The modern interfaither (part 3): Cultural Intelligence is the secret sauce for successful interfaith dialog

In the last post we looked at interfaith dialog from the strategic level. I would like to now briefly finish up with a look at dialog from the personal level. I believe that Cultural intelligence, aka the Cultural Quotient, or CQ, offers an exceptional level of insight into how we can cross these barriers effectively. CQ posits that understanding the impact of an individual's cultural background on their behaviour is essential for effective working relationships. CQ is about you and your team during negotiations. Again, as with cultural analysis, it isa powerful tool for organisations such as the police who wish to build confidence between local officers and vulnerable communitys.

CQ involves observing the ways the people interacting in front of you differ from those in your home culture, and yet are similar to one another. Once the conduct you are observing begins to settle into patterns you can safely start to anticipate how these people will react in the next situation. Any inferences you make should then be free from stereotyping. This is crucial because one critical element of CQ is the necessity to suspend judgement and think before acting.

Advocates of CQ surprisingly acknowledge that, people who are a little detached from their own culture can sometimes adopt the traits and body language of unfamiliar cultures more easily than people who are more socially successful. This is because socially successful people have a tendancy to fully embody the habits and norms of their native culture and will therefore have the greatest difficulty making sense of, and then being accepted by, cultural strangers. On the other hand, those used to being cultural observers and making a conscious effort to fit in, are more adaptable to culturally sensitive situations.

I hope that understanding culture from a strategic planing point of view, as well as a personal development perspective will enhance understanding a little in the interfaith dialgogue process.