July 29, 2024 • 42 mins
How can you truly appreciate, honor, and empower diverse perspectives? By understanding and applying the Three Colors of Worldview, you can develop intercultural agility and recognize individual uniqueness.
In this 2nd episode of the Three Colors of Worldview series, we clarify its purpose and emphasize the importance of not misusing it to stereotype regions or cultures. By stretching beyond natural preferences, one can foster a richer comprehension of different cultural patterns and enhance interactions and relationships.
Discover real-world applications of the Three Colors of Worldview in leadership, trust-based selling, and effective communication. We delve into examples and insights that illustrate how intercultural coaching and high-performing teams can be cultivated, ultimately creating a cohesive organizational culture.
Take the Three Colors of Worldview Assessment at interculturalagility.com/assessments
| In this episode, you will learn:
- How to apply the Three Colors of Worldview Discovery Tool
- How to use the Three Colors to create a cohesive organizational culture
- How to be playful with the Three Colors to cultivate relationships with everyone you interact with.
| Read More about:
- Three Colors of Worldview,
- Applying the Innocence-Guilt Cultural Paradigm, Part A,
- Applying the Honor-Shame Cultural Paradigm,
- Applying the Power-Fear Cultural Paradigm,
-- Looking for a book to take your cultural agility to the next step, check out the Ultimate Intercultural Question Book brought to you by KnowledgeWorkx.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marco Blankenburgh (00:00):
starting with the question who am I as a
cultural human being?
That's where that question camefrom.
It's like, yes, I might carry adutch passport, but I am so
much more and doing doingjustice to that, respecting that
, teaching people to have thosedeeper conversations resulting
(00:20):
in that deeper connecting.
And that's where this idea ofself-culture was born.
Shelley Reinhart (00:35):
Welcome to the Unlocking Cultural Agility
podcast, where we hear from someof the most advanced
intercultural practitioners fromaround the world to help you
become more culturally agile intoday's complex environments.
I'm your host, Shelley Reinhart, Global Network Liaison of
KnowledgeWorks, where every dayI work with our practitioners to
(01:00):
help individuals and companiesachieve relational success in
that same complex world.
This is the second two episodesexploring the three colors of
worldview.
In the last episode weintroduced the three cultural
worldview drivers and if youhaven't listened to it, I highly
(01:20):
recommend you do beforelistening to this episode,
because we covered a lot.
In this episode.
We're going to see howunderstanding those three
worldview drivers can be appliedto better engage our culturally
complex world.
Join us.
Okay, so this has been great.
(01:43):
So we've kind of covered thethree worldviews in detail.
So you created an assessment.
The three worldviews have beenput out into the world.
How did they appeal?
Did they appeal to the market?
To the market.
Marco Blankenburgh (02:02):
Everybody who gets exposed to them loves
it, but we still, I would sayfrom a sales point of view, it's
growing, but it's also a matterof you need to have a reference
point.
So I was talking to one of ourpractitioners in South Africa
(02:22):
about this and he was alsosaying you know, the stuff that
people in organizationsunderstand is things like high
performing teams and leadershipexcellence and creating resonant
cultures on teams.
They understand all of that andwhat we often need to do is
(02:44):
connect to those frames ofreference that already exist.
And, for instance, next weekI'm with a team in Bangkok and
we started with.
The request was we need a teamthat can navigate significant
complexity across nine countriesin Asia with thousands and
(03:09):
thousands of staff, and we wantto create a leadership culture
that is better equipped to dothat.
And initially we started with aframe of reference they
understood, which was the worldof psychology.
So we use we use thepsychological angle to start
that conversation and the morewe talked with 14 nationalities
in the room, I decided to say,yeah, but in my country, or the
(03:32):
way I was raised, it doesn'twork that way.
So now next week, when we cometogether, we're going to open up
the three, the three colors ofworldview.
So sometimes if people have gonethrough the pain, so to speak,
it's an easy sell.
They always say, oh man, I'llget it Like.
I still remember I sat downwith a gentleman who's now one
(03:53):
of our practitioners and he wasin the world of media,
international media relations,how international press
sometimes writes things thateither countries or regions are
cringing about, especially ifshame comes into the equation.
And then how do you handlethose situations?
(04:14):
So the first time I spoke tohim he started to share some of
the stories and some of theprojects he was working on, some
of the projects he was workingon.
And I said to him Nick, wouldyou mind if I just take a moment
to explain a framework we useto try and make sense of the
stories you just shared ofinternational relations and
(04:35):
international communication?
Shelley Reinhart (04:36):
I put the three colors of worldview on the
table and he was quiet.
Marco Blankenburgh (04:41):
So I looked at him and I said, nick, what do
you think I?
So I looked him at him and Isaid nick, what do you think?
He said, man, this totallyexplains all the major clashes
that we've had to deal withinternational relations.
And he said I need to startincorporating this into me, into
how I operate as a leader andinto my team, which he did, and
(05:05):
for him it just like inside yes,so you find that that often
happens.
Shelley Reinhart (05:12):
When you felt it, when you've seen the pain
points, when you've seen it fallapart on the team level or on a
relational level, then you'relike, oh, people get it, yeah
yeah yeah, and I love how youbrought out the two spotlights.
I mean, knowledge works ispassionate about two spotlights,
that.
Can you talk about that forjust just one second, since you
(05:34):
just yeah look, we've had theprivilege of developing tools in
the intercultural space.
Marco Blankenburgh (05:39):
Answering that question who am I as a
cultural human being?
But of course you know we arenot just cultural human beings,
we are psychological humanbeings and we always joke that.
You know, psychologists so farhave claimed the right to
explain human behaviorexclusively through the lens of
psychology, and they have suchbeautiful things to contribute.
(06:03):
I'm certified on severalpsychometric tools and I love it
, and you are as well, Shelly.
But at the same time we arecultural human beings and those
two spotlights are both superimportant and in our work, very
pragmatically, the example Ijust gave some clients just
don't have a frame of referencefor me telling them oh,
(06:27):
listening to your story aboutyour organizational culture or
the way you engage with yourclients, you've got an
intercultural agility problem.
And they say what?
There's no frame of referencefor it.
And then to have the freedom tothen bring that psychological
perspective in and use that asan entry point, then that is,
(06:51):
you know, in their case, a muchbetter way to start.
And I love the fact that thosetwo spotlights are are both
equally important and sometimesthe one is an entry point and
sometimes the other is an entrypoint so why the move from sort
of identifying or starting acultural discussion from
(07:14):
ethnicity and race and passportcountry to more of a personal
culture, a self-culture?
Shelley Reinhart (07:21):
how did you get that place?
Marco Blankenburgh (07:24):
yeah, that was, um, that was a big decision
for us.
Um, a bit of a almost a riskydecision because, as I I
recalled the early days ofknowledge works, 2001, 2002 a
lot, a lot of the books we gotwas oh, you're german, you want
to go and negotiate in sri lanka?
Here's a few pages of tips andtricks, and that was the normal
(07:48):
thing.
Oh, you're relocating to Japan,here's the things you need to
know about living in Japan andworking with Japanese, et cetera
.
And we were looking at you knowwhere is the world going to go
in the next 10, 20 years?
Oh, yeah, we felt the world wasgoing to become much more
interconnected.
So the world is flat wasalready out in those days and we
(08:13):
realized that, looking at itfrom a Dubai perspective, this
was just going to accelerate.
Now there's been, of course,ups and downs.
There's been a global economiccrisis and then COVID, but
actually all the crises we'vehad as humanity made us even
more interconnected, made uswork more across cultures,
(08:34):
across boundaries, and COVIDeven accelerated that by us
being allowed to continue tolive in the same place but work
all around the world, and ourteam is a great example of that.
