Did you know that cross-cultural skills are helpful for understanding situations abroad and at home? When I say 'at home', I don't only mean in your own country of origin but literally at home - in your house among your family and friends.


How can this be so? Well, let’s take a look at three cross-cultural skills:

1.    Don’t rely on stereotypes (preconceived notions and assumptions).

2.    Be patient and empathetic.

3.    Communicate clearly and simply.

How can we utilize these cross-cultural skills at home?

It becomes easy to communicate with our family, friends and loved ones out of habit rather than being present in the now. This can especially be true in situations of misunderstandings and even heated conflicts. In these and even daily situations we can combine these skills in a possible combination like this:

Steps:

1.    Listen to the other person.

2.    Don’t react. Think and be patient and empathetic.

3.    Use active listening skills to enhance communication.

4.    Take time to respond with paraphrase for understanding, using ‘I language’ and being non-defensive. This will help with clear communication, and demonstrate empathy.

Doing these steps will automatically help not relying on stereotypes, which will increase understanding, intimacy and a more peaceful resolution of the situation at hand.

Testing the Process:

1.    Review recent personal conflicts in your mind.

2.    How could have this process helped resolve the conflict differently?

3.    Which of these skills were used successfully or unsuccessfully?

4.    How can the used skills be improved?

5.    Which unused skills could have helped?

6.    How can those skills be learned and integrated into behaviour?

Human relationships are complex and overlapping in nature. This exercise proves that the skills we learn help us interact more successfully with those abroad who are “different than us”, and can help us at home to improve communication and relationships with our loved ones also.

Have you utilized cross-cultural skills at home? How was it helpful?


Thank you for reading.

Image Courtesy: www.sxc.hu

Contributor: mzacha

(Author, Jennifer Kumar, is a cross-cultural coach, helping people plan for their moves between India and America. You can reach her for personalized or small-group coaching services at authenticjourneys@gmail .com )

Visit her Blog : http://authenticjourneys.blogspot.com/

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