Episode 11 - What We've Learned So Far - Part Three

Hi everyone! I’m taking a step back in this blog post to reflect on some of the key takeaways from the last few episodes of The Shift podcast. We’ve had some fascinating guests recently, and while their expertise spans different fields—from forensic auditing to global communication—there are some powerful common threads that emerged, particularly around the topic of Cultural Intelligence (CQ).

I find reflection is such an important part of learning, and after speaking with people like Grace Boker Mungkaje and Sarah Black, I can see how their experiences bring real insights into how we can all enhance our CQ Strategy—our ability to understand and adapt to different cultural contexts.

Building Bridges Across Cultures

One of the recurring themes in the last few episodes was the importance of building bridges across cultures, whether in personal or professional settings. Grace Boker Mungkaje, a forensic auditor from Papua New Guinea, shared how growing up as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) in the USA and then returning to her village in PNG made her keenly aware of cultural shifts from a young age. It was a simple moment—being told not to climb a tree—that made her realise how different cultural values can be, even within her own life. And that awareness shaped how she approaches her work today.

Similarly, Sarah Black, a global communications expert, spoke about the need for people working in communications to have a deep understanding of cultural intelligence. After all, as she pointed out, communication is about getting your message across, and if people can’t understand or relate to it due to cultural differences, then it’s lost.

Both Grace and Sarah highlighted the need for us to consider different cultural perspectives in everything we do—whether it’s climbing a tree or crafting a message for a global audience.

Cultural Shifts in Personal and Professional Lives

What I found particularly insightful from these conversations is the idea that cultural shifts happen in both our personal and professional lives. Grace’s experiences moving between countries—Papua New Guinea, the USA, Australia, Wales—gave her a unique perspective on how to navigate these shifts. Every move brought new cultural norms and expectations, and her ability to adapt to them was crucial in both her personal life and her professional career as an auditor.

This resonated with me because it reminded me that our cultural intelligence isn’t something we just "turn on" when we’re at work. It’s something we live and breathe every day. Whether we’re interacting with colleagues, clients, or even friends and family, we’re constantly moving between cultural spaces.

Cultural Intelligence: A Key to Problem-Solving

Another common thread was how cultural intelligence can enhance problem-solving. As a forensic auditor, Grace spoke about how important it is to understand the cultural nuances of the organizations she works with. It’s not just about following the money—it’s about understanding the unspoken cultural norms that can influence behaviour within a company.

This idea struck a chord with me because it applies to so many fields. Cultural intelligence isn’t just about being able to “fit in” with different cultures—it’s about using that understanding to solve problems more effectively. Whether it’s in auditing, communications, or even just working with diverse teams, CQ allows us to see things from multiple perspectives and find solutions that others might overlook.

Reflection: A Tool for Growth

One final theme that’s come up time and again is the importance of reflection. Each of my guests, in their own way, emphasized the need to step back and reflect on our experiences in order to grow. Grace’s reflection on her childhood experiences in PNG gave her the tools to navigate cultural shifts later in life. Sarah talked about how communications professionals need to constantly reflect on the cultural contexts of their audiences to make sure their messages land.

For me, this has been a big takeaway from the podcast so far. Reflection isn’t just something we do after the fact—it’s a tool for continuous learning. And when it comes to cultural intelligence, reflection is what helps us move from simply “knowing” to really understanding how to adapt and apply that knowledge in different contexts.

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

So, those are my reflections on the last few episodes. I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you noticed any recurring themes or ideas that resonated with you? How do you apply cultural intelligence in your own life—whether at work or in personal situations?

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or leave a comment below. As always, I’d love to keep this conversation going and hear your insights on how we can all continue to grow our cultural intelligence.

Thanks for reading, and I’m excited to continue this journey with all of you.

Listen below on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

• Transcript

  Trisha 00:00:00:01 - 00:00:14:10

  I would like to acknowledge the Tharawal people, the Aboriginal people of Australia, whose country I live and work on. I would like to pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging and thank them for sharing their cultural knowledge and awareness with us.

  Trisha 00:00:40:21 - 00:01:12:13

  Hi everyone, I'm Trisha Carter, an organisational psychologist and explorer of Cultural Intelligence. I'm on a quest to discover what enables us to see things from different perspectives, especially different cultural perspectives, and why sometimes it's easier than others to experience those moments of awareness. What can we do to help ourselves and others to experience shifts when needed? Over the past three episodes, I've been speaking to some fascinating people.

  Trisha 00:01:12:24 - 00:01:40:24

  If you've been following along, you'll know that I've interviewed a neuroscientist from Australia, a communications specialist from Northern Ireland and a forensic auditor from Papua New Guinea. Today I’m practicing what we've been discussing in every single one of the episodes so far. I'm going to spend some time reflecting, reflecting on some of the key themes that were woven through the most recent episodes and expertise areas.

  Trisha 00:01:41:17 - 00:02:10:06

  So this is what have we learned so far? Version three because I have already done this two times. And I also want to remind you that the reason that I do this is to help you consider strategies for building your CQ awareness, your metacognitive ability to think about your thinking, it might be that you're working with people who are different to you and you need to increase that capacity.

