Four pillars of cultural intelligence

Four questions guide any leader in their approach to a cross-cultural encounter.

Livermore lists four questions to summarize the four pillars of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and help leaders navigate cross-cultural situations. The questions are:

  1. What’s it going to take to motivate you?
  2. What do you need to know?
  3. What’s your plan?
  4. What behaviors should you adapt?
(Livermore, pg. 31)

The first hints at why you care about another’s cultural differences. There needs to be a baseline respect and curiosity in other’s differences of thought and action for CQ to be valuable and to move past mere manipulation. The second question is where the research begins, and can include the broad cultural strokes present in Livermore’s other book ‘Beyond Borders’ and also specifics related to the company or individual you will encounter. The third asks you to think ahead of time what the interaction will be like, and to plan ahead for actions that can help smooth mistakes and foster learning. Lastly, the fourth question asks what about my behavior should be modified to avoid harming the relationship and what I should keep to be true to my own culture.

With ten different cultural clusters and thousands of nuances in each, it’s impossible to become an expert at every culture’s norms and expectations. This four-question framework helps to navigate individual encounters by probing into important areas of cultural consideration. These are simple enough to post on a wall or to memorize and gain immediate benefit when working with other cultures without a ten-day seminar on the culture’s intricacies. They’re also short enough to share with an entire company, building it into the culture, so that everyone is more culturally adept.

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