🫸 Pushing the Limits ⚠️
What I learnt from my Lebanon 🇱🇧 trip.
Some context:
▶ It was a 5 days leadership retreat for an NGO and I was invited to facilitate 3/5 days, focusing on cross cultural cooperation and trust building.
▶ I had only 2 weeks to prepare amidst many other ongoing commitments. So I knew this work was going to really stretch me.
▶ I had participants from many different countries - Syria, Lebanon, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, USA, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, South Korea and Germany.
▶ It was my first time listening, conversing and learning from those from the Middle East, Russia and South America.
What I did:
▶ I needed an anchor to bridge the cultural differences. So I started with strengths as a language and a lens to build the container of safety.
▶ We explored how trust might look like in cross cultural work - what it looks like when it is strong and when it is broken.
▶ I taught a couple of leadership conversational skills and facilitated the practice - how leaders can generate context of trust and safety.
▶ I had 1 on 1 coaching with each person to process the emotions and learnings.
What I took away👇🏼
📍Listening for our bias and assumptions is crucial. It starts by being aware that we bring our bias into the conversations. On day 1, I felt I had so much to learn as I hear different stories in a very diverse context. I felt I was the odd one out as a Singaporean, living in my “safe” bubble.
📍Listening in a cross cultural context brings out more of the emotional and body context because of language challenges. For many, English is not the first language. The other aspects are heightened as a result. As I listened to the stories shared in English, I often experienced the intensity of the stories through the emotions and the body of the storyteller.
📍The Strengths Language truly deepens appreciation and respect for diversity. Once I facilitated the strengths conversations, the cross cultural differences was reduced and the strengths language facilitated conversations of trust building.
It was truly an eye-opening week of being, doing and learning. My strengths felt satisfied. I’m now more confident in navigating high tension and conflict work. #Command #SelfAssurance #Communication #Connectedness
#teamcoaching #ontologicalcoaching #deeplistening
