In Conversation with The Safety Collaborators

E061_Bridging Cultures for Safety (Intercultural Intelligence): Sharing a few examples

• Safety Collaborations • Episode 61

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Welcome to today's third podcast episode in our enlightening three-part series on Bridging Cultures for Safety.

In our previous episodes, we introduced you to the essential tools we use in our program. First, we explored the Three Colours of Worldview [E059]

1️⃣ Honour <> Shame,
2️⃣ Innocence <> Guilt
3️⃣ Power <> Fear

These perspectives provide unique insights into how we navigate the world and influence our interactions.

Then, we looked into the 12 Dimensions of Culture [E060], covering everything from communication styles and personal growth to accountability and decision-making processes. Understanding these dimensions is crucial, as they shape how we engage with one another.

Our journey today takes us into the challenges of cultural integration and the significance of understanding diverse viewpoints. 

We share personal stories of cultural shock and adaptation, emphasising the importance of openness and curiosity when navigating unfamiliar environments.

We also discuss humour's role in breaking cultural barriers in the workplace. While it can be a valuable tool for building rapport, it's crucial to use appropriate humour that respects cultural nuances and avoids misunderstandings.

Our program focuses on fostering an inclusive environment where teams develop their unique culture and language of understanding. We explore exercises like drawing the process of making toast, revealing how cultural differences impact common sense and problem-solving.

Coaching plays a significant role in helping individuals ask the right questions and avoid assumptions. We highlight the importance of asking for what you want, as exemplified by a humorous anecdote about requesting roast potatoes.

We address common challenges in multicultural workplaces, such as negative stereotypes, communication barriers, and resistance to change. We emphasise the need for effective communication and cultural awareness in high-hazard environments.

If you're curious and want to learn more, we invite you to engage in a conversation with us. Our program offers tangible and quick results when people start communicating effectively. 

Reach out to us at hello@safetycollaborations.com to explore other cultures and ways of being. 

Be open to trying something different and positively impacting your workplace.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn: Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player.

Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Speaker 1:

Travel is the best education If you are open to learning about other cultures, ways of being and allowing yourself to be adventurous enough to try something different. What does this have to do with bridging cultures in our workplace? Sometimes we need to step back, have a giggle and then get into the learning.

Speaker 2:

I am Nula and I am Karen and we are the Safety Collaborators.

Speaker 1:

Our mission is to help people have better conversations and change the way they think about safety. Consider us your thinking partners, sharing expertise and wisdom in everything safety, safety culture and psychological safety.

Speaker 2:

This is the third episode in a three-part series on what we call the bridging cultures of safety, which is all about intercultural intelligence. In the last two episodes we spoke about some tools that we use in our bridging for culture safety program. The first one was the three colours of worldview. So they are largely three very broad perspectives that we have and they are honour, shame so how do we honour who is around us? Innocent, guilt so what do we think is right? How do we do the right thing? And power and fear, or power versus fear, and in that case it's about how do we generate life, giving influence and empowerment to others. So contrary to, I think, what some people think when they hear the word power and fear, now there's the converse of to all three of those. You know, if you get too much innocent guilt, you get a lot of litigation. If you have too much honour and shame, then that can go in a direction that's not very nice, and the same if we abuse power. So we see that. But they are largely broad views and each of us has a mixture of those views. But, like in my case and I'm going to guess not that we've actually done this in your case, our stronger points are going to be innocent guilt because of the environment we grew up in, the way we were educated and all of those things. But we also live in different countries, grew up in different countries, come from an immigrant family, so the influences of middle Europe were in there. So there was a lot of honour, shame as well as a bit of power fear at times. So we all have this.

Speaker 2:

And the next episode, episode 60. We talked about the 12 dimensions of culture. Now, these are not off the top of my head, the whole list here. But we look at how do we communicate, what is the definition of growth for an individual accountability status, how we make decisions, planning all these things, and so if we take communication or the way that we share information, I should say, are we direct or are we indirect? And we're somewhere on that polarity, we're somewhere on that scale. So the interesting thing is, you might look at your own report and go, oh okay, that's just me, and with any of these sorts of self assessments, that's great. But how do I now work with all everybody else around me who's not like me?