Our team is, like you know,across 20 plus time zones
sometimes in one week and as aresult of that we said okay, if
(08:59):
the world is going in thatdirection, then only looking at
culture through the lens ofnationality large ethnic
clusters and also when we lookat the north american way of of
looking at it through the lensof race, with five main racial
groups, so to speak, that thosethree ways of looking at it
(09:24):
they're not a good startingpoint of connecting, let me put
it that way.
So they're important, but theyonly become meaningful and
helpful in the context ofrelationship.
So we said let's see if we cancome up with a different way.
And that's where this idea ofpersonal culture, or
(09:45):
self-culture, or starting withthe question, who am I as a
cultural human being?
That's where that question camefrom.
It's like, yes, I might carry aDutch passport, but I am so
much more and doing justice tothat, respecting that and
teaching people to have thosedeeper conversations, resulting
(10:07):
in that deeper connecting.
And that's where this idea ofself-culture was born.
And it's not about throwingaway that we don't.
We have a passport that wouldbe linked to a tribe or an
ethnic group that we.
It's important for us to have aracial affiliation, etc.
Those things are superimportant but from a pragmatic
(10:28):
work, business point of view,they're not the best places to
start a conversation.
So the impact of it if we talkto our practitioners around the
world, they're all saying, bymaking that shift, we ask more,
we don't make assumptions soquickly, so biases and
stereotypes related to culturalthings are less likely to
(10:53):
feature.
People become more interestingactually.
Yeah, my mindset towards theother person is intrigue,
curiosity, yeah, curiosity.
I want to to know you.
I want to not just ask oh,where are you from?
Oh, you carry an americanpassport.
Shelley Reinhart (11:11):
Okay, done with that yeah, I know, I know,
I know people who have americanpassports.
Marco Blankenburgh (11:16):
They fit this box yeah or yeah, you can
do that with everything, yeah so, yeah, we, we find time and
again that, uh, that people as aresult of that, they uh, they
go deeper much faster in therelationship.
And that's.
I come from a business family,sorry to say, but it's actually
(11:36):
good for business.
Yeah, it works wonders in salesif you really respect your
client and show that you careand that you're interested in
who they are and where they comefrom and what is important for
them.
Shelley Reinhart (11:57):
So it just makes sense to go in that
direction.
Question that we ask on ourpractitioner journey, which is
what changes if I view theperson standing in front of me
as a unique, culturally wiredhuman being, which is in the way
I interact with them and seethem and and all the, all the
(12:22):
things.
What changes that?
I love the conversations thatresult, People, really
everything can change.
There's no more stereotypes.
I have to ask good questions.
Marco Blankenburgh (12:34):
Yeah, and also it opens up the door.
Let's say you're on a team andyou start to really approach
your teammates that way, itcreates space for each team
member to bring sort of theircultural self into the mix.
Yeah, because people start.
Yeah, people start asking sohow do you see authority?
(12:54):
How do you, how do you seereward or recognition?
Or if, if you, if you mess up,how do you want to be approached
?
Is promotion even important foryou and how is that seen in
when you were, how you wereraised?
And is promotion up or is itsideways or is it?
Yeah, there's a thousand ofthousands of questions you can
(13:16):
start asking and you're not justassuming that everybody does it
in the same way.
So, yeah, even on a team,that's creating space for
everybody's cultural worldview.
It really opens up a door forvery rich conversation and
culture creation and that'sultimately what we're after what
(13:37):
we're after.
Shelley Reinhart (13:38):
Culture creation, yes, um, what is the
three colors of worldview?
Not, how should it not be used,because there's a couple ways
that we do not want it to beused.
What are they?
Yeah, yeah.
Marco Blankenburgh (13:54):
So, first and foremost, it's not a
personality tool, so um, it willchange.
So it's more a sociometric toolor a cultural metric tool,
although that's not a word inOxford or Webster dictionaries
yet it will be if we haveanything to do with it yes, yeah
(14:15):
, so you need to look at it as amoment in time where you
answered those questions becauseof where you were at that time,
your job, your role, the teamdynamics, the organization you
might be part of, the companyyou work for, etc.
And we assume that the ThreeColors of Wealth your report,
(14:38):
for instance that you get.
That's a starting point ofdiscovering today.
My preference seems to be here,but the main focus of what we
try to do with people is createintercultural agility, meaning
stretching into spaces thatmight not come natural to you.
Yes, so our goal is for peopleto become culturally agile and
(15:01):
stretch, know, step into otherpeople's spaces who are
culturally wired in a verydifferent way.
So the assumption is the nexttime you do it, let's say half a
year or a year later, itprobably is going to look
different yes so, yeah, don'ttreat it as a psychometric tool.
It's not a personality tool.
It it is very situational.
(15:23):
We're expecting people'spreferences to shift over time.
Shelley Reinhart (15:29):
And the goal is not to have like perfectly,
you know, like equal of all.
No, yeah, that's not like whatyou're aiming, yeah yeah.
Marco Blankenburgh (15:40):
So a preference point doesn't
indicate.
So let's say I have a reallystrong ig preference or a really
strong hs preference.
On a shame preference, itdoesn't tell me how easy it is
for me to stretch into othercultural worldview drivers right
so I might.
I might have a strong or a shamedriver, but it's not difficult
(16:04):
for me at all to step into apower fear situation, for
instance.
Yes or a flip side might betrue I might have that strong
driver and it's super hard forme.
So it doesn't the report or thethe way the assessment was
built.
It doesn't tell me howculturally agile I am, therefore
having perfect balance, forinstance, or being closer to the
(16:27):
middle as opposed to the outerrim.
That's not the goal.
Our goal is not to necessarilysay, oh, your dot is on the
outside rim.
Oh, okay, yeah, we need to dosome work on you.
Shelley Reinhart (16:40):
Um, it's like you know how far can you stretch
, and if you're comfortable withstretching quite far, then
that's great and eventually itdoesn't measure how far you can
stretch, it just measures I am,who I am, where I start, where I
where I begin yeah, that's animportant distinction.
Marco Blankenburgh (17:01):
Yeah, let's put it this way knowledge works
is not clever enough yet tomeasure how culturally agile am
I.
Maybe in the near, in the nearfuture, we can find with ai, for
instance yeah never know totease that out, but that's
difficult actually yeah, yeah,no, yeah, that's helpful.
Shelley Reinhart (17:22):
And what about how it shouldn't be used to
diagnose, or you know, differentparts of the world, like this
part of the world is all powerfear.
How explain that to me?
Marco Blankenburgh (17:35):
because yeah , very tempting to do that we
have tens of thousands ofprofiles on our database and we
could potentially do that, yes,so, um, we purposely decided to
not do that, because our goal isnot to paint the world with the
three colors of worldview.
Uh, our goal is is that peoplelearn to detect those three
colors of worldview?
(17:55):
Our goal is that people learnto detect those three colors of
worldview, the worldview driversin the moment with their
teammates, with their clients,with their neighbors, etc.
And as soon as we start saying,oh, this part of the world is
more this, and this part of theworld is more this, we actually
(18:17):
walk away from our convictionthat every person is uniquely
wired, cultural, human beingright and as soon as, as soon as
I say all of korea is like this, not south korea, and all of
china is like this and all ofbrazil is this, then I have
automatically.
(18:37):
I don't have to start asking allthose questions anymore or my
journey of discovery can stop,because you've given me the
answer already.
So that's why we zealouslyprotect our data to never be
used to create that world mapwhere those are pain, yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (18:58):
Yes, okay, that's very helpful and
challenging.
The first thing when Iintroduced this, people want to
say, oh well, this country ishonor shame, right.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:08):
Yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (19:09):
There can be patterns, but we cannot say yes,
all the people, this country,everything about it is honor,
shame or whatever.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:20):
If it stops me from exploring, being curious
, being a cultural learner withthe person in front of me then,
we are doing ourselves adisfavor.