  Trisha 00:02:10:06 - 00:02:42:21

  Or you might be coaching and training people to increase their cultural intelligence and you need to help them, your coachees or your trainees, to think about their thinking. So learnings from the last three episodes point one - Slow down and Breathe. Dr. Mark Williams, the neuroscientist, reminded us that most of what we do is automatic. It's stuff that's habitual or stuff that's already in our heads, in our brains about the way the world is.

  Trisha 00:02:43:18 - 00:03:11:17

  And so we walk around in the room most of the time just responding in a habitual way. It might be the way that we've been taught as we were growing up. It might be the way that our brains have shaped and formed because of the experiences that we've had. So it can really help us when we walk into a room to stop and breathe, to look around and work out how you're feeling before you actually start interacting with people.

  Trisha 00:03:12:10 - 00:03:37:24

  It might be that you have a response in that situation to finding that you are the only person in the room who looks like you. And as Mark spoke about fight or flight responses that happen in those situations, you might realize you're having this physiological response. And so breathe deeply if you follow David Livermore on LinkedIn, and if you don't, I recommend that you do.

  Trisha 00:03:38:19 - 00:04:06:04

  You may have seen that he shared last week a quote that said, “Sometimes the most culturally intelligent thing you can do is to take a deep breath”. We agree and we know the neuroscience behind it. Thanks to Mark. Sarah Black, our comms professional, spoke about the overload of communications that we receive in our lives and how we are constantly on, listening to all these communications.

  Trisha 00:04:06:19 - 00:04:43:09

  And because of that, communications professionals need to help us to slow down, to take things. Mark pointed out that our own methods for slowing down might be different. So for some it might be meditation, but for others it might be surfing or jogging or writing or art. So Point Two - is that we need to know ourselves well enough to be able to work out what will work for us. And as Sarah pointed out for comms professionals, they need to know their audience well enough to know how to reach them.

  Trisha 00:04:44:04 - 00:05:18:03

  Grace Boker Mungkaje the forensic auditor from Papua New Guinea pointed out that we need to know the values that have shaped us so that we can see the different options in front of us to consider possibilities for responding and behaving. So knowing ourselves and knowing others is a key piece of work that must be done. In those moments of slowing down and moving to the shift, Grace shared the question that comes to her mind, and it's a question built from, I guess, a tough experience and her reflections about that.

  Trisha 00:05:18:13 - 00:05:36:24

  Do I climb this tree? Now that might sound a little bit crazy as a question to you, but if you go back and listen to the episode, it will make perfect sense. And if you haven't done so, I highly recommend that you do. Do I climb This tree is really tying into who am I going to be in this moment?

  Trisha 00:05:37:11 - 00:06:05:09

  How am I going to respond? It helps us to recognize that there are options before us. So Point Three - Then is if we could all find a question like Grace has, it would help us to make the conscious choices that we often need to do to determine the best ways to operate in different situations. And maybe it would help us to reflect on what are the choices we often face that we might respond to automatically.

  Trisha 00:06:05:16 - 00:06:34:05

  And in doing so, our responses. We may lose opportunities to build bridges. So if we could find that question, that would be really helpful for us. Or we could borrow Grace's. Point Four - of the common themes emerging was the need to accept points of difference as not better or worse, as Sarah said when she was speaking about different religious beliefs in Northern Ireland, but having good things to learn from each different end of the values, polarities.

  Trisha 00:06:34:17 - 00:07:01:20

  As Grace pointed out when she was speaking about individualism and collectivism. To do that, we often may need to shift our thinking about those polarities to a more positive frame, especially if different societies look at a value from a more negative frame. Grace spoke about that in terms of, as she called it, island time, and she helped us to reframe that, to see it through a more positive perspective.

  Trisha 00:07:02:02 - 00:07:24:15

  So doing the work to help us to see the points of difference, there's not better or worse in doing the reframing so that we can see options is from a positive perspective, even if they are not the way we grew up, and even if we might initially see them through a more judgmental lens. There are also a number of aspects that emerged that I think I will have to return to in future episodes.

  Trisha 00:07:25:08 - 00:07:48:13

  The impact of place and space on our ability to shift or to see shifts. Mark spoke about drug addicts returning from the Vietnam War. Sarah spoke about visiting different churches as part of a learning experience she had and the impact that those places had on her. The impact of language and the accent that Grace shared is also one to return to.

  Trisha 00:07:49:14 - 00:08:15:18

  And yes, I know I said it last time and I still haven't done it. I need to revisit the power of journaling as Grace also demonstrated that one to us. I hope you found these reflections helpful and given you some challenges to work on and to reflect on. Thank you for joining me on this episode. I hope you feel like you're learning how to build your cultural awareness and consequently your cultural intelligence.

  Trisha 00:08:15:24 - 00:08:42:18

  I'd love it if you would connect or follow me on LinkedIn. I'm really keen to hear your questions and thoughts and your recommendations for future people to interview. Please follow us on your podcast app so that you can be notified when new episodes are released. And I look forward to joining with you again. For further episodes of the Shift