A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.
Mahatma Gandhi
This quote perfectly demonstrates how multiple layers of culture exist and how it is important to be aware of these layers to be able to understand different cultures.
The drawing is based on Schein's model of organizational culture.
Some of these cultural traits can be identified through basic observation but the most important parts cannot be easily identified.
For example, a culture's fundamental values can only be identified through interaction over an extended period of time.
Being aware of these layers allows us to take time and understand a culture that we are not accustomed to. Which also has another hidden benefit, it helps us get rid of stereotypes that are more harmful than good.
Personally, this lesson was an eye opener. I admit, I had many stereotypes and it is going to take a lot of time and work to get rid of them but as humans we learn and we grow.
One way I am going to use is to be more open-minded about new cultures, exploring and learning more about them and be willing to admit and apologize when I offend a person from a different culture.
Another lesson from this week that will help me on this journey was about conflict resolving. My favourite is discussion as a way of conflict resolution because it allows for more personal engagement. There are many cases where it wouldn't work so don't just take my word for it.
Hold on, this is the TaskForce so where is the technical part?
We had a lot of technical sessions but they were more focused on getting the team up to speed on technologies used by Awesomity Labs and Code of Africa.
All in all, it was another successful week which makes it 3/3. Yay 3 more to go.
Top comments (0)