Cultural Intelligence: Building Trust And Unlocking Insights In The Global Village

Forbes

18-06-2025

Real insights are gained through authentic connection and understanding. They come from learning how to listen to the consumer markets and communities you are trying to reach.
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If you're leading a company in North America, you're likely grappling with how to effectively connect with the diverse world around us. Whether expanding into international markets or engaging with your hometown's vibrant and culturally rich diaspora communities. The traditional 'Western' way of doing business, while valuable, isn't the only perspective, and often, it's not the one that truly resonates when trying to reach non-Western audiences.
To succeed today, you need more than just a good product or service; you need cultural intelligence, defined by Sternberg et al. as 'one's ability to adapt when confronted with problems arising in interactions with people or artifacts of cultures other than one's own.' At its heart, it is the ability to live, work, and collaborate across cultures.
However, cultural intelligence is more than that; it is a powerful competitive advantage. It's about resisting the impulse to simply push Western notions and, instead, finding spaces where different perspectives and cultures are respected and seen. It's the key to finding genuine insights and, crucially, building authentic trust with the communities you want to serve.
Real insights are gained through authentic connection and understanding. They come from learning how to listen to the consumer markets and communities you are trying to reach. This act of listening requires the ability to appreciate and celebrate diversity and cultural differences.
So, how do you practically find these crucial insights and build that vital trust? It starts with a framework I've developed over years of navigating diverse markets, the EIA method (Embed, Interpret, Act).
This is where you connect with the environment and its people. For an organization, it involves creating a structure where you seek to learn and become part of that community. You open yourself up to learning traditions, styles of conversation, and customs. This grassroots approach is essential for gaining consumer insights from the ground up. When you embed yourself, you embrace new experiences as opportunities to grow and see the world with a fresh perspective. This is where you begin to gather the raw information that will lead to insights. If you're the type of person who lands in a new city and decides not to take a tour but to walk the neighborhoods, ask the local people the best spots to eat, and engage with the citizens of this new-to-you place, you already possess that cultural intelligence instinct!
Once you've embedded and gathered information, you must make sense of it. This step involves understanding the cultural nuances that shape behavior, preferences, and values. You combine the new information you've gathered with your existing knowledge to create a richer, more textured perspective. Cultural misunderstandings are a major risk if you skip or rush this step, potentially impeding communication and relationships. Interpreting is how you turn observations into meaningful insights that can inform your strategy.
This is where you put the insights you've gained through embedding and interpreting into practice. It requires adapting your strategies and changing your behavior to connect better with others. Acting on insights is not just about developing new products or services; it's also fundamentally about building relationships. This is where the trust you've started to build during the first two steps allows your actions to resonate and succeed. As Vern Vipul, a serial entrepreneur and one of my oldest friends, noted, 'Leaders must be willing to go into that place themselves; you can't delegate the process of learning and adapting to figure out a market.'
Let me share a story of how the EIA method guided a transformation in my career. I acquired Computek College on September 5, 2014. At the time, it was a struggling institution primarily focused on the Sri Lankan Tamil community. It aimed to educate newcomers for Canadian employment. I saw it as an opportunity to bridge a gap: Highly educated and skilled immigrants weren't getting the jobs they deserved, while Canadian companies were looking for talent. I knew both worlds well and believed I could help this valuable population get established.
In terms of Embed, I was determined to understand the immigrant population we served. I realized success wouldn't come from boardroom strategy but from the streets of the Greater Toronto Area, where our students lived and worked. I took a hands-on approach, notably by teaching communication classes to our students. This allowed me to gain firsthand insights from right inside the classroom as students shared their perspectives, aspirations, and challenges as newcomers to Canada. My team and I also made a concerted effort to hire faculty and staff who reflected the diversity of our student body, seeking individuals with firsthand experience of the immigrant journey.
As I embedded myself, I began Interpreting the information gathered. I understood the varying attitudes and expectations around education and career development among students; for some, it was tied to family honor, for others, a major stressor alongside cultural adaptation. I interpreted how cultural backgrounds impacted learning styles, seeing preferences for collaborative or independent approaches.
Armed with these insights, I began to Act. My first priority was to diversify the student body. We actively recruited students and staff from different communities and worked with grassroots businesses. The shift in demographics was dramatic, growing from 50 Tamil students a year to 2,000 students from many countries and cultures by 2024. Along with other initiatives, we have created a thriving college.
For North American companies and institutions, the takeaway is clear: Cultural intelligence is not optional; it's essential to find genuine insights and build the trust needed for success. Whether your sights are set globally or on connecting with the diverse communities in Western nations, embracing different perspectives, embedding yourself in the community you seek to serve, interpreting the nuances, and acting on those insights with cultural sensitivity will unlock powerful opportunities. It's about creating win-win situations where everyone benefits.
As Rumi said, 'Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.' This willingness to adapt and grow based on understanding others is the heart of cultural intelligence. It's how you build trust and find the insights that lead to meaningful, lasting success.