International Association of Facilitators

1998 Annual Meeting

Santa Clara, California, USA

January 1998

Session SG02

Transformative Learning Across Cultures Creating Opportunities for Learning and Relationship through Communicative Competence

Nancy Southern, Ed.D

Associate Professor, School of Management

John. F. Kennedy University

1250 Arroyo Way

Walnut Creek, CA 94596

510-295-0600

Email: nsouther@jfku.edu

Introduction

As we continue to become a more global community, our ability to engage in collaborative relationships with people around the world is essential. Facilitators will continue to find themselves in situations where not only is the group representative of the many diverse American cultures, but also includes people from other parts of the world. Recognizing the many differences in values, thinking, and communication styles that exist among the various cultures, how can we find a way to effectively communicate across cultures? In this paper, I describe the communicative competence model as a way of bridging the gaps in communication across cultures. I share my experiences of using this model, with an orientation towards transformative learning, in my doctoral research in China.

Transformative Learning

First of all, it is important to understand the concept of transformative learning, which is very different than the traditional concept of learning in the United States and in many other countries. Transformative learning involves a new understanding of self in relation to others. It requires us to approach life, our relationships and experiences with a value on "the other," the unknown, another person, or a different point of view. Transformative learning enables us to embrace a new way of "being in the world" thus opening us to the possibilities of relationships which generate new understanding and care.

We are in a state of transformation where old paradigms are being challenged and new ones are being formed. Technology is the driving force of these paradigm shifts as it enables new scientific understanding and facilitates communication across the globe. Robert Reich (1991) states that "there is an opportunity for us, as for every society, to redefine who we are, why we have joined together, and what we owe each other and the other inhabitants of the world". This is, in essence, the idea of transformative learning. This learning needs to take place both individually and collectively since individuals both shape culture and its institutions and are shaped by them.

Fusion of Horizons

Americans have much to learn about communicating and engaging in relationships across cultures. The challenges that facilitators often face in working with other cultures come from an understanding of self as separate from the other. Behavioral science, upon which most theories and processes of communication and facilitation are based, reinforces the idea of separation, strangeness and objectivity. Communication and language have become tools for manipulating behavior and change and, as a result, limit relationship and learning. Many Americans have a horizon or world view that is limited to their understanding of the American culture. Without opening oneself to understanding other cultures, we tend to unconsciously impose "our way" on people of other cultures. In doing so, we alienate others who have a different world view, a different understanding of their relationship to "the other," causing them to limit their participation in relationships, workshops, or other interpersonal and interactive experiences.

Within language we can create a fusion of horizons, which is actually an enlargement of our own horizon through coming to understand horizons other than our own. Engaging in conversation and dialogue are ways to come to understand the horizons of others. Experiencing how others live and work, by being in their environments, can also be critical to this understanding, for it allows us to better understand of the context. We cannot assume, however, that we can understand the horizons of others through our own interpretation of our experience. Our interpretation is so clouded by our prejudices and preunderstandings that we must move beyond this interpretation through conversation.

Communicative Competence

The model of communicative competence provides a framework for authentic communication across cultures. This model does not come from an organizational theorist, but rather from a German critical theorist, Jurgen Habermas. Habermas believes that all people are communicative by nature, and, as such, at the core of our being is the desire to make meaning and engage in meaningful relationships.

Communicative competence takes place when the principles of comprehensibility, trust, truthfulness, and shared values are met through conversation. Communicative competence serves to transmit and renew cultural knowledge, social integration, and the formation of personal identities. These aspects of relationship and learning become possible when we are able to understand our way of being and interrelationships in the context of three worlds:

· The World: The objective world of cultural norms, common knowledge, facts, policies, etc., which have developed over time.

· My World: The subjective world of personal experiences, beliefs and assumptions.

· Our World: The new understandings, shared values, and coordinated actions that are created when people come together through language and relationship.

When people come together from different cultural backgrounds with an orientation to learn and reach new understandings, and have the ability to share, through conversation, their subjective and objective worlds, they create the possibility for authentic relationship and coordinated action.

Application of the Model

The first and possibly most important component of the communicative competence model is the intention that an individual brings into a relationship. When I traveled to China to do my dissertation research, I truly believed I would learn important different perspectives on life, relationship and business from the Chinese people. I also believed that these new understandings would change and improve my life. The intention of reaching new understanding caused me to place importance on the comprehensibility of my communication. I needed to speak in a way which could be easily understood, carefully choosing the right words and speaking at a pace which could be followed by a non-native English speaker, or that could be translated easily into Mandarin. Establishing a rhythm of speech which is in sync with the language spoken by others can also aid in building rapport and reaching understanding. In essence, I spoke with care.

My value on transformative learning served not only to authenticate my relationships with others, it also provided a basis of shared values, since learning was an important value held by those people I met in China. I also established a basis of shared values by sharing how principles and practices from the Chinese culture are important to my life and work and how I believe they are influencing American management theory and practice. By showing my appreciation for their culture, I communicated that I valued what I could learn from them. They also communicated an appreciation for what I could teach them.

My willingness to share what I was learning from my work in the United States and what we, as a nation, are learning about organizational change, met the communicative competence model’s claim of truthfulness. I was not there to promote the American way or to talk about only what we are doing well. I openly shared mistakes and challenges creating a space where we could learn from each other. I believed this approach would create a space where the people I met in China could also be honest about the challenges they were facing with the tremendous transformation that is taking place.

All of these ways of entering into conversation with my Chinese colleagues established a basis of trust, enabling them to share more openly and honestly. I was amazed at how my conversations with people in China seemed to establish a much closer, authentic relationship than the conversations with people in the United States. I believe that difference was the openness to learn. The people I spoke with in the United States wanted to tell me what they know or what they have experienced. This kind of competitive communication inhibits communicative competence, learning and relationships. We cannot hold an intention of learning from others if we need to impress others with our expertise.

The people in China wanted to learn from me and I wanted to learn to them. This shared intention of learning and discovery created a space where we could be open, truthful and trustful with each other. It enabled us to share our very different individual and cultural worlds and begin to create a world in which we could participate equally and fully together.

Summary

Communicative competence is needed to create partnerships among people from different cultures, whether here in the United States, or around the globe. If we enter into conversation with the intention of reaching new understanding and respect the rightness of another point of view, we create an opportunity for shared learning and authentic relationship. With care at the center of our Being, we create the possibility of authentic relationships based on shared values, truthfulness, and trust.

To achieve communicative competence, as facilitators, we must give up the belief that we can be objective, neutral parties, that can facilitate a group without being part of it. Rather we must understand that we participate in every group we facilitate. Our role then becomes to guide, model, and interpret language and experience. Heidegger (1962) reminds us that we are always already in relationship, our choice is how we want to engage in that relationship. Are we ready to give up the traditional leader role and become a participant in the process of learning? A first step may be to become interested in learning from different cultural perspectives with a belief that we do not know the "right way."

References:

Habermas, J. (1976). Communication and the Evolution of Society, Boston: Beacon Press.

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time, San Francisco: HarperCollins.

Reich, R. (1991). The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.