deep conversations that can be helpful to people by bringing them insights and when it is just right—a breakthrough in understanding. He asks “what is meaningful to you? How does it bring meaning to your experience?” and then lights go on.

He credits Janet Bennett with introducing him to the intercultural context. He took a course from her at Portland State University and then a Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC) course from Lee Knefelkamp on intercultural assessment and leadership. He decided to do his PhD dissertation on assessing intercultural competence and leadership, and this work is the basis of his current consulting practice.

Chris is married to a homeopathic veterinarian who makes house calls to dogs and cats. She is also a green-thumb gardener. They live in a 100 year old house. He does yoga and meditates every day and knows it’s a good life. He is career ‘transition’ after 10 years with the Intercultural Communication Institute (ICI) as the Director of Intercultural Assessment was eliminated in ICI’s reorganization. As Associate Director of the now closed Graduate Program he coached Master’s Program’s students to complete their coursework, and found it an exhilarating space to learn about motivating culturally complex students. He said he learned a lot in that decade from the SIIC faculty, the wonderful ICI staff, and especially the students. Not entirely sure what comes next he is sure that it will involve his two loves: leadership and research. We wish him well.

 In response to the January Issue artile: Harry Triandis: Researchers and Practitioners, we received the following response from Michael Tucker:

Harry—well said and so true about out intercultural world.  Togetherness was the original concept behind SIETAR International.  Researchers would come together with educators and trainers to share, discuss and collaborate.  Researchers would focus on what practitioners needed and practitioners would apply research results.  Then researchers split off into IAIR.  Sandy Fowler and I tried to bring research back into SIETAR USA by means of special sessions at conferences.  More of this needs to be done by both IAIR and SIETAR USA.

Michael Tucker