When it comes to cultural competence, there are some big gaps between knowing about, knowing how to, and actually developing and applying the skills to manage self in real situations. 

Andy Molinsky, in his new book, Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures without Losing Yourself in the Process, has provided us with a methodology for bridging into the third and most critical of these steps. His choice of the word "dexterity" in the title of the book is well chosen to express the fact that we become effective when we have learned how to develop "muscle memory" to respond to real situations in intercultural management and in life, when on strange turf. 

Just like Cultural Detective, it is about translating knowledge into behavior and acquiring the habits that make us good at it. 

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The response to the complimentary "Cross Cultural Effectiveness" webinars we have been conducting since February of this year has truly overwhelmed me. 

We've already welcomed hundreds of participants from six of the seven continents, including a broad diversity of professions and experiences-from hospitals to schools, disaster relief to hospitality. I've had the pleasure to meet incredible people who are building cross cultural competence and using or hoping to use Cultural Detective in the most creative and needed ways! It has been such a joy and learning experience. Thank you all!

People don't need to be inconvenienced by the time difference to participate in these webinars. We offer them twice a month, once at times convenient to the Americas, Europe, and Africa, and another more convenient to Asia and Oceania.

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Are we any closer to that dream? Have each of us done our best, in our lives and in our own ways, to help make that dream a reality?

One thing I know, both from my heart and professional training, is that a focus on the oneness of humanity, on freedom for all, must be based upon a deep recognition of and respect for diversity. Those who know the oneness also respect individual and cultural differences...  

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La subjetividad es tan inherente al ser humano como lo son sus propias emociones. En el alma mezclamos de manera inseparable la voluntad, el intelecto y la emoción; y según cada una de estas "sea alimentada" podremos actuar de una manera u otra. De hecho es por esto tan famosa la llamada Inteligencia Emocional, que no es otra cosa que alimentar el intelecto y la voluntad para controlar las emociones (y que Daniel Goleman me perdone por hacerlo parecer tan simple).

Por nuestro lado, y digo nuestro porque aquí es lo que nos reune, la Inteligencia Cultural (CQ) busca entonces alimentar "el conocimiento" , la "aprehención mental de las diferencias" y modelar el "comportamiento" entre las culturas.  Obviamente el comportamiento se nutre de nuestras emociones y por ende de alguna manera querámoslo o no se relaciona con nuestra subjetividad.

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The past few weeks our family has been busy traveling around visiting universities with our son, who will be a senior in high school as of next week, as well as visiting family and, of course, working in between. Many thanks to all our wonderful guest bloggers who contributed posts during this time.

We are home again, and I thought you might enjoy a humorous "Cultural Defective" or cultural misstep story that happened to us upon our return. The guard, our neighbor, and our family had a good chuckle over it. Hopefully we'll be a bit clearer in our communication with our building staff going forward, but more importantly, we gained a better understanding of our own worldview and that of the people working in our building. 

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Sit in a café on any street in Tunis (one of the pleasures of life!), and you will notice that the women who pass are covering up more than they used to in years past. There is a new kind of women's clothing that didn't exist when I was here in the 1960s headscarves and smock like dresses that cover the arms.

This "veiling" phenomenon has become a widespread topic of conversation, journalism, and social and even political analysis. Women began covering up more in the late 1970s, the headscarf was suppressed by the government in schools and public offices until the Tunisian revolution in January 2011, and now women are free to dress as they please.  

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