We're actually not developingintercultural agility anymore.
And it's very tempting, likeyou said, because it's easy way
out.
Shelley Reinhart (19:41):
We all love the easy way out, yep.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:44):
Shortcuts in the brain Yep.
But we want to go do the hardwork because we know how
incredibly enriching it is.
Shelley Reinhart (19:54):
Yeah, that's good.
How does understanding thethree colors of worldview help
me read people faster?
How does it help me in themoment?
Just can you give me.
Marco Blankenburgh (20:09):
Yeah, it's um, it's listening for the way
they engage in the conversation,the way they answer questions.
In some cases, it's even theway they address you.
So is there a perceivedauthority difference?
Is there?
Is there a sense of being peers?
(20:33):
Is age having an impact?
Is gender having an impact?
Are there other people in theconversation that then result in
certain people answering andother people not answering?
and you start you know what tolook for.
So I'm just, you know, giving afew examples.
(20:53):
I could probably give a fewhundred examples of small things
that you start looking for in aconversation or in a meeting,
and that's where knowing thethree colors of worldview
immediately gives you thoseclues.
So if you're meeting, I'll giveyou an example.
We were with a client and thelady who organized my work with
(21:16):
them, she, she took me up in theelevator.
Oh, I've got a problem.
We've got a client from fromchina, and instead of coming
with four, they send a wholedelegation of 11 people.
And I'm scrambling to find abig enough room so that we can
reciprocate and also send someadditional senior people into
(21:39):
the meeting, because the Chinesedelegation has grown from four
to 11 now.
And it's a classic example ofhonor-shame way of thinking
about delegations andnegotiating and the beginning of
partnership development.
So she was wise enough sayingwe have to reciprocate, I have
(22:01):
to pull some of our seniors intothe meeting because we're also
serious about this relationship,but then finding a big enough
room, a little side problem thatshe had.
So when you listen to thoseconversations you immediately
recognize oh, this is an honorshame dilemma and she's right,
she has to reciprocate and makesure that you know that they
(22:24):
meet that delegation in aperceived, honorable way.
Um, so yeah, once you know them, uh, in the beginning maybe you
you remember four or five touchpoints or things to look for,
but then over time you startyour repertoire sort of grows
and say oh yeah that's you knowa bit more, more hierarchical
(22:47):
statement that he or she ismaking, or oh interesting why.
Why are they calling me sir, oryou know?
Why are they deferring, oh,that to somebody else?
Looks like that.
Somebody else is maybe in ahigher authority in their
organization okay hierarchy isimportant, or maybe they don't
want to speak in front of theirboss, where honor might be
(23:09):
important.
So when I asked them a question, all of a sudden I discovered
the boss answers um, don't besurprised by that, that's
typically.
You know, there's a an honormechanism.
There would be shameful for forthe employee to actually answer
on behalf of their boss.
So all these little clues youstart to pick up on them, and
(23:34):
that is a lot of fun, but alsosuper helpful, because then you
can adjust your own behavior tothen flow into what's trying to
happen.
Shelley Reinhart (23:45):
And in that way, by looking for these clues,
by staying curious and open andfocused on what's happening
around me, with theseinteractions, I'm building
relational bridges.
Is that absolutely?
I'm using that to build thesebridges.
Marco Blankenburgh (24:05):
Yeah, and seen, you've seen that happen
with 3c home attention, threecolors and that happens all the
time, and we do that in sales,we do that in long-term client
relations building.
But even when you fill up yourcar, you can use that.
So yeah if, if you see asituation where hierarchy might
(24:29):
be used in a negative way so the, the people who serve you at
the petrol station, the peoplewho serve you at the petrol
station, maybe there is aculture on that team where they
are the lowest on the packingorder and they are treated
accordingly, they're spoken toaccordingly, and you then
realize that, and then, if, ifyou then treat them in a
(24:51):
different way, then all of asudden you see the light in
their eyes and yeah, yeah, next,the next time they are going to
recognize you.
Shelley Reinhart (25:01):
So, so you can see what's happening and you
can then also, in a wise way,you can, sort of be
counterculture in in thosesituations yes, but also, you
know, I've seen many times inthe United States is when we so
you know I was raised in a veryinnocence, guilt worldview and
(25:24):
when I was confronted with, say,an honor, shame, practice of,
of honoring age or authority, oryou know I'd be, it'd be like,
ok, they'd be like, oh, you know, you know, ma'am, sir, oh no,
you know, you know, ma'am, youknow, sir, oh no, no, don't call
me ma'am or sir.
Like we're, we're equal, we'rethe same.
Like, just call me by my firstname, shelly.
Like we always want to put eachother on that equality level.
(25:47):
Like we're all the same.
Take a strip all of that away.
That's where at least I grew up, in a way that stripping that
away, we were much morecomfortable.
Like, we're all comfortablewhen there's no hierarchy,
there's no levels of power.
We're all equal yeah but wouldyou say that that's?
That's not necessarily honoringof the other, no, it's actually
(26:13):
a shame, a shaming mechanism inthe end.
Marco Blankenburgh (26:14):
not unintentional maybe, because, um
, but also it's actually ashaming mechanism in the end.
Not unintentional maybe, butalso, to be honest, it's a bit
condescending because it assumesthat your way is better than
the other person's way, and Ihad to just let go of that
(26:35):
because I'm also.
I was raised with a veryegalitarian focus and I had to
recognize that it was importantfor people to call me sir, for
instance.
Even on our team, that stillhappens.
Yeah, it does and and I evenhave started like, we have a
(27:00):
gardener, for instance, who is afantastic man, um, really
knowledgeable about plants, andI purposefully call him sir
because I want him to know thatthat he's and in his culture
he's the supervisor and he worksfor the government and he has a
(27:22):
team of 20 under him and Irecognize that he's a very
knowledgeable man.
He's self-taught and we alwayscall him when we have advice
that we need to ask about ourgarden, but he actually really
appreciates it when I call him.
So I advice that we need to askabout our garden, but he
actually really appreciates itwhen I call him so I don't have
to do that, but for him it'simportant and that's why I I
(27:44):
just changed the way I addresshim instead of by his first name
.
Shelley Reinhart (27:49):
He calls you mark.
No, you're saying it mattersmore to him if you speak to him
using sir.
It's interesting and that waschallenging for me because it
was very uncomfortable.
Yeah to to not feel equal withothers, but intercultural
(28:15):
agility would say no, I need topay attention, I need to be
curious.
It's okay to be uncomfortableif it's honoring someone else,
right, it's recognizing theirworldview and what they need and
how they see the world.
Mine doesn't always have to bethe one at the forefront and we,
(28:36):
we, we do.
Marco Blankenburgh (28:37):
we see the same in working with leadership
teams, for instance.
So it was beautiful.
Actually, two weeks ago I wasin Germany and it was a
classical, fantastic lady was incharge of the of the team and
classical situation.
So I I went to her and Iexplained you know, I really
(29:01):
appreciate that you, um, arewilling to let me go to go join
your team for a little bit, butalso, I'm just a visitor, I want
to serve your team well and Iwant to do that recognizing that
you have a vision for this team.
So I said to her I come from acontext where recognizing the
(29:25):
leader of the team is actuallyvery important in allowing the
leader to frame what we'retrying to accomplish together
and I want to work with you sothat you can accomplish your
goals.
Oh, she said oh, wow, thank youfor saying that.
So, in other words, can youstart the day, frame it, hand it
over to me, and then at the endof the day, I gave sort of the
(29:49):
reins back to her and then wetalked about how she could
consolidate the day and reallypaint the picture of how the
team would then move forwardunder her leadership, and she
was so chuffed by me doing that,wow, and culturally she was not
used to that at all, but itreally was.
