By Josie Oldenburg — I vividly remember the moment I understood that culture permeates all of life. No wonder, then, that multicultural teams face challenges — even when every single member of the team loves Jesus. Here are some steps that can help:. Sheryl notes that speaking the same language does not mean you share a culture.
We assume that, since somebody speaks English, they do things in the same way that I do. Children receive cultural lessons from the start. They would just be given food and expected to eat it.
In her team-building sessions, Sheryl uses each room of the childhood home as a metaphor to explore how our experiences as children affect our approaches to areas like hospitality, leadership and authority, working and resting, and sharing resources. A lot of these issues go back to emotional baggage that we take with us to the mission field. Did that seem cruel? Before Sheryl began studying culture, she was often confused by her own emotional reactions when she served as a cross-cultural worker.
But it took me a long time to realize that and accept that. Exploring how you handle these areas and why can help you understand your own culture and cultivate healthy team relationships. How involved should you be in that process?
How should a meeting be run? Should a meeting be a place to make a decision, or should decisions be made beforehand and merely communicated at the meeting? The Germans and East Asians were expecting the American women to be more directive in how they led, to tell them what to do.
