Cross-cultural Dialogue: Pitfalls For the Unwary
Individual1-on-1Group-on-GroupSystemic
Ideas
Behaviors
Feelings
Values

Diversity can complicate dialogue even with great communication skills. Why? Because culture and group dynamics expand the playing field: if you can’t see the full terrain, or if you think you are here but actually have wandered there, you will quickly get lost!

Here is our map. Columns are interaction types; rows are depth of engagement. Individual ideas (upper left) represent the least engagement, while a community engaging on values (lower right) represents the most.

Mouse-over the boxes to see 3 sorts of pitfalls: seeing only one column (sticking), seeing only one row (sinking), or confusing your location (missing).