Speaker 1:

Exactly. I think that's the tough part, and actually it's also the most exciting part.

Speaker 2:

Indeed, but there has to be a willingness to want to understand that. And I think when people start working and travelling around the world, living in different countries I mean I'm living on my fifth continent, but I remember when I moved from Australia to South Africa. It's interesting because the perception is well, that's easy, australians and South Africans, that kind of, live the same sort of life. Let me tell you, I went through some severe culture shock, to the point I can remember in that first year was before we met, in the first nine months, because I moved to a part, a region of Hau Ting, where Jo Berg is. I was a bit south of Jo Berg or Johannesburg, and this is an area English is not their first language, which is my first shock, because I grew up in a world where I thought everybody spoke English in South Africa.

Speaker 1:

And yet it's only that. I think it's the third language.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, I was also on my own. I was in a new job, I was in a new environment. There wasn't there enough to support that I might have needed. I didn't know how to reach for it either. So there was a lot of learning and I went through a phase of.

Speaker 2:

I remember there was three days it was in August of that year and for three days oh so probably cold. Yes, it was cool, yes, it was. I now know what cold is, mind you, having said that, I have lived in and I doubt it could, so I do know what cold is. But yeah. So for three days I was paralysed. I couldn't go to the office, I couldn't get off the lounge and I didn't understand what was wrong, and all I thought was I want to go home. Oh, my word. Now this happens to leaders around the world. All the time I just wanted to go home, but I couldn't. My house was being rented out for a fixed period of time, so there was no way of going back and I didn't really want to do that. But in the moment I remember that so clearly it was awful and it was actually funny enough.

Speaker 2:

Not that long after was when I first got introduced to this world of intercultural intelligence and getting a little bit more understanding of it. So when we travel, we get more exposure. When we work in working environments like we do in multicultural working environments, you talk about an oil rig. I mean there are many worlds full of different countries and different worldviews, different approaches to those 12 dimensions, different foods at different times of the day. God, yeah, everything. You were talking to me a little bit earlier about a client conversation you were having this week.

Speaker 1:

Oh yes, and it was just delightful because it was about travel being that whole thing around it being such a the best education you can have, absolutely, whether it's to yourself, to your children, your teams. And what him and I were talking about is, through the travel we've been through, just how much we've learned about ourselves and about others, and just, I think, you almost. The word that's coming to mind is you get a little bit blozé after a while because you kind of just become so used to it and you become so accepting and you see the world in kind of like a more open view of around everyone's different. They're not difficult, but what we forget is that not everybody's had those experiences, and this is an infinity loop?

Speaker 2:

Oh, completely, it keeps happening. I find myself sometimes here going what the? And then I think, okay, breathe, it's just different. What can I do to make it better?

Speaker 1:

Exactly and to make it easier, not just for for the people around me, but make it easier for me.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, sorry, so yeah, this week I've had quite a like a stark contrast with somebody who I know very well, who does not travel often and is going on a big international trip for the first time in many, many years and the stress that is kind of going around that, around not just the actual travel part but having to deal with people from a different country and a different culture. So there's a sense of excitement, but there's also a huge sense of apprehension of how am I going to interact, am I going to cope? What's it going to be like and I think many people feel that going into a different cultural environment Not many people are actually brave enough to put their hand up and say this is how I'm feeling.

Speaker 2:

Especially these days. You know there's a little bit of a what do you mean? You haven't traveled for years. How does that? You know what I mean. Yeah, and we mustn't forget that sometimes traveling will be moving from one village to another. Well, absolutely, I couldn't believe that. When I first got here, you know, somebody said to me oh yeah, now I moved out of the village and I'm thinking, you know, for a while and I thought, okay, you know. So where did you move to? Thinking a little globally, right. So I was like, oh, to the next village. But I didn't like it. I had to come back. There's two different. I'm there, that's five minutes away.

