Category: Communication

“Chineasy”

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If as a leader, interculturalist or communications professional you ever wanted to learn Chinese in an easy way, you should check out the Facebook page of ShaoLan Hsueh, a Taiwanese entrepreneur living in London. She has developed a visual system for learning to read Chinese, called “Chineasy”. To start with, you might want to read the related article on Forbes by Bruce Upbin, which can be found here. Have fun!

What a journey: Intercultural Communications at its best!

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Trail in Temperate Rainforest

Here I am again after three wonderful days in Italy; I have to say that I very rarely participated in a course where I felt completely at home and at the same time challenged by the subject. I honestly thought I knew a lot about intercultural communications and had to find out that much of what I actually knew needed to be seen in a completely different light and from a different angle. Did you know for example that following Dr. Milton J. Bennett:

  • Culture is an observational category constructed for the purpose of identifying various ways of coordinating meaning or action among people interacting within a boundary.
  • People within the boundaries see themselves as part of that culture.
  • Cultural identity is constructed by associating self-boundary with one or more cultural boundaries.
  • Culture as such does not exist in individuals; culture is a social phenomenon that exists in groups of people.

I therefore learned that because of my upbringing and background, I identify with different cultural groups, i.e. to name just a few:

  • European
  • Female
  • German/French

I also learned that stereotypes as “characteristics of society” don’t exist for groups or societies as they can only be applied to a particular type of person or thing. What we do see though are so-called generalizations, i.e. statements concerning the probability of a certain behavior in a certain context (the probability of patterns of behavior).

To give you one example: Americans have a higher probability of being individualists whereas Chinese have a higher probability of being collectivists; there are always deviants in the middle of the spectrum to which the probability does not apply. There can hence also be Chinese which are individualists and Americans who are collectivists.

I will definitely do my homework and read through all the materials that I have received so that I can already apply its principles to my day-to-day work. I will also certainly continue on that road as I really feel that the journey has just begun! Thank you IDRinstitute!

On another journey into intercultural communications

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This afternoon when stepping into the train to Italy, I thought: “let the journey begin”. In fact, upon recommendation from Dianne from culturaldetective.com, I registered for a three day course about the constructivist foundations of intercultural communications. I thought that “some brain food” would do me a lot of good… so here I am now eager to begin my course tomorrow!

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Well, in fact, my cultural “deep-dive” already started: I am usually having dinner very early as is normal in the French speaking part of Switzerland where I live. Now, going out with an Italian friend, the restaurant has been booked for 21h00 only… well, different country, different habits and behaviors. I actually feel lucky as 21h00 is not so bad; in countries like Spain, you would eat much later than that (I am trying to convince my stomach here).

So, stay tuned for new findings and interesting facts from the intercultural front! I am sure that the next days will bring a lot of interesting theory but also new views and acquaintances.

Ciao tutti,

Jenny

My “Best Moment Award”

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First-Best-Moment-Award-WinnerI recently received the “Best Moment Award” from Moment Matters for my post “The fight for attention in communication”. I must say that receiving two awards in one week really made me feel happy about the fact that people around the world actually read and appreciate what I have to say. This post – as all the others I write – got kicked-off by a real-life event where I had to deal with people who asked for a meeting and then were not really interested about what I had to say (or maybe it is a new way of multitasking where one ear listens to the person sitting in front and the eyes and brain concentrate on what the hands are writing to somebody else per e-mail). 😉

For me writing about mindful leadership and intercultural communication, being a humble ‘beginner’ on the path of awakening and meditation, it felt like a milestone to have received this award. Somehow, I moved forward (or maybe sideward) in this journey called life trying to look inside myself in order to pull out a “new and improved” me or better: the knowledge and peace that sits there anyways and that I was simply not able to hear until now. The “Best Moment Award” actually goes to people who

“live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered –
Savoring the experience of quality time.”

Let the journey begin! Every second of your life deserves to be lived at its fullest! Thank you Moment Matters!

Let me now award 10 people or posts as I don’t know more than that (yet). I have selected:

  1. The post “Teach peace” written by Gina
  2. The wind horse blog http://windhorseblog.wordpress.com/ inspiring, amazing and touching words
  3. The post “Feather Inspiration” by Ruby
  4. Evan’s post “An Inspirational Snack” and also his blog
  5. Business Life Asia with this post on the Lunar New Year in Hong Kong
  6. The Post on “Metta” by Khalil Bodhi
  7. The Post “What we long for” from Mindfulbalance.org
  8. “A call for mindful leadership” from Ellen Langer
  9. The “Zen of doing” by Leo Babauta
  10. “Connecting with nature” by Sakshi Vashist

My nomination for the “Liebster Award”

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Yesterday morning, when looking at my blog, I had a nice surprise. Ute from expatsincebirth nominated me for the “Liebster Award” , I have to admit: I had no clue what this actually meant or was, so checked it out on the web. The “Liebster Award” is an award for upcoming bloggers with less than 200 followers and for who someone believes deserve some recognition for their blogging. Well, I feel honored that people actually enjoy reading what I have to say!

**Here are the details on receiving this award**

  1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
  2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve nominated to answer.
  3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post
  4. Go to their page and tell them.

Step 1-11 things about me!

