Bridging the Multi-Cultural Gap
Communicating Effectively with People from Other Cultures
By: Paulette Markel

The difficulty of doing business with other cultures is our lack of understanding and acceptance of core cultural values of other countries and people. These core values drive the way we communicate and a lack of understanding and acceptance inevitably leads to miscommunication.

In order to communicate effectively with people from other cultures, one must first determine where you are with regard to cultural sensitivity. Milton J. Bennett developed six stages of cultural sensitivity:

1. Denial - People at this stage are unable to recognize cultural differences. There is a story in Sanskrit that describes a frog that was born in a well and lived all his life in the well. His worldview was the well. Unless the walls of the well were destroyed he would never be able to communicate with other frogs in other wells. There are people in the world today that live at the bottom of their own individual wells. They cannot perceive cultural differences. They conceive broad categories, such as “People of Color” or “Foreigners” for those that are different. These individuals need to break down their walls, climb out of their wells, and move to the defense stage.


2. Defense - In the Defense stage, individuals can at least discern cultural differences. Unfortunately in the defense stage they attach a negative connotation to the differences and tend to form negative stereotyping. It becomes an “us versus them” scenario. The development for the people in the defense stage is to attain minimization.


3. Minimization - Minimization is where individuals try to bury cultural differences and assume that all humans are the same. They believe that deep down we all want the same things in life even if we go about it differently. As a consequence, many Americans feel that people everywhere want democracy, individual freedom and competition. This is not necessarily true. Individuals in the minimization stage are more open to differences than the people in the denial or defense stages. They believe in the existence of equal opportunity, but unquestioningly believe that their culture and core values provide them privileges in their society.


4. Acceptance - Acceptance is where people recognize and accept cultural differences. People at this stage are more tolerant of differences and can accept the viability of different ways of thinking. They learn that their own worldview and values are not the only way accepted in the world.


5. Adaptation - Adaptation is where people use their knowledge about their own values, and other cultures to shift into a different cultural frame of reference. These individuals can adapt their behavior to, and empathize with, other cultures. They have the ability to form cultural bridges. Yet, at the same time, keep their values in perspective.


6. Integration - The final stage. People at this stage of development have internalized cultural differences. These individuals are truly interculturalists. They have the ability to interpret and evaluate behavior from a variety of cultural frames of reference. Individuals who have lived in different countries and learned the language and customs of those countries have the ability to integrate because of their life experience.

All of us are at various stages on the sensitivity chart. The key is to become aware of which stage you are in today. We live in a global village and have to break down those invisible walls in order to live and work with individuals outside our comfort zone. We do this by reaching out at work, school and church to people from other cultures. Once we form friendships, we can learn to create those cultural bridges that will enrich our lives in more ways than we can imagine.

Paulette Markel is the Managing Partner of Imua Associates LLC. The company provides intercultural communication business programs. She can be contacted at 913- 402- 9934, imua@kc.rr.com. www.imuaassociates.com.