Cultural Intelligence and Employee Engagement

I’ve written in a previous post about why Hobbies matter (check it out here) and last week, I got to use one of my favorite hobbies to also increase my cultural intelligence. Last week, I had the opportunity to dance as an ensemble member at World Folkfest in Springville, UT. This is the longest running international folkdance festival in the United States and we had dancers from 8 different countries join us to celebrate their culture and heritage through dance.

Last year, for my final paper in my Organizational Behavior class, I chose to research ways organizations can creatively increase their cultural intelligence. The inspiration for this paper came from my experience with World Folkfest and how it contrasted with the networking events I had seen proposed at the professional conferences I had been to earlier that year. I noticed that the conference networking events were targeted towards engagement and fun (such as touring a baseball stadium or going to an amusement park), but had missed an opportunity to increase the cultural intelligence of the those who attended. For instance, instead of touring the baseball park, my colleagues and I chose to explore the city and in doing so, we passed an outdoor concert that had the most incredible operatic tenor performing. I began wondering why as organizations, we don’t offer more opportunities for our employees to expand their horizons through the arts.

Now, I understand, when it comes to engagement, most people aren’t thinking about stretching their folks, but instead are thinking about rewarding their folks with things these people have already expressed interest in. However, I believe if DEI efforts are only relegated to classroom instruction, then we are missing the opportunity to learn about the fun, exciting, and beautiful parts of their cultures that can create incredible connections among peers.

In my paper, I made the case for using cultural exploratory experiences as engagement activities that build stronger connection and cohesion. For instance, exploring the culinary arts of different cultures can be a way to not only taste the flavors of different ways of life, but also easily lead to discussions and story telling from people who have shared experiences with those flavors. I believe that the more we experience the celebrations and nuances of other cultures, the more likely we are to connect with, respect, and come to love the different types of people around the world.

Thanks for reading with me today. I hope you look for creative opportunities to expand your horizons.