A basic, known fact- man is a social animal. Yes, we are and the urge to be social, communicate with people, make friends remain a part and parcel of everyone’s life. We have been trained by our mind, our family and our society to be social. Being social doesn’t only mean interacting with a single, acquainted group of people. We would need to interact with multiple people with various cultural diversities having different backgrounds, either as a part of our personal lives or professional.

The fact is many find it difficult to manage. People find it difficult to communicate to people with different cultural diversities. These barriers might be due to the difference in language, culture, for that matter any other reason. But, this is a serious problem which needs to be addressed seriously. This can lead to serious business consequences when overlooked from an organizational perspective.

How to overcome this challenge? Below are the pointers which can help overcome these challenges and could create a desire to befriend a person from other culture.

• Urge to learn: Learning is the base. Having an impulse to learn can act as the key. Individuals should develop or should be helped to develop a need to learn. They should be eager to welcome change thereby getting ready to accept new things and welcome the new cross border/ multi-cultured friend. They should be trained to adapt to the new cultural happenings. This can happen with constant interaction with people from other culture, sharing their cultural practices, reading or learning about it. Proper training can help to make individuals comfy to deal with multi-cultured people.
• Team Learning: This can act as another integral step. Once, you develop the desire to learn, the next step would be to learn collectively in a group. Different teams can be formed and the group can mutually discuss and learn. Mutual give and take of advices, findings, and discussions enables to learn faster, regardless of the culture or national diversities. Shared responsibility improves the intra-team environment, allowing happier and more comfortable members to deliver improved results.

• Feedback session: The task does not get over by the two steps. The last but not the least, crucial step is arranging a feedback session. Individual query and problems should be addressed. If not possible in an individual manner, group session should be conducted. But it is a vital part for the success of the training or learning sessions conducted. Feedbacks act as a great source of knowledge and awareness to improve or make changes catering to the needs. This can help to formulate a strategy for organizing a learning environment for the employees.

These are the traits which may not be inborn for every individual but it can be acquired or developed over the course of time. These can greatly influence the co-ordination, teamwork developing a path ahead for organizational success.

Written by Faber Ramya Pillai