(30:11):
Uh, yeah, it was refreshing forher in a positive way that I
took a sort of a ritual thatcomes from more from an honor,
shame or from a power, fear,context, and and she really
appreciated it and uh it's.
It's learning to be playful withthose three colors and then
seeing if if you could be alittle bit more countercultural
(30:34):
sometimes, but also then usingit to to create that in.
In this case, it createdhealthier dynamics and a really
positive relationship ah, sogood, marco, that's so good,
thank you.
Shelley Reinhart (30:50):
Last question, I think so.
How are we using the threecolors at knowledge works and,
kind of, what are we doing withit now and what's the trajectory
?
For the three colors?
Yeah, where do you see this?
Wow?
Marco Blankenburgh (31:07):
Yeah, there's so many.
Yeah, there's a lot ofapplication areas.
Yeah, the foundationalapplication is really awareness
building, right, and then thebeginnings of how do I stretch.
So, based on what I've nowlearned about my worldview,
drivers and my preferences, whatdo I do with this?
(31:30):
So we never did.
The reports are designed to notjust be awareness building.
They're really designed to growyour intercultural agility.
So a lot of the material in thereports is focused on how do I
stretch, how do I recognize thebehavior of somebody who's
different from me and how do Istretch into their space.
Shelley Reinhart (31:50):
I appreciate that.
Marco Blankenburgh (31:51):
Yeah, yeah, so typically that's where it
starts.
Yeah, so typically that's whereit starts.
But then once people take thaton board, they start to say
(32:15):
OKogan or Berkman or some ofthese other tools.
Then they want to know how doesculture and my psychological
self, how do they talk to eachother?
And that's fascinating and I doa lot of that with leaders and
that's very enriching.
It's, like you know, turning oneverything into three
(32:38):
three-dimensional.
So that's another extra stepthat we take, bringing three
colors of worldview togetherwith the psychological wiring
and behavioral preferences.
And the other way that that thenwe use the tool is is a number
of application areas.
So I sort of alluded to itearlier on.
(33:01):
It's beautiful to use in sales.
So how do I connect withcustomers?
And especially when you're ininternational cities or
international companies or whenyou work virtually in sales, the
likelihood that you havedifferent worldview drivers that
play in those salesconversations is very high.
How do I yeah, so out goes this.
(33:24):
The sales script goes out thedoor at the window, welcome,
welcome to intercultural agility.
How do I listen for thoseworldview drivers and the way
the client speaks and how theyquantify their requests or their
needs, and how do I comealongside them and I love that
part because it fits very wellwith the sales philosophy that's
(33:50):
very close to my heart andthat's trust-based selling,
based selling, so veryrelational way of selling,
coming alongside the customer,into their world and
understanding their world.
So three colors of worldviewfits in very, very nicely with
that.
Another area we we just joineda in partnership with a
(34:12):
communications firm and in theworld of communication there's
such a need for a deeper threecolors of worldview
understanding.
So shaping your, your commsstrategy and your comms messages
.
We actually have a podcast withnick labuschain who works for a
very big one of the top threecomms firms in the world public
(34:36):
relation firms and they do a lotof work in in that space where
you can't just write one messagefor the whole world and think
that everybody will be happyabout it oh, so true, so true so
, yeah, that's anotherapplication area.
Um an area that I'm passionateabout is using it in coaching.
Shelley Reinhart (34:56):
Yes.
Marco Blankenburgh (34:56):
So when you look at the world of coaching,
historically like the ICF is oneof the biggest, the
International CoachingFederation is one of the biggest
global bodies, but it's stillquite Western they're starting
to recognize that coaching hasto become much more of a global
practice and fraternity, becomemuch more of a global practice
(35:21):
and fraternity.
But at the same time it is very, very hard to find
interculturally savvy coachescoaches who really practice
intercultural agility.
So that's why we developed acertificate in intercultural
coaching as a specializationprogram for licensed, certified
coaches and three colors ofworldview the coaches that we
have who've gone through thatprogram.
It's one of the first go-totools that they use in coaching.
(35:44):
So really beautiful way to helpto help develop intercultural
agility.
Um, there are many more, butlet me let me add one more that
I'm really passionate about andthat is?
that is to do with developingculture on leadership teams and
developing culture inorganizations.
So we've developed a programcalled high performing
(36:07):
intercultural teaming and one ofthe first tools we use in the
high performing interculturalteam journey is the three colors
of worldview.
So where we help the teamanswer the question who am I as
a cultural human being at thepersonal level, and then we also
have a really powerful groupreport and that group report
(36:30):
then takes you into the buildingblocks of creating a high
performing intercultural team.
So what are those buildingblocks?
How do we start conversationsaround those and how do we turn
that into our own culture?
So creating what we call aculture charter or a team
(36:50):
charter.
So our individual three colorsand then our three colors of
worldview group report arereally the gateway into
developing that high performingintercultural team culture.
And, um, yeah, I love that part.
It's it's so practical and sorich and powerful.
So, uh, I I just receivedanother uh team charter from uh
(37:15):
a team and they they sent me thecharter in their own local
language.
I've been working with the teamin English, the leadership team
in English, but they now havetaken that to the whole
organization.
They localized their culturecharter and they just two days
ago, sent me the one in theirown local language.
(37:36):
They have the English one forthe more, for the global side of
the organization, but they alsolocalize it, which is you know,
I love that.
It's beautiful to see that.
Shelley Reinhart (37:47):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Thank you, boy.
That's a lot of ways, so manyways that we can use the three
colors of worldview and I loveyou know this has been a great
conversation, broken into twopodcasts.
You know how the three colorsof worldview began and now how
(38:09):
it's used and how it's makingits presence known in the world
and being used in the world.
And I want to make a plug forinterculturalagilitycom, which
is one of our websites, and onthat website you can book a
session with an interculturalintelligence practitioner and
(38:32):
take the three colors ofworldview assessment.
You can take the assessment andbook a session with a
practitioner like myself andsome of our other practitioners
and they can walk you throughthe report, the assessment.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, please go to
interculturalagilitycom and youcan do that today.
(38:53):
And it is just a wonderful wayto start to understand yourself
as a unique cultural human beingand I did not understand who I
was as a cultural human beinguntil the three colors of
worldview.
So it's been a wonderfuljourney, marco.
(39:14):
Thank you so much for thisconversation.
And it's been a wonderfuljourney, marco.
Thank you so much for thisconversation.
Is there anything else you wantto add on the way out as we
wrap up.
Marco Blankenburgh (39:22):
No, really, I mean, I just highly recommend
people to just take the plungeand, shelly, thanks for
recommending people to do thedebrief, do the assessment, get
a certified coach to take youthrough it.
Just a warning Once you see it,it you can't see it.
The world, your world, is goingto look very different once you
(39:45):
start seeing this in abeautiful way.
It will.
Yeah, so, uh, it's so, it's abig, it's addictive and I I
admit that I love being addictedto developing intercultural
agility.
Shelley Reinhart (39:58):
Me too.
I love it, cannot go back.
Thank you, marco.
Thank you so much.
We'll see you next time on thiswonderful podcast.
Marco Blankenburgh (40:10):
Thank you, Shelley.
Shelley Reinhart (40:13):
If this interests you, if you'd like to
learn more about your personalcultural worldview drivers, come
on over tointerculturalagilitycom.
It's our website and you canlearn more about the three
colors of worldview assessmentintelligence practitioner, who
(40:34):
will walk you through thatassessment and help you
understand, kind of how thosecultural worldview drivers make
you tick and how they've shapedyou.
So it's just an excitingjourney to understand how
culture has shaped you.
So check it out,interculturalagilitycom.
Marco Blankenburgh (40:56):
Thank you so much for joining us for this
episode of the Cultural AgilityPodcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,share it with someone.
The best way to help us out isby leaving a review on your
favorite podcast app or channel,or forward and recommend this
podcast to people around you.