Speaker 1:

You could just pop in, but it's a different experience, it's just different right.

Speaker 2:

But so I think you know we go through a version of the grief cycle. Yes, you are absolutely right, it's the uncertainty, and then we get things don't work out way, so we get a little bit tense or a little. You know. I mean, it's not complete depression or anything, but for some people it's ridiculously stressful it is.

Speaker 1:

And the bargaining well, if I do this, then I can go home. But I can't go home because my house is being rented out, correct. And then the anger of I'm stuck, yep. And then the realization of actually I can do this, and that's exactly what happened, you know.

Speaker 2:

I then thought well, we've got to. How am I going to make?

Speaker 1:

this work and put on your big girl panties and get on with it. Yeah, there's that saying Earlier I mentioned. Sometimes you have to have a giggle and then move on and let's discover the learning. And I love some of those travel review examples where, from someone who's traveled a lot, I look at them and I go how could you even put that in a travel review? But the reality is that for some people that just is what it is and you know it can be for those looking back, you know, quite entertaining. So I thought let's share some of those. One of my ones kind of like a bit with you with the horror of English in South Africa was why doesn't everyone speak English? We went to Spain and no one understood English. We'll never go back there again.

Speaker 2:

You hear that a lot here and interesting with that one, I think, what happens. So one of the ways that the community, who do go to Spain a lot from this part of the world, they end up building enclaves. So instead of embracing in some ways, I mean they embrace a lot of things, you know the food and the weather and all of that, but sometimes the language difficulty is a step too far. So they develop these enclaves in these other countries.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it becomes a little mini environment. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we all have to find different ways of dealing with it, I suppose. So oh yeah, this is another great. I love this one. Actually, it's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often need to buy things during Cesta time. This should be banned. I don't know. As I'm getting older, I'm thinking they've got their shit together. We don't.

Speaker 1:

Oh no, they certainly do, trust me. No, I think I could quite happily live in an environment of Cesta time, and more than anything because you just have so much more energy after a little nap in the afternoon. But I remember the first time I went to a country that that was quite normal and I was I was a bit like you do what, and then I was like that's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Once you embrace it, you think how lovely. I don't have to go racing around at lunchtime. I can actually sit down, eat, enjoy, embrace the food, be present, be in the moment, be healthy, you know, and then go and do some more work. That's a good idea.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. We often talk about food and food nuances and that, and one of the ones I loved was I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard cream or ginger nuts. What are proper biscuits? Because proper biscuits in South Africa are very different to proper biscuits in Scotland, in Australia, in Australia, anywhere in Russia.

Speaker 2:

So true, I can remember being on a rig, and it was a Norwegian rig, so you can imagine, the general food was not, you know, for everyone's cup of tea, so to speak, and of course all they wanted was, I'm going to say, burnt steak and chips. But anyway, of course it wasn't going to happen on that rig and it wasn't even about asking. I mean, we took a long time ago. I think a lot of these places are a bit better these days.

Speaker 1:

But it's that sense of home, that sense of norm, that sense of my way of being is okay. And then, going back to the language one. So often people do travel and then they go. There were too many people speaking the local language. The receptionist spoke the local language. The food was local. Nobody told us there would be so many foreigners, and there's so many elements to that.

Speaker 2:

whether it's food, whether it's you know, when we take time out to speak to a higher being, whether it's you know, there's so many elements in the different countries, but that's what makes it so wonderful.

Speaker 1:

And you know you can see it as frustrating and difficult or you can see it as possibly funny or a learning experience, but again, it's about how we do that and how we express that.

