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I sometimes describe myself as a
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culturally conflicted Englishman I am
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first generation born in the UK I was
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educated at the French Lisa in London
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for 13 years I spent a lot of my
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childhood in Italy and 30 years as an
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international lawyer and I've always
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been fascinated by cultural differences
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but I think it was arriving in New York
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as a 21 year old student that I got my
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first taste of the oxymoron I'd like to
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share with you today Global Village not
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global village in the way brilliantly
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described by Marshall McClellan when he
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predicted the Internet in the 1960s but
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more as a word that we use an expression
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we use a lot now my New York experience
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was not momentous but it left a huge
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affect on me I spent my first day
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walking the streets in or the word
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awesome had not yet become fashionable
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and at the end of the day I decided to
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take a cab to have dinner with some
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family friends I knew about cabs I'd
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taken cabs in London and so I got into
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the cab and in my very English polite
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maybe apologetic way I said to the cab
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driver good afternoon
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do you think you could possibly take me
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to and I read him the address on the
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piece of paper he looked around his eyes
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had gone funny at this stage his brain
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was clearly working overtime his answer
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was unforgettable
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sunny Joe wanna go what don't you want
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to go
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well of course at this stage I was
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confused because I didn't want to go
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because I was expected for dinner but I
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thought for many days and many hours
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about that encounter rude confused was
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it me was it him and it made me realize
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for the first time how very different we
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all are and how differently we
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communicate that Sonny do you want to go
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or don't you want to go was followed by
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many other examples during my career as
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a young and not so young lawyer I
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remember as a very young lawyer
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negotiating with the Japanese and I went
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back to the office very proud they
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agreed to everything I said and my boss
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looked at me and said Peter are you sure
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oh yes they kept on saying yes and he
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explained to me of course that yes
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meant that they had heard me not that
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they agreed I realised with my Dutch my
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German and some of my American clients
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the directness doesn't necessarily mean
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rudeness a bit like my cab driver in New
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York and I also of course learnt that
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the English really do talk in a code
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that nobody understands I could cite
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many examples if we had time but one of
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them always reminds me of the Italian
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who when he was told by an Englishman
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but the Englishman was slightly
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disappointed by something the Italian
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said the Italian said why did he even
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mention it I explained that slightly
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disappointed in English meant extremely
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angry and probably you will never be
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forgiven I learnt about negotiations and
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the fact that displays of emotion of
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anger don't necessarily mean that a deal
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is off even walking out of a room I
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learnt about time now I'm one of these
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people who if I have a conference call
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at half past eight because I'm what's
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called monochronic I will dial in at
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8:26
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just in case the password doesn't work
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first time some cultures don't do that
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some couches time is how shall I put it
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a guideline the world won't end if the
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meeting starts twenty minutes late
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relax what are you getting so excited
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about I also learnt about lunches and
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negotiations so that in some cultures a
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long lunch in the Middle East in France
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for example can be an integral part of a
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negotiation and I always remember a
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Frenchman who once said that when his
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New York colleagues suggested that they
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have a working lunch with a sandwich he
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actually felt physically sick I learnt
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about the use of silence in Finland I'm
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still learning everyday you see my
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belief is that the idea that there's a
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global village is a myth there is no
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single village there are many villages
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on our globe we talk about global
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warming global economy global crisis
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global communication but village life
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village culture still rules I don't make
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any value judgement when I say that but
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I do believe that we have to stop
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believing in the quasi mythical powers
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of globalization and we have to start
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remembering how very very easy it is to
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misunderstand each other we live in
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paradoxical times and what I call the
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21st century paradox has got two pillars
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to it the first is the dominance of
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English in certainly in the world of
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Commerce as the lingua franca of the
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world the second is our unrelenting and
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total reliance on digital communication
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both of those lead to what's called a
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cross-cultural dilemma the belief that
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because English is spoken so much and
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because it's so easy to communicate that
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we really do understand each other
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but we sit in boardrooms Brits Americans
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Chinese Russian French after negotiating
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English but do we always understand each
