I'm not racist...... am I?

Over the past month in Australia we have had debates about racism and sexism. 

Following a taunt from a footy fan during an AFL (Australian Football League) game, an indigenous player Adam Goodes, identified the abuser.  A 13-year-old girl at the front of the crowd was asked to leave by security, removed from the game in line with AFL’s strict anti-racism rules.  Adam, who plays for the Sydney Swans challenged the racism, from the Collingwood supporter, as he heard it from the field, and the AFL system kicked in and managed the situation.

Adam’s response and comments the next day were inspiring;

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How Eurovision increases my Cultural Intelligence

Last weekend we enjoyed watching the Eurovision Song Contest.  It was a Eurovision  (EV) Party. We sang along, we danced, we laughed with some competitors, shouted when the ones we liked didn’t get the points we felt they deserved, and ate and drank in Australian/ European party style.  Like many Australians we enjoy the crazy, cheesy, festival of song and each year learn a little more about the countries that host and compete.

It is a perfect vehicle for increasing all four factors of cultural intelligence (CQ). 

The CQ Drive component is about motivation and confidence;

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May 2013: What's new for CIC Members?

Saved Webinar

We’ve uploaded the saved version of April's Create Your Portable Career webinar into the Resource Library.

• Create Your Portable Career with guest presenter, Colleen Reichrath-Smith (co-author of A Career in Your Suitcase) discusses how to build a portable career, with tips and strategies to review your career directions and possible portable careers.
• This week you can download the Kindle version of Coleen's book for free! 

It doesn’t have to be a lonely planet - Global networking skills

So you’ve moved overseas.  You need to build relationships.  Work relationships and social relationships. There may be barriers of language and culture; there will be barriers of unfamiliarity.  Unless you have connections that know and trust you –you will be seen as a newcomer, an outsider. 

How can you bridge that gap to effectively build relationships?

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What are shared mental models and do your teams have them?

In the last newsletter I wrote about cultural integration.  I was preparing to speak at the Washington FIGT conference entitled Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness.

At the same time I was working on a paper reviewing the research into teams, multi-cultural teams (MCT) and cultural intelligence as part of my professional development for the Australian College of Organisational Psychologists.

Both the MCT research and the FIGT conference have left me reflecting on mental models and the extent to which they are shared, or we assume they are shared, with those around us. 

The teams’ literature places a great deal of emphasis on shared mental models as one of the critical cognitive factors that influence a team’s effectiveness.  Team members who think alike about their work are more likely to be effective as they can anticipate the way each other will work and back each other up in critical situations.

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