Strength lies in differences, not in similarities  – Stephen Covey

I love working with people from different cultural backgrounds. It gives me the opportunity to get to know myself better and it gives me the opportunity to understand the other better. It is like discovering a new landscape, it is always a very exciting journey. In our workshop we discover and rediscover the mental and cultural maps of each other so to stimulate intercultural sensitivity.
Looking at what we have in common and in what ways we differ from each other and this at different levels, cultural and the personal.

Replaying what has been said during the workshop I realized that we were actually discussing the phenomena of fixed mindset versus growth mindset on a cultural level. Some people tend to view themselves as more fixed and unchanging regardless of the situation while other people see themselves as more dynamic and changing with the situation.
People with a more fixed mindset tend to think “I am who I am” and “They are who they are” no matter what the situation is versus people who have more of a growth mindset focus on the situation, people can act very differently depending on the situation.

“What sets the world in motion is the interplay of differences.”  – Octavio Paz

For many people with a growth mindset cultural background it can be quite a confrontation meeting people with a more fixed mindset, and vice versa.

Your mindset influences your interpretation of certain situations.

For just a few seconds image the following:
“a man is running late for work and declines to give a homeless man some money”

• How would you interpret this situation?
  The man is selfish (characteristic of the man as the cause of the behavior, fixed mindset)
• The man was in a rush because they had to go to work (situational factor as the cause of the behavior, growth mindset

When you enter a culture where it is not a custom to engage in or spent extensive time in greeting eachother, do you see this as:

• These people are so cold and are not interested in me
• These people have a very tight schedule

After living abroad for a long time and returning back to Belgium I was struck by the phenomenon of overemphasis personality factors rather than the situational factors to explain someone’s behavior.

Such things we discussed in and reflect upon in our workshops and this is how we stimulate Intercultural Sensitivity:

• Would you describe your culture as a fixed or growth mindset?
• Would you describe yourself as having a fixed or growth mindset?

If you have a growth mindset is it harder for you to work in a fixed mindset environment and vice versa?
Would you like to test your intercultural sensitive for FREE, click here.

By Sarah Neirinckx