As always, if any of the topicswe discuss today intrigue you,
(41:18):
you will find links to articlesdiscussing them in greater depth
in the podcast notes.
If you would like to learn moreabout intercultural
intelligence and how you canbecome more culturally agile,
you can find more informationand hundreds of articles at
knowledgeworkscom.
A special thanks to JasonCarter for composing the music
(41:40):
on this podcast and to the wholeKnowledgeWorks team for making
this podcast a success.
Thank you, nita Rodriguez, araAzizbakian, rajitha Raj, and
thanks to Vip and George foraudio production, rosalind Raj
for scheduling and Caleb Straussfor scheduling and Caleb
Strauss for marketing andhelping produce this podcast.
starting with the question who am I as a
cultural human being?
That's where that question camefrom.
It's like, yes, I might carry adutch passport, but I am so
much more and doing doingjustice to that, respecting that
, teaching people to have thosedeeper conversations resulting
(00:20):
in that deeper connecting.
And that's where this idea ofself-culture was born.
Shelley Reinhart (00:35):
Welcome to the Unlocking Cultural Agility
podcast, where we hear from someof the most advanced
intercultural practitioners fromaround the world to help you
become more culturally agile intoday's complex environments.
I'm your host, Shelley Reinhart, Global Network Liaison of
KnowledgeWorks, where every dayI work with our practitioners to
(01:00):
help individuals and companiesachieve relational success in
that same complex world.
This is the second two episodesexploring the three colors of
worldview.
In the last episode weintroduced the three cultural
worldview drivers and if youhaven't listened to it, I highly
(01:20):
recommend you do beforelistening to this episode,
because we covered a lot.
In this episode.
We're going to see howunderstanding those three
worldview drivers can be appliedto better engage our culturally
complex world.
Join us.
Okay, so this has been great.
(01:43):
So we've kind of covered thethree worldviews in detail.
So you created an assessment.
The three worldviews have beenput out into the world.
How did they appeal?
Did they appeal to the market?
To the market.
Marco Blankenburgh (02:02):
Everybody who gets exposed to them loves
it, but we still, I would sayfrom a sales point of view, it's
growing, but it's also a matterof you need to have a reference
point.
So I was talking to one of ourpractitioners in South Africa
(02:22):
about this and he was alsosaying you know, the stuff that
people in organizationsunderstand is things like high
performing teams and leadershipexcellence and creating resonant
cultures on teams.
They understand all of that andwhat we often need to do is
(02:44):
connect to those frames ofreference that already exist.
And, for instance, next weekI'm with a team in Bangkok and
we started with.
The request was we need a teamthat can navigate significant
complexity across nine countriesin Asia with thousands and
(03:09):
thousands of staff, and we wantto create a leadership culture
that is better equipped to dothat.
And initially we started with aframe of reference they
understood, which was the worldof psychology.
So we use we use thepsychological angle to start
that conversation and the morewe talked with 14 nationalities
in the room, I decided to say,yeah, but in my country, or the
(03:32):
way I was raised, it doesn'twork that way.
So now next week, when we cometogether, we're going to open up
the three, the three colors ofworldview.
So sometimes if people have gonethrough the pain, so to speak,
it's an easy sell.
They always say, oh man, I'llget it Like.
I still remember I sat downwith a gentleman who's now one
(03:53):
of our practitioners and he wasin the world of media,
international media relations,how international press
sometimes writes things thateither countries or regions are
cringing about, especially ifshame comes into the equation.
And then how do you handlethose situations?
(04:14):
So the first time I spoke tohim he started to share some of
the stories and some of theprojects he was working on, some
of the projects he was workingon.
And I said to him Nick, wouldyou mind if I just take a moment
to explain a framework we useto try and make sense of the
stories you just shared ofinternational relations and
(04:35):
international communication?
Shelley Reinhart (04:36):
I put the three colors of worldview on the
table and he was quiet.
Marco Blankenburgh (04:41):
So I looked at him and I said, nick, what do
you think I?
So I looked him at him and Isaid nick, what do you think?
He said, man, this totallyexplains all the major clashes
that we've had to deal withinternational relations.
And he said I need to startincorporating this into me, into
how I operate as a leader andinto my team, which he did, and
(05:05):
for him it just like inside yes,so you find that that often
happens.
Shelley Reinhart (05:12):
When you felt it, when you've seen the pain
points, when you've seen it fallapart on the team level or on a
relational level, then you'relike, oh, people get it, yeah
yeah yeah, and I love how youbrought out the two spotlights.
I mean, knowledge works ispassionate about two spotlights,
that.
Can you talk about that forjust just one second, since you
(05:34):
just yeah look, we've had theprivilege of developing tools in
the intercultural space.
Marco Blankenburgh (05:39):
Answering that question who am I as a
cultural human being?
But of course you know we arenot just cultural human beings,
we are psychological humanbeings and we always joke that.
You know, psychologists so farhave claimed the right to
explain human behaviorexclusively through the lens of
psychology, and they have suchbeautiful things to contribute.
(06:03):
I'm certified on severalpsychometric tools and I love it
, and you are as well, Shelly.
But at the same time we arecultural human beings and those
two spotlights are both superimportant and in our work, very
pragmatically, the example Ijust gave some clients just
don't have a frame of referencefor me telling them oh,
(06:27):
listening to your story aboutyour organizational culture or
the way you engage with yourclients, you've got an
intercultural agility problem.
And they say what?
There's no frame of referencefor it.
And then to have the freedom tothen bring that psychological
perspective in and use that asan entry point, then that is,
(06:51):
you know, in their case, a muchbetter way to start.
And I love the fact that thosetwo spotlights are are both
equally important and sometimesthe one is an entry point and
sometimes the other is an entrypoint so why the move from sort
of identifying or starting acultural discussion from
(07:14):
ethnicity and race and passportcountry to more of a personal
culture, a self-culture?
Shelley Reinhart (07:21):
how did you get that place?
Marco Blankenburgh (07:24):
yeah, that was, um, that was a big decision
for us.
Um, a bit of a almost a riskydecision because, as I I
recalled the early days ofknowledge works, 2001, 2002 a
lot, a lot of the books we gotwas oh, you're german, you want
to go and negotiate in sri lanka?
Here's a few pages of tips andtricks, and that was the normal
(07:48):
thing.
Oh, you're relocating to Japan,here's the things you need to
know about living in Japan andworking with Japanese, et cetera
.
And we were looking at you knowwhere is the world going to go
in the next 10, 20 years?
Oh, yeah, we felt the world wasgoing to become much more
interconnected.
So the world is flat wasalready out in those days and we
(08:13):
realized that, looking at itfrom a Dubai perspective, this
was just going to accelerate.
Now there's been, of course,ups and downs.
There's been a global economiccrisis and then COVID, but
actually all the crises we'vehad as humanity made us even
more interconnected, made uswork more across cultures,
(08:34):
across boundaries, and COVIDeven accelerated that by us
being allowed to continue tolive in the same place but work
all around the world, and ourteam is a great example of that.
Our team is, like you know,across 20 plus time zones
sometimes in one week and as aresult of that we said okay, if
(08:59):
the world is going in thatdirection, then only looking at
culture through the lens ofnationality large ethnic
clusters and also when we lookat the north american way of of
looking at it through the lensof race, with five main racial
groups, so to speak, that thosethree ways of looking at it
(09:24):
they're not a good startingpoint of connecting, let me put
it that way.
So they're important, but theyonly become meaningful and
helpful in the context ofrelationship.
So we said let's see if we cancome up with a different way.
And that's where this idea ofpersonal culture, or
(09:45):
self-culture, or starting withthe question, who am I as a
cultural human being?
That's where that question camefrom.
It's like, yes, I might carry aDutch passport, but I am so
much more and doing justice tothat, respecting that and
teaching people to have thosedeeper conversations, resulting
(10:07):
in that deeper connecting.
