Watch this TED talk by Pellegrino Riccardi about Cross Cultural Communication.

This week, we are looking at communication in business and developing cultural competency. Let’s face it, especially here in Souther California, the modern business environment is incredibly diverse. This means we must be able work with and interact with people from all over the world and from cultures that are familiar.

In this discussion, please think about your own culture (this can be your family’s culture like the speaker, or our local San Diego culture, or the US culture, or whatever is dominant in your life) and the things you find acceptable and familiar.

1. Talk about one thing that is acceptable and familiar from your own culture. Think about all the examples the speaker talks about from standing in line, to driving, to conversations, to eating together, to working together, to concepts of timeliness.
2. In your responses to your classmates, Be curious. Ask a curious, simple question.
3. Read the answer and pick out 1 word from their posts that stands out to you and reflect on what that one word means to you within the context of your own culture. Be curious and open about this.
4. Be respectful, always! Humor is fine; I really enjoyed the speaker talking about his Italian heritage- we all have that in our family dynamics and those things should be fun. Just be mindful to be accepting and understanding that someone’s funny family history may be different from your own. Being able to exist with other people and their differences is a vital skill to have in business.

Expectations:

• Your first response should be a minimum of 100 words, due Wednesday.
• You should reply to a minimum of 2 other classmates’ responses with 50 words minimum, due Sunday.
• To earn full credit you need to answer more than “I agree” or “good job.” Your discussion replies may ask a clarifying question, may relate and apply to another situation, or you can probe the question deeper. But it needs to have substance in order for you to earn points.