Speaker 2:

I think what's important is to you know, when we take it back into the work environment. I mean, they're all interesting and quite fun to look at For those of us that think they're fun to look at, and that's when we talk about appropriate humour, but we'll come back to that when we bring these tools and these discussions into the work environment. The reality is the working rules are the same for everyone. So how do we interpret those so that we can all actually get the job done with our individual differences? For a long time, it was all that person must be shy or that person's extrovert, but it's so much more nuanced than that. Yeah, exactly how we approach. How do you approach?

Speaker 2:

You know, appropriate humour is a nice way to break the ice sometimes. I mean, I love saying to people I'm sorry, I don't have my Australian ears on, can you help me with that? Or I actually physically go. I'm tuning in, I'm sorry, I don't speak two languages, I'm just not as clever as you, or something along those lines. So there's lots of different things you can do, and sometimes it's good fun not fitting in, by the way. Well, yes, so thinking the way other people do things is a bit weird and hopefully realising that we're all different. We're not difficult.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, and that's the best part. But then what do we do with that? Yeah, exactly. How do we bring that into work? Because I love. One of the examples we actually used in one of the weekly safety meetings was a picture of a cartoon and it was someone telling a joke and they were like so funny and no one was laughing and then the punchline was but it sounded really funny in my language, such an important thing to consider.

Speaker 2:

Exactly when we were chatting the other day I was sharing. You know, in the earlier days of the behavioral based safety programs and I'm sure this is quite okay to say this there were times when I'd be working with facilitators from different parts of the world to me, but even my own world at the time would bring out these things that they thought were funny and you'd just be embarrassed and awkward. Exactly, I'm going to say that there's some of the inappropriate beer jokes and some of the inappropriate gun jokes Just inappropriate, Just inappropriate stuff. Now, of course, if you're in a location where you know it's appropriate and that you can get away with it, have at it. Why not? Then it's good.

Speaker 1:

Let's maybe have a look at how this plays out in the working environment. What are some? Of the things that we need to consider when we're looking at these cultural dimensions.

Speaker 2:

So it's a mix of things. So we can use those two tools and both of them have a self assessment and group assessments attached to them. So they're fun to do and it's really nice to work with a team to say, okay, let's map this team here. So in addition to that, it's also understanding our own personality profiles. All of these things are catalyst for conversation.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's not labelling, it's not boxing, it's not sticking a term on someone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's not that I'm at this or you're at that, it's about understanding. Okay, so my preferences and my strengths are XY, my not so great strengths or my areas where actually I should let someone else do that bit, is ABC. So understanding different working styles, conflict styles and everyone's basic understanding of what is common sense and how do you spot it.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Because you know, and this is an agreed common understanding it makes no sense. No, exactly, and we actually covered that in episode eight in the podcast. So go back and have a listen if you haven't. Eight, eight and though we're now on 61.

Speaker 2:

Wow. We look at things like team integration issues. So stereotyping, bias, cultural expectations, defensiveness, resistance to change. What are the unwritten rules in environment? What's the psychological safety levels like? How do you embrace people, how do you bring them in to make them feel like they belong? So, again, using these tools all of them together help us grow and expand. Having conversations and listening is absolutely key to most of this. One of our other favorites is, of course, understanding for communication. Nine out of 10 conversations in a working place miss the mark, and that's research. So how do we improve that? What we mean by that is how much of the conversations you have do you have to repeat, or you scratch your head and go. Why did that person go the other way? So I thought they were going left and now they've gone right. Exactly this is what we call conversational waste. So one of the skills that we help people develop is their communication skills and understand the three levels of well, their conversational intelligence. Let me put it that way.

Speaker 2:

So, we can talk about their conversational patterns, and we do that with leaders more so because it really kind of starts there Exactly, and if you want to find out a little bit more about that, you can go to episode 40.

Speaker 1:

Moving on through the podcasting range Exactly, there is one on conversational waste, but I can't remember the episode number on that.

