LEARN TO LEAD - Civil Air Patrol

hidden areas can act as cultural hooks that hang us upand lead to ambiguity, confusion, and misunderstanding.BehaviorsYour ability to interpret behaviors when negotiating indivergent cultural contexts is important. You may neverlearn to make the distinctive “snap” that ends a Liberianhandshake or use stainless steel chopsticks as deftly as aKorean. And that’s OK. What is important is being opento divergent cultural behaviors and withholding judgment.Of course, no matter how hard you try, you will still makemistakes. Once as a member of an American negotiatingteam in Japan, I was asked to present a proposal to aJapanese university’s chief administrators. I felt proficientenough to outline the proposal in Japanese. To lighten theatmosphere, I decided to begin by telling a rather blandjoke about jetlag. I practiced until I had it down pat.Much to my chagrin, however, the punch-line was metwith stony silence. What I learned afterwards was that inJapan jokes are inappropriate in formal contexts. I wouldhave been better served had I begun with a humble apologyfor the inadequacies of our proposal. Humility, not humor,is the acceptable opening for such proceedings. Fortunately,in spite of my clumsy introduction, the proposal was accepted.These kinds of cultural mistakes are part of the learningprocess. Most people will understand if you acknowledgeyou have made a mistake and seek to make amends.In fact, such mistakes will occur frequently in any situationwhere people from diverse cultural contexts collaborateand work together. Coalition teams, for example, providefertile ground for misunderstandings and conflict. Theability to resolve cultural conflict issues requires patienceand openness to differences in behaviors and institutionalpractices.Cultural Values, Beliefs, and AssumptionsCultural values, beliefs, and assumptions are powerfulforces within a culture. They are passed down from generationto generation through the family, schools, themedia, and religious institutions. Although hidden fromour view below the “waterline,” these shared concepts arethe foundation for all those aspects that are easily perceived.Although it may be convenient to categorize culturesby their values and norms, some caution is needed.In any culture, not all members display or “buy into”these psychological structures. Everyone in a culture isnot the same. Therefore, when talking about values,beliefs, and assumptions it is wise to frame them as generalizations.It is better to say that Iraqis, for example, “tendto be” collectivist or that American institutions “in general”support individualist values. To do otherwise is to fallinto the trap of stereotyping. 10InstitutionsInstitutions, according to Brett, are “economic, social,political, legal, religious institutional environments thateffect negotiation.” 11 This includes governmental organizationssuch as the military. Like behaviors, institutionalstructures are linked to cultural values and beliefs. Forexample, the fictional nation of Leonia is an Arab Muslimculture situated in the Maghreb region of NorthernAfrica. Cultures in this region tend to be much more hierarchicalthan those in the West. Yet there are benefits tothis type of organizational structure. In some cases, suchhierarchies allow even low level functionaries to havedirect access to management at a much higher level thanwould be common or even acceptable in the U.S. Sometimesit simply means finding out whom to contact togain access to decision-makers. This requires the formingof alliances, locating third-party intermediaries, and thedevelopment of friendships and strong working relationshipswith host country nationals.ReframingWhen we call someone lazy, we are making a judgmentabout that person’s character. When applied to a group,the judgment has been transformed into a negativestereotype because the attribution is not to just one person,but an entire group and by extension an entire culture.This kind of stereotyping is inappropriate. Before makingsuch sweeping judgments, [you] must clearly define thenegative behavior and then determine the cause. Theroots of the behavior are more likely tied to values relatedto cultural domains such as kinship, education, or institutionalprocesses. “Reframing” is a helpful process formoving beyond stereotyping and judgmental language.Stella Ting-Toomey and Leeva Chung, two recognizedexperts in the field of intercultural conflict resolution,described “reframing” as a communication skill that uses“neutrally toned (to positively-toned) language…to reducetension and increase understanding.” 12 The AFINT instructorscould begin the process of understanding theproblem by framing their descriptions of behavior in nonjudgmentalterms:Judgmental Statement“The students are lazy.”“The students are unmotivated.”Reframed StatementSome students turn in their homework either late orincomplete.Some students come to class 5 to 15 minutes late.Some students have missed up to three days of class.Values-Based NegotiationThe story of the sisters and the orange highlights theimportance of understanding the interests of all parties142