1. I am a happy, positive person

2. I love living in different countries

3. I love learning languages

3. I am extremely curious and interested in other people and cultures

4. Work-Life balance is extremely important for me

5. I see the glass half-full instead of half-empty

6. I am trying to make this world a better place by impacting the things that I can

7. I believe in the power of empathy and mindfulness

8. I enjoy sports and outdoor activities

9. I am passionate about the things and people I care about

10. Life is short, let’s enjoy every piece of it!

11. Currently living in Switzerland and enjoying its quality of life.

Step 2- My answers to Ute’s Questions:

1) What makes you happy?

Happiness comes from inside, so every new day makes me happy to be here and to be an active actor in my own life.

2) What language would you wish to learn and why?

As many as I can 😉 I guess first I want to become fluent in Arabic, and once this is done, I will certainly start to study Chinese, as it’s another World language.

3) Why did you start blogging?

I felt like I wanted to write down my thoughts and discuss these with like-minded people. I also wanted to meet others like me and build up relationships.

4) What is your favourite film or series and why?

Fringe. I love the unexplained… definitely worth watching!

5) What is your favourite book and why?

I love reading, although I don’t have much time nowadays unfortunately; recently, I read: Wherever you go, there you are from Kabat-Zinn. Excellent! It reminds us about the simple things that everybody can do to enjoy their lives to the fullest.

6) Which nationality would you choose, if you could and why?

The European one, if there would be any such thing. I truly am European, nothing more and nothing less.

7) Do you like to cook?

Yes, I love creating new things… but: not much time left for this unfortunately!

8) What is your favourite food?

Asian food, Dim Sum and Sushi.

9) Morning or evening?

I am definitely not a morning person, evenings suit me much better!

10) Mountain or beach?

I enjoy both; living in the mountains makes me now go more often to the beach.

11) What is your favourite means of transportation?

Walking or biking… gives you energy before you start your working day!

Step 3 – My 11 Questions to you!

  1. Who inspires you the most?
  2. In which country would you want to live in future and why?
  3. What was the most inspiring experience in your life so far?
  4. Your favourite post on another person’s blog?
  5. What does ‘intercultural leadership’ mean for you?
  6. If you had one wish to make, what would that be?
  7. Your favourite book and why?
  8. Are you a morning or an evening person?
  9. Your favourite blog?
  10. What is your favourite ‘passe-temps’ (hobby)!

Step 4- Blogs I nominate

  1. The Cultural Detective Blog : excellent intercultural resource by Dianne and her extended team.
  2. Southeast Schnitzel: German-American differences explained by Christian: very funny and well written!
  3. Anne’s blog where she focuses on intercultural executive coaching
  4. The intentional workplace written by Louisa  excellent posts about how we can do our best at work in an intentional manner
  5. Alice’s blog
  6. Louis’ insightful posts
  7. Very instersting posts in terms of communications on http://blog.i-reconnect.com/
  8. http://www.5thingstodotoday.com/ check this out, you might not have thought of these
  9. Kara’s blog on mediation, origami and kids
  10. Intercultural competence for youth
  11. Excellent posts and reflections around Buddhism

How to effectively survive global ‘calls’

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Global callI guess at least some of you have already spent parts or even most of their day glued to a telephone or other device trying to participate in ‘global’ calls, brainstormings or discussions with various others. Being a virtual team member is far from being easy, even if you don’t have to lead a session in a particular moment, that is for sure.

The hardest thing to follow is actually when you have a group of people sitting together in a room and others participating on the phone in different locations. The team sharing a physical location has definitely an advantage over the other participants as its members can visually interact and see each others faces and gestures. It gets especially difficult, when not everybody can be clearly understood through the phone. Another tricky thing is that you might not even know who is speaking as you don’t know all the people on the line and hence cannot recognize the voices. Very few people actually state their name when they speak as they tend to forget that not all the participants can see them.

How do you make the most out of such sessions without giving in to the temptation of doing other things while your phone continues to speak, on mute?

As a participant you should look at the agenda right from the start, before the call has even started and identify the areas of interest to you. Write down a couple of points that you want to touch upon, or simply note some thoughts. This will help you to stay focused during the call especially for the parts that are important for you.

Remember: nobody can listen for hours in a row! If an agenda is set up in a right way, it will leave enough breaks to allow for the participants to re-focus. It will also take into account the different periods of the day the participants are in and hence move the parts where solid input is expected to reasonable times so that the people are still awake.

As an organizer, this website provides a helpful oversight over time zones and lets you easily schedule global meetings.

If you need participants from all over the world, I would also highly recommend scheduling various meetings having the same topic, even if it means that you have to repeat yourself. You will ensure that nobody will be expected to attend at an unusual hour, which makes people happier and hopefully they will contribute more actively. You could for example structure your meeting like a World Café, where every contribution actually builds up on the contributions of the previous sessions. By doing so, you ensure that even for you, it doesn’t get boring and the outcome will definitely be there.

Apart from that, if you can, try to make the sessions as short as possible. The shorter you time your meeting, the more attention you will get and the more focused your participants will be. Oh, and avoid lengthy power point shows, you will loose your audience in minutes. Write down bullet points of what is being said or accompany the discussion in a way that makes it more interesting to the participants, even those not being physically there!

If you have any more insights to share or tipps and tricks on how to ‘survive’ long calls, let me know!

Have an excellent morning, afternoon, evening, night! Jenny

Further reading:

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