And that's where this idea ofself-culture was born.
And it's not about throwingaway that we don't.
We have a passport that wouldbe linked to a tribe or an
ethnic group that we.
It's important for us to have aracial affiliation, etc.
Those things are superimportant but from a pragmatic
(10:28):
work, business point of view,they're not the best places to
start a conversation.
So the impact of it if we talkto our practitioners around the
world, they're all saying, bymaking that shift, we ask more,
we don't make assumptions soquickly, so biases and
stereotypes related to culturalthings are less likely to
(10:53):
feature.
People become more interestingactually.
Yeah, my mindset towards theother person is intrigue,
curiosity, yeah, curiosity.
I want to to know you.
I want to not just ask oh,where are you from?
Oh, you carry an americanpassport.
Shelley Reinhart (11:11):
Okay, done with that yeah, I know, I know,
I know people who have americanpassports.
Marco Blankenburgh (11:16):
They fit this box yeah or yeah, you can
do that with everything, yeah so, yeah, we, we find time and
again that, uh, that people as aresult of that, they uh, they
go deeper much faster in therelationship.
And that's.
I come from a business family,sorry to say, but it's actually
(11:36):
good for business.
Yeah, it works wonders in salesif you really respect your
client and show that you careand that you're interested in
who they are and where they comefrom and what is important for
them.
Shelley Reinhart (11:57):
So it just makes sense to go in that
direction.
Question that we ask on ourpractitioner journey, which is
what changes if I view theperson standing in front of me
as a unique, culturally wiredhuman being, which is in the way
I interact with them and seethem and and all the, all the
(12:22):
things.
What changes that?
I love the conversations thatresult, People, really
everything can change.
There's no more stereotypes.
I have to ask good questions.
Marco Blankenburgh (12:34):
Yeah, and also it opens up the door.
Let's say you're on a team andyou start to really approach
your teammates that way, itcreates space for each team
member to bring sort of theircultural self into the mix.
Yeah, because people start.
Yeah, people start asking sohow do you see authority?
(12:54):
How do you, how do you seereward or recognition?
Or if, if you, if you mess up,how do you want to be approached
?
Is promotion even important foryou and how is that seen in
when you were, how you wereraised?
And is promotion up or is itsideways or is it?
Yeah, there's a thousand ofthousands of questions you can
(13:16):
start asking and you're not justassuming that everybody does it
in the same way.
So, yeah, even on a team,that's creating space for
everybody's cultural worldview.
It really opens up a door forvery rich conversation and
culture creation and that'sultimately what we're after what
(13:37):
we're after.
Shelley Reinhart (13:38):
Culture creation, yes, um, what is the
three colors of worldview?
Not, how should it not be used,because there's a couple ways
that we do not want it to beused.
What are they?
Yeah, yeah.
Marco Blankenburgh (13:54):
So, first and foremost, it's not a
personality tool, so um, it willchange.
So it's more a sociometric toolor a cultural metric tool,
although that's not a word inOxford or Webster dictionaries
yet it will be if we haveanything to do with it yes, yeah
(14:15):
, so you need to look at it as amoment in time where you
answered those questions becauseof where you were at that time,
your job, your role, the teamdynamics, the organization you
might be part of, the companyyou work for, etc.
And we assume that the ThreeColors of Wealth your report,
(14:38):
for instance that you get.
That's a starting point ofdiscovering today.
My preference seems to be here,but the main focus of what we
try to do with people is createintercultural agility, meaning
stretching into spaces thatmight not come natural to you.
Yes, so our goal is for peopleto become culturally agile and
(15:01):
stretch, know, step into otherpeople's spaces who are
culturally wired in a verydifferent way.
So the assumption is the nexttime you do it, let's say half a
year or a year later, itprobably is going to look
different yes so, yeah, don'ttreat it as a psychometric tool.
It's not a personality tool.
It it is very situational.
(15:23):
We're expecting people'spreferences to shift over time.
Shelley Reinhart (15:29):
And the goal is not to have like perfectly,
you know, like equal of all.
No, yeah, that's not like whatyou're aiming, yeah yeah.
Marco Blankenburgh (15:40):
So a preference point doesn't
indicate.
So let's say I have a reallystrong ig preference or a really
strong hs preference.
On a shame preference, itdoesn't tell me how easy it is
for me to stretch into othercultural worldview drivers right
so I might.
I might have a strong or a shamedriver, but it's not difficult
(16:04):
for me at all to step into apower fear situation, for
instance.
Yes or a flip side might betrue I might have that strong
driver and it's super hard forme.
So it doesn't the report or thethe way the assessment was
built.
It doesn't tell me howculturally agile I am, therefore
having perfect balance, forinstance, or being closer to the
(16:27):
middle as opposed to the outerrim.
That's not the goal.
Our goal is not to necessarilysay, oh, your dot is on the
outside rim.
Oh, okay, yeah, we need to dosome work on you.
Shelley Reinhart (16:40):
Um, it's like you know how far can you stretch
, and if you're comfortable withstretching quite far, then
that's great and eventually itdoesn't measure how far you can
stretch, it just measures I am,who I am, where I start, where I
where I begin yeah, that's animportant distinction.
Marco Blankenburgh (17:01):
Yeah, let's put it this way knowledge works
is not clever enough yet tomeasure how culturally agile am
I.
Maybe in the near, in the nearfuture, we can find with ai, for
instance yeah never know totease that out, but that's
difficult actually yeah, yeah,no, yeah, that's helpful.
Shelley Reinhart (17:22):
And what about how it shouldn't be used to
diagnose, or you know, differentparts of the world, like this
part of the world is all powerfear.
How explain that to me?
Marco Blankenburgh (17:35):
because yeah , very tempting to do that we
have tens of thousands ofprofiles on our database and we
could potentially do that, yes,so, um, we purposely decided to
not do that, because our goal isnot to paint the world with the
three colors of worldview.
Uh, our goal is is that peoplelearn to detect those three
colors of worldview?
(17:55):
Our goal is that people learnto detect those three colors of
worldview, the worldview driversin the moment with their
teammates, with their clients,with their neighbors, etc.
And as soon as we start saying,oh, this part of the world is
more this, and this part of theworld is more this, we actually
(18:17):
walk away from our convictionthat every person is uniquely
wired, cultural, human beingright and as soon as, as soon as
I say all of korea is like this, not south korea, and all of
china is like this and all ofbrazil is this, then I have
automatically.
(18:37):
I don't have to start asking allthose questions anymore or my
journey of discovery can stop,because you've given me the
answer already.
So that's why we zealouslyprotect our data to never be
used to create that world mapwhere those are pain, yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (18:58):
Yes, okay, that's very helpful and
challenging.
The first thing when Iintroduced this, people want to
say, oh well, this country ishonor shame, right.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:08):
Yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (19:09):
There can be patterns, but we cannot say yes,
all the people, this country,everything about it is honor,
shame or whatever.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:20):
If it stops me from exploring, being curious
, being a cultural learner withthe person in front of me then,
we are doing ourselves adisfavor.
We're actually not developingintercultural agility anymore.
And it's very tempting, likeyou said, because it's easy way
out.
Shelley Reinhart (19:41):
We all love the easy way out, yep.
Marco Blankenburgh (19:44):
Shortcuts in the brain Yep.
But we want to go do the hardwork because we know how
incredibly enriching it is.
Shelley Reinhart (19:54):
Yeah, that's good.
How does understanding thethree colors of worldview help
me read people faster?
How does it help me in themoment?
Just can you give me.
Marco Blankenburgh (20:09):
Yeah, it's um, it's listening for the way
they engage in the conversation,the way they answer questions.
In some cases, it's even theway they address you.
So is there a perceivedauthority difference?
Is there?
