Monday, May 10, 2010

8 PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION

1) Check Your Assumptions at the Door: Begin With Yourself
Before beginning to work with any group that is culturally, ethnically, or racially different from your own, it is critical to step back and identify any assumptions, preconceived beliefs, or stereotypes that you might hold about that population. Your best intentions may be undermined by old assumptions or isolated experiences that can impact your ability to develop a sound strategy that effectively achieves the behavioral, attitudinal, or systematic change you seek. It is also essential that you not assume a particular group holds the same set of values or beliefs as your own.

2) Understand the Cultural Context(s) of Your Audience: Do Your Homework
The goal of any communication is creating shared understanding. As communicators, when we relay a message (language, symbols, images), it is with the expectation that the receiver can interpret as the sender intended and has the ability to take action accordingly. This is not always the case. Various cultural groups have unique ways of perceiving, organizing, and relating to information. They may have different needs, values, motivators, and behaviors. The norm for one group may not necessarily be relevant or appropriate for another group. The message must fit the cultural context (the norms, ideas, beliefs, and totality of meaning shared by a cultural group) of the audiences you want to reach.

3) Invest Before You Request: Create Community-Centered Partnerships
Historically, there has been a tendency to reach out to organizations serving special populations at the point when businesses, issue advocates, or other organizations need help accessing a community or seek to expand service or products to a community. Too often the first introduction is a request for assistance in conducting outreach, sharing information, facilitating market research, or referring participants to programs. In many cases, communication has been one way and self-centered—what can this person or organization do for us? By investing in the community—learning about organizational needs, attending events and community forums, and participating in community-based efforts—you can build trust and the foundation for long-term engagement. By taking this step first, before you have a specific programmatic request, you invest in building connections that lead to long-term partnerships.

4) Develop Authentic Relationships: Maintain a Long-Term Perspective
Authentic relationships are those that engage community members in idea generation, feedback, and decision making. Such a relationship is patiently developed because there is no need to rush to get to know and understand each other. The relationship is based on a true sense of shared values and shared mission and is focused on ongoing collaboration rather than a specific project. Communication, contribution, and commitment are all two-way.

5) Build Shared Ownership: Engage, Don’t Just Involve
As you seek to engage the community in your work, look for opportunities for the community to become vested in the mission that drives your work and its outcomes. Identify opportunities for leadership roles for members of the community and engage them as decision makers and owners of strategy. Actively seek their guidance and input in evaluating and refining strategies and messages. When there is more than one cultural group that you wish to engage, identify the needs, values, and motivators that the groups have in common and use these to develop messages and strategies that help unify the groups. This approach helps build community, ensure that groups do not feel they are in competition for attention or resources, and also helps to identify and elevate shared community needs and values that help shape ongoing community dialogue.

6) Walk Your Talk: Lead By Example
All of us have had experiences in which the message conveyed by an organization is inconsistent with its actions and behaviors. The classic example is a retail business with a huge welcome sign in the window and a staff that ignores you. This is just a manifestation of the challenges audiences experience when the message doesn’t match the experience. If you say that your programs are flexible, open to all members of the community, and based on community needs, then that must be what your audience experiences. If you commit to collaboration, then you must behave collaboratively. If you are committed to providing services to “everyone” in the community, your organization’s staff, governance, and partnerships need to reflect the community, and your resources need to benefit that community.

7) Relate, Don’t Translate: Place Communication Into Cultural Context
Successful multicultural communication requires more than just translating English-language content. It requires embracing the social nuances of diverse cultural groups and markets and actively engaging them in the creation of relevant communication strategies, tools, and messages that have the best opportunity to achieve the desired action. When existing strategies are deemed effective, the process of adaptation for new audiences is much broader than the words on a page. In fact, more important than deciding which language to use in your materials is ensuring that the content resonates with the culture and identity of your audience.

Effective multicultural communication entails appropriate interpersonal communication dynamics, the right context, and appropriate usage of culturally relevant imagery, vocabulary, vernacular, metaphors, or slang. Translation makes things readable, not necessarily relevant. A better approach is to make a conscious choice between translating existing concepts that work, relating existing concepts into new images and words that convey ideas more effectively, or developing completely new creative (message frame, copy, imagery).

8) Anticipate Change: Be Prepared to Succeed
Bringing new people and new perspectives into your organization, especially those from a cultural group that has not been previously engaged—be they staff, volunteers, clients, customers, members, investors, donors or community partners—will naturally change the dynamics of your organization. It may change how the organization is structured, governed, and staffed. It may impact how consensus is built, how meetings are managed, and how decisions are made. It may impact how a product is reformulated or how a marketing campaign is planned and executed. When conducting multicultural communication, answer the questions: “Are we prepared to succeed?” “Are we ready for change?”

via LOHAS

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

"The way of life for an entire society"

+manners +language +rituals +dress
+morality +religion +belief +law
KEY COMPONENTS:
VALUES
NORMS
INSTITUTIONS
ARTIFACTS
"It is the way people live in accordance"

--> beliefs
--> language or the way people dress
--> history
Culture is a stabilizing mechanism means to cultivate
= patterns of human activity, codify, communicate

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Also ...

RESPECT OTHER CULTURES

in order to understand each other and each others expectations = create a better and universal communication we must understand other peoples cultures.

How To DO That?

+Travel --> the world
+Read --> books of author's from various nationalities
+WAtch --> the world -not the news- , the movies -not only hollywood but independent + documentaries)
+Eat --> food from different ethnicities (u don't have to like them but u won't die if u try, so try to experience and to share that piece of information with others)
+Touch --> people (they are not carnivors, they wont eat you (except the ones that practice cannibalism) they are not animals (ok naturally they are animals but socialized ones, so they wont bite you. they are also no viruses or bacterias (in Big Bang yes they were) so they wont kill u -unless u hurt them-
+Smell --> new scents, spices, food, vegetables, fruits from various populations
+Analyse --> behaviors (mannerism) of people, their reactions, gestures... but not to judge just to observe
+Open --> YOUR MIND
HOW TO KEEP THE CULTURE:

+ never forget: your history and the history
+ keep in mind: your ancestors fought for the identity you own. not the piece of paper but the values and beliefs that piece of paper represents
+ know: Culture -not your social status- will be the only thing that will always differentiate you from others.
+believe: in love of everyone
+ eat: home food

To Be Continued... (Please feel free to continue with your own suggestions)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

I believe that with this Globalization shit that contaminates the whole earth + the consumerism advertised by the media = that supports the money makers = who dominates the politics and the country overseing any value a culture/population/country has, but the MONEY ....

Cultures are being wipped off slowy and fastly from this earth from our history.

Consequences: HAHA if we would call the NEW earth as a Factory = we will be manufactured then overmanufactured and become empty dolls that might have deficits within them -like McDonalds creatures that has 5 leggs and 3 heads-
Anyhow I would like to underline that I'm not a conservative mind but on the opposite supports any necessary changes for the sake of human progression in the limits of not harming their nature.
Peace within.
.
+Keep the kulTuR Keep the SoUl +


*aIcHa* ReALsUn