Introduction

"Culture is the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterizes a society or a group. It includes creative expressions, community practices and material or built forms." —from // Our Creative Diversity: The UN World Commission on Culture and Development Report //

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Every minute, of every hour, of every day we are immersed in a sea of culture. It surrounds us from the time of our birth until the time of our death. Culture, like the smoke of a smoldering fire, wisps into every pore of our being. It infiltrates the essence of our core selves and changes the scent and shade of our personalities. Culture, while a creation of man, also creates man. It is a tool of society that hones the individual into a group member. Silently, from birth to death, honing and whittling, culture grooms each of us to play our role within the society in which we live.

Blindly, we walk through our lives, not seeing that which is as invisible as the air we breathe. Without comparison, without contrast or without being able to see the opposite poles of culture, we have no way of knowing its impact on our behavior or our impact on others. We may feel the friction at the growing edge between two colliding cultures and not be able to explain it. “Why does the new manager from South America talk only of family matters? What a waste of time,” we think. While the new manager thinks, “How rude. They think only of business and do not care about me as a person.” In this void between everything, the wave of culture exists, within and between people, organizations, nations, families, universes and so on.

The understanding of culture and its impact is important for the survivability of an organization. Closed systems wind down, decay and die according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Wheatley, 2006). In order to remain vital, organizations, as Open Systems, need the free flow of information to perpetuate its life (Bateson, 1980). Organizational intelligence does not reside merely in the leaders. The child pulling swarmbot supports this claim. Rather, organizational intelligence is the ability of all members of an organization to effectively interpret new and disconfirming information (Wheatley, 2006). Cultural awareness by all employees then becomes crucial to organizational intelligence and thus to the survivability of an organization.

// Understanding the worldview of others goes beyond intelligence and into the realm of // cultural intelligence ( // CQ). // It is the goal of our handbook to help you increase your CQ. // CQ involves the ability to look into the mirror of our assumptions with awareness and to also be aware of the assumptions of others. Thomas and Inkson, as quoted by Wildflower, suggest that CQ is related to mindfulness (2008). They state that there are six components to mindfulness that aid in increasing CQ. // // They are: //
 * 1) // Being aware of our own assumptions //
 * 2) // Noticing what is apparent about the other person and tuning in to their assumptions //
 * 3) // Using all of the senses in perceiving situations. //
 * 4) // Viewing situations from many perspectives. //
 * 5) // Awareness of contexts to make meaning //
 * 6) // Aids in creating mental maps of other people’s cultural backgrounds and personalities to help in understanding them //

// Mindfulness not only facilitates CQ but also enhances presence. Therefore, mindfulness may be a barrier to Ecoshock. Ecoshock is our reaction to ecological differences when we are immersed in different surroundings (Fontaine, 2006). While Ecoshock increases presence, according to Fontaine, we are suggesting that mindfulness may be a less painful avenue to presence on foreign soil (2006). //

// As we embark on this unpredictable trip through the Crimson’s Handbook For Culturally Diverse Geographically Dispersed Teams ////, a sense of presence will do us well. Fontaine (2004) says that a high sense of presence is often a bonus to experiencing a unique culture. The four factors are: feeling present, a keen awareness of surroundings, a sense of aliveness and the sense that one is able to respond well to challenges in the moment. In order to get the most from this journey let’s focus our consciousness on the here and now. Lets engage in a mindfulness exercise together to increase our sense of presence before we explore this strange land of the Crimson’s Wiki. To return after the exercise, click your browser's 'back' button. See you in ten minutes. //

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