Is there a sense of being peers?
(20:33):
Is age having an impact?
Is gender having an impact?
Are there other people in theconversation that then result in
certain people answering andother people not answering?
and you start you know what tolook for.
So I'm just, you know, giving afew examples.
(20:53):
I could probably give a fewhundred examples of small things
that you start looking for in aconversation or in a meeting,
and that's where knowing thethree colors of worldview
immediately gives you thoseclues.
So if you're meeting, I'll giveyou an example.
We were with a client and thelady who organized my work with
(21:16):
them, she, she took me up in theelevator.
Oh, I've got a problem.
We've got a client from fromchina, and instead of coming
with four, they send a wholedelegation of 11 people.
And I'm scrambling to find abig enough room so that we can
reciprocate and also send someadditional senior people into
(21:39):
the meeting, because the Chinesedelegation has grown from four
to 11 now.
And it's a classic example ofhonor-shame way of thinking
about delegations andnegotiating and the beginning of
partnership development.
So she was wise enough sayingwe have to reciprocate, I have
(22:01):
to pull some of our seniors intothe meeting because we're also
serious about this relationship,but then finding a big enough
room, a little side problem thatshe had.
So when you listen to thoseconversations you immediately
recognize oh, this is an honorshame dilemma and she's right,
she has to reciprocate and makesure that you know that they
(22:24):
meet that delegation in aperceived, honorable way.
Um, so yeah, once you know them, uh, in the beginning maybe you
you remember four or five touchpoints or things to look for,
but then over time you startyour repertoire sort of grows
and say oh yeah that's you knowa bit more, more hierarchical
(22:47):
statement that he or she ismaking, or oh interesting why.
Why are they calling me sir, oryou know?
Why are they deferring, oh,that to somebody else?
Looks like that.
Somebody else is maybe in ahigher authority in their
organization okay hierarchy isimportant, or maybe they don't
want to speak in front of theirboss, where honor might be
(23:09):
important.
So when I asked them a question, all of a sudden I discovered
the boss answers um, don't besurprised by that, that's
typically.
You know, there's a an honormechanism.
There would be shameful for forthe employee to actually answer
on behalf of their boss.
So all these little clues youstart to pick up on them, and
(23:34):
that is a lot of fun, but alsosuper helpful, because then you
can adjust your own behavior tothen flow into what's trying to
happen.
Shelley Reinhart (23:45):
And in that way, by looking for these clues,
by staying curious and open andfocused on what's happening
around me, with theseinteractions, I'm building
relational bridges.
Is that absolutely?
I'm using that to build thesebridges.
Marco Blankenburgh (24:05):
Yeah, and seen, you've seen that happen
with 3c home attention, threecolors and that happens all the
time, and we do that in sales,we do that in long-term client
relations building.
But even when you fill up yourcar, you can use that.
So yeah if, if you see asituation where hierarchy might
(24:29):
be used in a negative way so the, the people who serve you at
the petrol station, the peoplewho serve you at the petrol
station, maybe there is aculture on that team where they
are the lowest on the packingorder and they are treated
accordingly, they're spoken toaccordingly, and you then
realize that, and then, if, ifyou then treat them in a
(24:51):
different way, then all of asudden you see the light in
their eyes and yeah, yeah, next,the next time they are going to
recognize you.
Shelley Reinhart (25:01):
So, so you can see what's happening and you
can then also, in a wise way,you can, sort of be
counterculture in in thosesituations yes, but also, you
know, I've seen many times inthe United States is when we so
you know I was raised in a veryinnocence, guilt worldview and
(25:24):
when I was confronted with, say,an honor, shame, practice of,
of honoring age or authority, oryou know I'd be, it'd be like,
ok, they'd be like, oh, you know, you know, ma'am, sir, oh no,
you know, you know, ma'am, youknow, sir, oh no, no, don't call
me ma'am or sir.
Like we're, we're equal, we'rethe same.
Like, just call me by my firstname, shelly.
Like we always want to put eachother on that equality level.
(25:47):
Like we're all the same.
Take a strip all of that away.
That's where at least I grew up, in a way that stripping that
away, we were much morecomfortable.
Like, we're all comfortablewhen there's no hierarchy,
there's no levels of power.
We're all equal yeah but wouldyou say that that's?
That's not necessarily honoringof the other, no, it's actually
(26:13):
a shame, a shaming mechanism inthe end.
Marco Blankenburgh (26:14):
not unintentional maybe, because, um
, but also it's actually ashaming mechanism in the end.
Not unintentional maybe, butalso, to be honest, it's a bit
condescending because it assumesthat your way is better than
the other person's way, and Ihad to just let go of that
(26:35):
because I'm also.
I was raised with a veryegalitarian focus and I had to
recognize that it was importantfor people to call me sir, for
instance.
Even on our team, that stillhappens.
Yeah, it does and and I evenhave started like, we have a
(27:00):
gardener, for instance, who is afantastic man, um, really
knowledgeable about plants, andI purposefully call him sir
because I want him to know thatthat he's and in his culture
he's the supervisor and he worksfor the government and he has a
(27:22):
team of 20 under him and Irecognize that he's a very
knowledgeable man.
He's self-taught and we alwayscall him when we have advice
that we need to ask about ourgarden, but he actually really
appreciates it when I call him.
So I advice that we need to askabout our garden, but he
actually really appreciates itwhen I call him so I don't have
to do that, but for him it'simportant and that's why I I
(27:44):
just changed the way I addresshim instead of by his first name
.
Shelley Reinhart (27:49):
He calls you mark.
No, you're saying it mattersmore to him if you speak to him
using sir.
It's interesting and that waschallenging for me because it
was very uncomfortable.
Yeah to to not feel equal withothers, but intercultural
(28:15):
agility would say no, I need topay attention, I need to be
curious.
It's okay to be uncomfortableif it's honoring someone else,
right, it's recognizing theirworldview and what they need and
how they see the world.
Mine doesn't always have to bethe one at the forefront and we,
(28:36):
we, we do.
Marco Blankenburgh (28:37):
we see the same in working with leadership
teams, for instance.
So it was beautiful.
Actually, two weeks ago I wasin Germany and it was a
classical, fantastic lady was incharge of the of the team and
classical situation.
So I I went to her and Iexplained you know, I really
(29:01):
appreciate that you, um, arewilling to let me go to go join
your team for a little bit, butalso, I'm just a visitor, I want
to serve your team well and Iwant to do that recognizing that
you have a vision for this team.
So I said to her I come from acontext where recognizing the
(29:25):
leader of the team is actuallyvery important in allowing the
leader to frame what we'retrying to accomplish together
and I want to work with you sothat you can accomplish your
goals.
Oh, she said oh, wow, thank youfor saying that.
So, in other words, can youstart the day, frame it, hand it
over to me, and then at the endof the day, I gave sort of the
(29:49):
reins back to her and then wetalked about how she could
consolidate the day and reallypaint the picture of how the
team would then move forwardunder her leadership, and she
was so chuffed by me doing that,wow, and culturally she was not
used to that at all, but itreally was.
(30:11):
Uh, yeah, it was refreshing forher in a positive way that I
took a sort of a ritual thatcomes from more from an honor,
shame or from a power, fear,context, and and she really
appreciated it and uh it's.
It's learning to be playful withthose three colors and then
seeing if if you could be alittle bit more countercultural
(30:34):
sometimes, but also then usingit to to create that in.
In this case, it createdhealthier dynamics and a really
positive relationship ah, sogood, marco, that's so good,
thank you.
Shelley Reinhart (30:50):
Last question, I think so.
How are we using the threecolors at knowledge works and,
kind of, what are we doing withit now and what's the trajectory
?
For the three colors?
Yeah, where do you see this?
Wow?
Marco Blankenburgh (31:07):
Yeah, there's so many.