Speaker 1:

So check the show notes for it. Yes, it'll be in there, it will be, it will be, and I think that's what I love about the Bridging Cultures for Safety program that we've developed, because it really is about breaking down these barriers. It's allowing for inclusion, it's allowing for learning, it helps teams create their own common culture and language of understanding. Indeed, and what does that look like for them? Because it brings in that kaleidoscope and that melting pot of we go from me and I to us, and we.

Speaker 2:

We go from being individual and protecting ourselves to partnering and sharing and creating and co-creating, and that does it and you can see the impact in teams.

Speaker 1:

And we've had some lovely examples, both in running some of the parts of the program virtually as well as in person. And Karen and I thought it might be helpful to like just chase a couple of examples. What does this actually look like? I'm going to give some in the field examples. So one of the things that I did when we were working with a very multicultural team was to have a look at creating awareness. So it was self-cultural awareness and that awareness of understanding others. And it was a, I think, a 19 minute workshop session that we did and it was within the working teams, because even within those working teams there might have been some people from the same country but they were from different regions and it was amazing for them to just kind of even have that realization in their own country how different their cultures were across different regions. And we started off with a question of how many different countries do you think are represented on board at the moment and went around the group and kind of got guesses. You know, some people were like completely on the low end, like oh, I don't know five or 10 other people, just completely excessive, but it was a lot at that stage. I think there were 20 odd, it was between 18 and 24, depending on the crew change and people were like, oh, wow, that's quite a bit. And then what we did is we got people to say, okay, well, if that's the amount of people here, let's think about what is it around your country that makes, or your area within your country that makes it so unique. And we put them into pairs and you know, paired up, preferably different countries together or different regions. And it was just lovely as a facilitator walking around and just hearing the different discussions that were coming up and people going. Really, I mean I remember the one guy he went you own cows and he looked at me and said do you know? He owns cows. I mean, he works out here on a boat, but he owns cows and they'd worked together for months and the end of that session it was like you know, he was like I can't believe I learned so much in such a small time. But you know, and that was just the introduction to it. So then we asked anyone who would like to share feedback and the lovely thing is, because people had worked in pairs, they were so excited about actually learning with each other that almost everyone shared something that was unique to their country or their region.

Speaker 1:

And then we had a discussion around. Okay, well, as you can see, we're all different but we can all get along. But sometimes in work that can become a little bit more uncomfortable if we don't understand why we're different. It was an introduction to the intercultural polarities. So I literally put a rope along the floor and I had pre-printed statements with translations on it that went on either side. So those were the polarities, and what I said is what I want you to do is we're gonna read the statements and I want you to line up along this rope where you feel that you belong. So are you closer to the statement on the left or closer to the statement on the right? Somewhere in between?

Speaker 1:

So the first one we did was relationships. So do you have a situational view? As in, I have a strong sense of personal space. Keep personal and private life separate or universal? I desire to see relationships spull over into other areas of life.

Speaker 1:

And the group lined up and they were all standing, looking at each other, going oh you know. And then I said to them and where do you think I fit on this. And of course everybody was like completely universal, like you're the hug bunny, you can go over there. But there was somebody who was completely on the situational side. So then you bring in the examples of okay, well, let's say, the two of us are working together. I walk in in the morning and I'm all sunshine and happiness. I wanna give anybody who's looking sad a hug. How is this person who doesn't want relationships to cross over going to feel am I actually going to help their day or am I going to actually hinder their day, and what should I be doing and what should he be doing?

Speaker 1:

And then we had this beautiful big discussion and debate around. It's not about changing who you are, but it's about dancing along that rope, depending on who is in your team and where people need to be. And that's especially crucial for leaders, because as a leader, I think or people don't realize you've gotta be such an agile dancer in relationships, because I need to work with Karen in the way that Karen will then blossom and give the best results and be able to perform at her highest. But then, when I'm working with Katrina, I might need to adapt and adjust slightly, because if I do exactly the same as I do for Karen with Katrina. I might suffocate Katrina and actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to crush her way of working rather than building her up.

Speaker 1:

So we went through quite a few of the different intercultural polarities and then had that discussion about different, those difficult, the moving towards each other.