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other but often not we interpret
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subjectively we jump to conclusions
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we look at the world through eyes and
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lenses that are designed to correct our
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vision and not the other persons we
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stereotype we also think and react very
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quickly and the question we may want to
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ask ourselves is do we even talk enough
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we send one hundred billion one hundred
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billion business emails every day I sit
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in my own isolated cultural space in X
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in London in Paris in New York and I
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write my email and within seconds it
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arrives in another person's cultural
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space a space different to mine one
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where the context is different but email
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doesn't have a loopback there is no
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visual or even oral clue that my words
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may have been misunderstood my tone may
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have been misinterpreted I write that
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email in a vacuum unaware of cultural
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variables so culturally we're not global
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you see it's all about context it's all
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about the individual or the cultural
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group to which he or she belongs my
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context your context their context we
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communicate or rather we have contact
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but does contact mean communication you
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know it's a bit like internet dating
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you can meet somebody online but at some
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point you've got to have dinner with
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them and I also ask myself a question
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you may have asked have we forgotten the
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telephones were originally designed to
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have conversations on and to have
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dialogue are we relying too much on
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purely data
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at his origin cultural shock was a term
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which we probably remember used to
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describe that feeling of disorientation
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that an expat felt when they went for
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the first time to another country he or
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she experienced it firsthand and in situ
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but now something different has happened
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cultural shock has become invisible it's
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become virtual it's hidden behind our
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technology and the learning experience
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which we would have gained from either a
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conversation or face-to-face
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communication is missing the
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psychologist Paul bats living once said
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what is true is not what I say but what
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you understand I can't see you that well
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but I bet you if I ask the following
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question how many women in the room
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think that men always understand them
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how many hands go up
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not many interesting and if I then
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change the question say how many men in
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the room think that women sometimes
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don't understand us
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are there any man's had yet there are
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hands going up you see it's all about
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programming in this world of ours we're
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not all Macs
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or all pcs and even the same computer
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may have a different keyboard we need to
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focus now on creating new software so
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that those of you who are Macs in this
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room and those of you who are pcs in
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this room can communicate effectively
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and harmoniously and the key to that is
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cultural intelligence the key to that is
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understanding different cultures and
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learning techniques to adapt in order to
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improve it's not about taking away it's
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not about losing our own cultural
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identity cultural intelligence is about
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realizing quite simply that we don't all
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reason and think the same way that
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culturally we look at a variety of
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important things very differently
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risk uncertainty leadership power
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hierarchy relationships trust but it's
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also about understanding our own culture
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within those parameters there is a
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lovely saying the last thing the fish
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notices is the water he is swimming in
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cultural intelligence can be taught and
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I believe it is one of the key
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instruments to help us navigate the 21st
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century paradox my conviction is simple
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we need to make cultural intelligence
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part of our education system at all
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levels it must become a foundation stone
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we need to teach it in our homes we need
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to teach it in our schools in our
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universities in our business schools in
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our places of worship in our community
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centers in every one of our villages our
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children need it I need it you need it
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our colleagues need it and there I also
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venture an idea maybe our politicians
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and our leaders also need a strong dose
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of cultural intelligence yes this is a
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call to arms if you like we owe it to
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ourselves and we owe it to each other
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you know the dream in me believes that
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if we make cultural intelligence
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teaching at all levels part of the
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education system we may come back
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bigotry a bit more and increase
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tolerance who knows but at least let's
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make it part of our daily interactions
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the French writer or 20 sythetic savetti
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said something beautiful si tu de faire
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de moi more Flair my de Mulas e Tamaki
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she if you differ from me my brother
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rather than harm me you enrich me
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and so the next time you send an email
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or the next time you get into a cab or
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an uber in New York remember that your
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village does not represent v-world and
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maybe if collectively we all do that on
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an everyday basis we may we may create a
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better a richer and let us hope a safer
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world
