Spreading Trust: marzo 2016

Well, here I am, back in Chile, sad to leave Mum and Dad behind but grateful for the opportunity to have spent 2 months of quality time with them and thrilled to be back with my own family, my own home (overlooking the Andes) and to be able to continue to seek opportunities for contributing, with my training and experience, to the future of this wonderful country.

Happy too, to have taken a week out with my one of my very first bosses, Richard Lewis and his team, at the amazing Riversdown House in the heart of the Hampshire, learning more about Cross Culture and understanding some of my challenges and opportunities in relating with Chileans and how my 35 years out here have affected my interactions with my own countrymen!

Take a look at the attached chart - "Philip Ray Compared with the Typical Chilean Stereotype". As a Brit, you would expect me to be much more Linear Active (blue descriptors) which is where I should be careful in my interactions with the more Multi Active (red descriptor) Chileans. In fact out of a total of 15 potential "clashes" between Linear Active and Multi Active cultures, I have only 7, marked with the yellow asterisk (The 8th shows a more Reactive/Asiatic tendency of mine to hide my feelings (in contrast with the Multi-Active Latins).

It was quite a surprise to see I had exactly the same number of potential "clashes" when dealing with a true UK stereotype but of course in totally different contexts. I need to be aware of my Multi-Linear tendencies to:

Plan just the general outline
Multi-task
Confront situations emotionally
Interrupt quite often
Put truth before diplomacy
Mix my social and professional lives

It is also interesting to note that I seem to have lost the more Reactive/Asiatic tendencies of the English to be "Polite and Indirect" and to "Put Diplomacy before Truth".

Of course, stereotypes are nothing more than that, and there is no doubt that the lines are beginning to blur, although some parental, educational, professional, geographical conditioning is more difficult to eradicate than others. And of course Wigan-born Richard is the first to point out that there are not only differences between the Scots, Irish, Welsh and English but also between the North and South, The West and the Home Counties etc. However, looking at my true blue characteristics, which required no thought at all when answering the questionnaire, I do confess to having a lot of British/UK programming which, indeed, I am quite proud of:

Talks Half the Time
Uses Official Channels
Dislikes Losing Face
Is Sometimes Impatient
Limited Body Language
Uses Mainly Facts.

Another important consideration is that the essence of the Culture Active Profiles is your self-evaluation. However, I must confess that at times, whilst answering the questionnaire, I found myself in a quandry asking myself "does what I have just answered really reflect me, or how I think I ought to be". I am therefore looking forward to seeing the 360° profile that I shall be receiving shortly with anonymous input from my 3 British and 4 Scandinavian "classmates" about how they perceived me on the basis of the 3.5 days we spent together.

I could go on, and would be delighted to delve deeper into the subject over a coffee with any of my local friends, colleagues and clients and interested parties, to explore what a great complement awareness of this subject can be to other training and development initiatives.

Check out my website www.coachingplus.cl

To anyone else who is interested, do check out the official website: www.crossculture.com and make sure you make contact with your local partner trainer

To finish - a photo of my delightful group of colleagues with whom I certified to become a trainer of the Lewis Model and to use the Culture Active Data Base.