Speaker 1:

And then what do I do if I work with someone who does things differently?

Speaker 1:

And for one of the teams it was such a fundamental change because, especially on that relationship one, there was somebody who was so extreme on the universal that he just felt like completely ostracized and a total outsider, because the rest of the team were far closer to situational and wanting to see relationships spill over.

Speaker 1:

And after we had had this discussion and he was like guys, you've got to understand, that's just not who I am, it's not the way I was brought up, it's not the way my community works, and by you always wanting to know how's family, what did you do? Where did you go? He said. It makes me so uncomfortable and so awkward. So they came up with their own team agreement about how will he move a little bit closer to being a little bit more engaged in the conversations and how will the rest of the team back off a little bit and not be offended when he isn't involved in every conversation? In a tea break and honestly I mean like two or three hitches later, the technical lead for that team he was just like that was the best exercise in the world. He said that, apart from anything else, has just made my team cohesive.

Speaker 2:

I think that's such a great story and I think people need to realize that it doesn't happen overnight. It's an ongoing process. It's a constant dance. The more we know, the less we know in some ways. Oh, isn't that true? So it's a constant dance. So you can imagine that was just one of the 12. Bullocks actually. So imagine the difference. If we understand whether I want to openly confront issues or be more indirect about how I confront issues, so what does that do in the communication of a team? Or if you're a leader, if you've got a bit of a very direct approach, but you're working in a community that don't have that approach, because they would find that offensive, as an example. So how do you soften and move and flow and dance on that continuum or that polarity of direct to indirect, as another example?

Speaker 1:

So yeah, One of the other exercises that we do is around the exercise on making toast, and literally all you do is say to people draw the process for making toast individually and off you go. Either give them post-it notes for steps or you give them a flip chart and pens.

Speaker 2:

I want everyone who's listening just tap into what you think that is. So what was the first thought that came to your mind when Nula said making toast? And just hold that thought Continue.

Speaker 1:

And I'm going. Maybe I shouldn't give away too much in this one. Oh no, it's fine, but it really it was around cultural understanding. So you can use this exercise for so many things. Draw a tree to determine leadership Well, exactly.

Speaker 1:

And what was so interesting is that there was only one expat in this particular one group and everyone had done their process, and we got everyone to put their flip charts up and he looked at his and he looked at the other I think it was nine or 10 and he went but they're all wrong, is it, excuse me? He said but but they're all wrong because they were different to his. And then it was, you know, that discussion around. Well, actually, in this environment and in this culture, and what is the expectation of toast, which is not a slice of bread that you put into a toaster machine, but toast in that environment is what I would call a toasted sandwich. He was wrong because everyone else in that cultural environment was supposedly right, and it created such a beautiful conversation of how we go into judgment and how we go as a leader. But you're not doing it the way that I would do it. Therefore, you must be wrong and now learned experiences.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, and then it was a case of okay, how do you bring curiosity into your team? How do you bring curiosity into you as a leader? That it's around bringing in that conversational intelligence and asking questions to say, well, how might this look in your environment, and not make assumptions. And it goes back to that one around common sense, because for him but it was common sense and I was like, no, that is common sense in your culture and your understanding, but it is not common sense in the environment you're working. And then we took it into the actual work environment. Well, what does that look like when you're out in the field? Because if you go in as a leader in an environment that or a country or a culture you haven't worked with, and you have an assumption that people are going to work the way that you know, it can be very, very dangerous.

Speaker 2:

You'll end up three days as paralyzed on a couch, like I did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or somebody will end up hurting themselves or something will go wrong.

Speaker 2:

Correct and you won't get the feedback that you want, you won't know that things aren't working properly because they won't feel psychologically safe to speak up, to share, to make mistakes.

