Cross-cultural competency has been named among the 10 most important skills for the future workforce.
The Institute of the Future based in California, identifies a “globally connected world” as one of the six main drivers of structural change for the global workforce among other factors such as a rise of smart machines and systems and the rise of the new media ecology. Innovation becomes more and more dependent on the collaboration between people from very different backgrounds who combine their own expertise to create something new. This happens both on an individual- as well as on an institutional, economic and corporate level. As such, the organizations of the future will work more and more closely with people and institutional partners from all over the world in order to bring as many different perspectives and areas of expertise together as possible.
A company with foresight that is heralding this new way forward in Australia is 3 Real Mates. Founder Belinda Kappe capitalized on this concept by connecting one of the largest English speaking nations this side of the equator, with one of the largest non-English speaking country on the other – China. 3Real mates is providing the platform for high school students to teach their innate understanding of the English language to the world. This new way of education has taken the world by storm in recent years with the advent of online platforms like Zoom and Skype making it possible to take this concept to a global level. It is now giving students an opportunity to not only partake in a system of learning that works but also an opportunity to connect cultures from the other side of the globe. An online educational platform that is truly cutting edge and creating new and more effective pathways in which we learn and share knowledge.
Cross-cultural competency is the key enabling factor of working in diverse teams.
A lucrative role with such an innovative online tutoring company like 3RealMates allows youth tutors to reflect on each other’s different point of views and ultimately find a way to create synergy between their different perspectives in order to create a novel solution to a problem.
As a young English teacher with 3RealMates you will learn to:
- Put yourself into the perspective of the other side
- Understand the different values, beliefs and assumptions that are at play from the other side
- Communicate your point of view effectively to the other side
- Work towards an integration of the different perspectives in order to create a new solution for the problem
- Resolve conflict in a productive way as opposed to leading to negative emotional reactions
When a group of people with a purely mono-cultural perspective on the world come together, they are likely to simply end up asking themselves: “ what’s wrong with these people?” but when a group of people with cross-cultural competence come together, however, something amazing happens. They help each other to question their assumptions about the issue at hand. They introduce each other to completely new ways of thinking. They work together in order to solve problems in ways that have never been attempted before. Cross-cultural competency will no longer be something that is only important for expatriates. In the near future, it will be hard to find a work-team that only consists of people from a single cultural background.
For this reason, there are several factors which are really important for people who want to be successful in the globally connected marketplace of the future and as a quality youth tutor looking to gain work experience with 3RealMates you will embody:
- Having extensive experience in working with people from other cultural backgrounds
- Shifting your mindset from national to international
- Developing intercultural empathy — i.e. the ability to put ourselves into the perspective of somebody from a different cultural background
- Understand how cultural systems work — the values, beliefs and assumptions underlying the behavior of people from any particular culture
- Having a high degree of cognitive complexity — the ability to hold seemingly opposing ideas in your head and integrate them into something new
As a young high school student looking to start your career and for work experience you should make a plan on how you yourself can develop cross-cultural skills. Even if you do not have the ability right now to move to another country, consider joining a company like 3 Real Mates that makes it possible for you to get more exposure to other ways of thinking and connecting with other cultures around the globe from the comfort of your own home. Have a look at the list of skills outlined in this article and think step-by-step on “how can I develop my skills” by joining a forward thinking and global company like 3RealMates.