Yeah, there's a lot ofapplication areas.
Yeah, the foundationalapplication is really awareness
building, right, and then thebeginnings of how do I stretch.
So, based on what I've nowlearned about my worldview,
drivers and my preferences, whatdo I do with this?
(31:30):
So we never did.
The reports are designed to notjust be awareness building.
They're really designed to growyour intercultural agility.
So a lot of the material in thereports is focused on how do I
stretch, how do I recognize thebehavior of somebody who's
different from me and how do Istretch into their space.
Shelley Reinhart (31:50):
I appreciate that.
Marco Blankenburgh (31:51):
Yeah, yeah, so typically that's where it
starts.
Yeah, so typically that's whereit starts.
But then once people take thaton board, they start to say
(32:15):
OKogan or Berkman or some ofthese other tools.
Then they want to know how doesculture and my psychological
self, how do they talk to eachother?
And that's fascinating and I doa lot of that with leaders and
that's very enriching.
It's, like you know, turning oneverything into three
(32:38):
three-dimensional.
So that's another extra stepthat we take, bringing three
colors of worldview togetherwith the psychological wiring
and behavioral preferences.
And the other way that that thenwe use the tool is is a number
of application areas.
So I sort of alluded to itearlier on.
(33:01):
It's beautiful to use in sales.
So how do I connect withcustomers?
And especially when you're ininternational cities or
international companies or whenyou work virtually in sales, the
likelihood that you havedifferent worldview drivers that
play in those salesconversations is very high.
How do I yeah, so out goes this.
(33:24):
The sales script goes out thedoor at the window, welcome,
welcome to intercultural agility.
How do I listen for thoseworldview drivers and the way
the client speaks and how theyquantify their requests or their
needs, and how do I comealongside them and I love that
part because it fits very wellwith the sales philosophy that's
(33:50):
very close to my heart andthat's trust-based selling,
based selling, so veryrelational way of selling,
coming alongside the customer,into their world and
understanding their world.
So three colors of worldviewfits in very, very nicely with
that.
Another area we we just joineda in partnership with a
(34:12):
communications firm and in theworld of communication there's
such a need for a deeper threecolors of worldview
understanding.
So shaping your, your commsstrategy and your comms messages
.
We actually have a podcast withnick labuschain who works for a
very big one of the top threecomms firms in the world public
(34:36):
relation firms and they do a lotof work in in that space where
you can't just write one messagefor the whole world and think
that everybody will be happyabout it oh, so true, so true so
, yeah, that's anotherapplication area.
Um an area that I'm passionateabout is using it in coaching.
Shelley Reinhart (34:56):
Yes.
Marco Blankenburgh (34:56):
So when you look at the world of coaching,
historically like the ICF is oneof the biggest, the
International CoachingFederation is one of the biggest
global bodies, but it's stillquite Western they're starting
to recognize that coaching hasto become much more of a global
practice and fraternity, becomemuch more of a global practice
(35:21):
and fraternity.
But at the same time it is very, very hard to find
interculturally savvy coachescoaches who really practice
intercultural agility.
So that's why we developed acertificate in intercultural
coaching as a specializationprogram for licensed, certified
coaches and three colors ofworldview the coaches that we
have who've gone through thatprogram.
It's one of the first go-totools that they use in coaching.
(35:44):
So really beautiful way to helpto help develop intercultural
agility.
Um, there are many more, butlet me let me add one more that
I'm really passionate about andthat is?
that is to do with developingculture on leadership teams and
developing culture inorganizations.
So we've developed a programcalled high performing
(36:07):
intercultural teaming and one ofthe first tools we use in the
high performing interculturalteam journey is the three colors
of worldview.
So where we help the teamanswer the question who am I as
a cultural human being at thepersonal level, and then we also
have a really powerful groupreport and that group report
(36:30):
then takes you into the buildingblocks of creating a high
performing intercultural team.
So what are those buildingblocks?
How do we start conversationsaround those and how do we turn
that into our own culture?
So creating what we call aculture charter or a team
(36:50):
charter.
So our individual three colorsand then our three colors of
worldview group report arereally the gateway into
developing that high performingintercultural team culture.
And, um, yeah, I love that part.
It's it's so practical and sorich and powerful.
So, uh, I I just receivedanother uh team charter from uh
(37:15):
a team and they they sent me thecharter in their own local
language.
I've been working with the teamin English, the leadership team
in English, but they now havetaken that to the whole
organization.
They localized their culturecharter and they just two days
ago, sent me the one in theirown local language.
(37:36):
They have the English one forthe more, for the global side of
the organization, but they alsolocalize it, which is you know,
I love that.
It's beautiful to see that.
Shelley Reinhart (37:47):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Thank you, boy.
That's a lot of ways, so manyways that we can use the three
colors of worldview and I loveyou know this has been a great
conversation, broken into twopodcasts.
You know how the three colorsof worldview began and now how
(38:09):
it's used and how it's makingits presence known in the world
and being used in the world.
And I want to make a plug forinterculturalagilitycom, which
is one of our websites, and onthat website you can book a
session with an interculturalintelligence practitioner and
(38:32):
take the three colors ofworldview assessment.
You can take the assessment andbook a session with a
practitioner like myself andsome of our other practitioners
and they can walk you throughthe report, the assessment.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, please go to
interculturalagilitycom and youcan do that today.
(38:53):
And it is just a wonderful wayto start to understand yourself
as a unique cultural human beingand I did not understand who I
was as a cultural human beinguntil the three colors of
worldview.
So it's been a wonderfuljourney, marco.
(39:14):
Thank you so much for thisconversation.
And it's been a wonderfuljourney, marco.
Thank you so much for thisconversation.
Is there anything else you wantto add on the way out as we
wrap up.
Marco Blankenburgh (39:22):
No, really, I mean, I just highly recommend
people to just take the plungeand, shelly, thanks for
recommending people to do thedebrief, do the assessment, get
a certified coach to take youthrough it.
Just a warning Once you see it,it you can't see it.
The world, your world, is goingto look very different once you
(39:45):
start seeing this in abeautiful way.
It will.
Yeah, so, uh, it's so, it's abig, it's addictive and I I
admit that I love being addictedto developing intercultural
agility.
Shelley Reinhart (39:58):
Me too.
I love it, cannot go back.
Thank you, marco.
Thank you so much.
We'll see you next time on thiswonderful podcast.
Marco Blankenburgh (40:10):
Thank you, Shelley.
Shelley Reinhart (40:13):
If this interests you, if you'd like to
learn more about your personalcultural worldview drivers, come
on over tointerculturalagilitycom.
It's our website and you canlearn more about the three
colors of worldview assessmentintelligence practitioner, who
(40:34):
will walk you through thatassessment and help you
understand, kind of how thosecultural worldview drivers make
you tick and how they've shapedyou.
So it's just an excitingjourney to understand how
culture has shaped you.
So check it out,interculturalagilitycom.
Marco Blankenburgh (40:56):
Thank you so much for joining us for this
episode of the Cultural AgilityPodcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,share it with someone.
The best way to help us out isby leaving a review on your
favorite podcast app or channel,or forward and recommend this
podcast to people around you.
As always, if any of the topicswe discuss today intrigue you,
(41:18):
you will find links to articlesdiscussing them in greater depth
in the podcast notes.
If you would like to learn moreabout intercultural
intelligence and how you canbecome more culturally agile,
you can find more informationand hundreds of articles at
knowledgeworkscom.
A special thanks to JasonCarter for composing the music
(41:40):
on this podcast and to the wholeKnowledgeWorks team for making
this podcast a success.
Thank you, nita Rodriguez, araAzizbakian, rajitha Raj, and
thanks to Vip and George foraudio production, rosalind Raj
for scheduling and Caleb Straussfor scheduling and Caleb
Strauss for marketing andhelping produce this podcast.
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