Speaker 1:

And it really brings it to that whole coaching. So a lot of what we do in bridging culture is helping people ask the right questions, because it is around being able to not just assume but to then go okay, how would you do this, what about that? Or when someone's not happy with something, I mean it could be as simple as I mean. I remember on the one job, everyone complaining that there were no roast potatoes. We were in a country where roast potatoes wasn't a thing and eventually I said, well, has anybody asked the camp boss if the camp boss can actually, you know, organise some, ask the chefs to make roast potatoes? And they looked at me like I crawled out of cheese, like why would you ask? I'm like, well, if you don't ask, you're not going to get, and the answers already know.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, I went and had a chat with the camp boss and, true, as Bob, the next day there were roast potatoes, and this was at the 6pm meal and one of the guys, who's the supervisor, who was coming on shift at 6pm for his so it was his breakfast time came and he was like I had roast potatoes for breakfast and I said it's amazing, and how do you think those roast potatoes got there and it was at like blank expression. I said I asked so if you're not happy in your environment or you're not happy with your team, so if your team's not doing things the way that you expect, or something in the environment is clashing with your way of being, if you don't open up and ask and have the question, and it can be really difficult. So that's why we go through that in the program is teaching people how to do that without it being awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing. Indeed.

Speaker 2:

And it's lovely seeing light bulb moments, and again, this is ongoing. We learn every day. We learn from those moments where everybody's learning all the time. What are some cultural intelligence challenges in safety? So we want you to consider these questions.

Speaker 2:

Do you find it difficult to integrate your multicultural teams due to negative cultural stereotypes, cultural expectations, defensiveness and resistance to change? Are there conflicting working styles impacting communication and safety in your workplace? Maybe it's due to language and cultural barriers? Is professional communication misinterpreted and difficult to understand across languages and cultures? Do you have many good rules and processes, yet people still do not follow them? So I was about to say that the process, the system itself, how is it set up? And do you provide lots of leadership and skills training, yet still do not get the results you're looking for?

Speaker 2:

So if you answered yes to any of these questions, the impact on your team is likely ineffective communication resulting in confusion. There might be a lack of teamwork, low morale. You won't be getting, maybe the observations that you want, you won't be the first to hear about near miss that you might need to know about, and so on. So these are the things that we need to be considered through the safety culture implications. So that's one way. Communicating across the many cultures in the workplace is key in the most high hazard environments, and that's easier said than done it is. The good news is that we can help you and it's not impossible. No, it definitely isn't. So we can help understand that there are different ways, but must work under the same rules and regulations, explore your cultural diversity and how impacts performance and helps leaders manage and lead in multicultural and diverse workplaces.

Speaker 1:

So if you are intrigued by this and you would like to learn more, let's have a conversation, because there is so much that we can help with, and the impact is tangible and it's pretty immediate once you actually get people talking in the right way. So reach out to us at hello, at safetycollaborationscom, to learn more about other cultures and ways of being, and allow yourself to be adventurous enough to try something different and make a difference. We will be in Namibia on the 20th and 21st of February at the IADC Africa Conference, and we will actually be speaking on bridging cultures for safety. We will indeed so anybody who is attending the IADC Africa. We look so forward to seeing you there and for those of you who are not, well, you know how to reach out to us. Let's continue the conversation that way.

Speaker 2:

And the program itself, that we have a page dedicated on our website that explains a little bit more about the Bridging for Culture safety program. So thank you for joining us today. As always, we love these conversations. They matter. Reach out to us via our website, safetycollaborationscom, where you will find the show notes for this episode and the links to the other related episodes in the series and others. Leave us a message via the message us section on the show notes page. We'd really love it if people would communicate with us, you know, but you can do this in a variety of ways. On our LinkedIn company page, every episode is listed and you can always reach out to us through there. You can speak to either myself, karen Avari or Nula Gage, or Nula Nula Gage directly, and give us your thoughts. Sharing is caring. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a review. Five stars would be awesome, and doing these things helps us grow and share our collective conversations. So till next week, stay safe and stay well.

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Karin Ovari

Host
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Nuala Gage

Host

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