It is not about conning Khan

As this was the first time for me to attend an IMI conference or event, I was not sure of what to expect. In the end though, I can say that attending the IMI 9th Annual Conference not only taught me a great deal about current issues in intercultural relations, but it allowed me to meet with many of the great scholars and practitioners in the field.

Over the two day conference I attended five sessions, all on a broad range of topics. Out of the five sessions though, the two that really impacted me the most were Dr. Richard Harris' Managing Space: Cultural Differences in Perceptions of Space and their Implications for Managers and Dr. Gary Weaver and Mr. Khan's Contrast-Culture Simulation: the "Khan Exercise."

Dr. Harris' session brought a whole new cultural aspect, which impacts how we communicate and interact with others, to the table. When I first read the title of the session, I almost didn't attend as I thought the content would only deal with personal space between people. However, as Dr. Harris has lived and worked in Japan for the past 25 years, I knew I had to go to his session. (I myself have lived in Japan for the past five years, so I felt I had a connection with him.) As soon as he started his workshop, I knew I was going to learn something new and exciting.

Dr. Harris outlined six different types of cultural "space" and the impact they have on our interactions with one another. The six types were 1) Cosmological 2) Personal 3) Communal 4)Residential 5) Geographical and 6) Environmental. One of the interesting exercises he did to explain his theory was use a picture of a landscape and the D.I.E. model -- Description, Interpretation, Evaluation. He asked us to look at the picture and try to tell him about it only with descriptive words such as trees, green, sky, etc. However, as all of us found out, it is VERY difficult to do that. Most people unconsciously used interpretive or descriptive words such as lush, beautiful, and peaceful. Dr. Harris then pointed out that interpretive and evaluative words are all culturally based. What may look peaceful to one person, may in fact look unstable, or dangerous to another. This was quite eye opening to me and made me think about a plethora of other issues for quite some time.

The second session that really made me stop and think, the Khan Exercise, was brilliant. As the title of my blog says, "It is not about conning Khan." Mr. Khan, a person whose national identity is unknown, engages in a role-play with someone in the audience, an American "Mr. Smith," over a business project that is taking place in Mr. Khan's country. The purpose of the role-play is not for the audience to figure out where Mr. Khan is from, how to con Mr. Khan, or how to avoid being conned by Mr. Khan, but it is to reflect on the way Mr. Khan makes us feel. His identity is that of someone non-Western, someone different from 'us' -- he is the 'other.'

Due to time constraints, the role-play only lasted for about 15-20 minutes, but it was easy to tell from the get-go that Mr. Khan was making the entire audience feel out of their cultural norm. As for me, I realized how different my concept of productivity was, as I felt Mr. Khan spent too much time asking Mr. Smith personal questions. Mr. Khan also seemed to make a great deal of chit-chat with Mr. Smith, but he never seemed to talk about the work on hand. It was obvious as well that it was making Mr. Smith a bit frustrated.

Dr. Weaver also took part in this session and briefed the audience on some cultural issues, such as the difference between "to do cultures" and "to be cultures." After the role-play was over, Dr. Weaver also debriefed us and allowed us to ask questions to Mr. Smith and to Mr. Khan. It was very intriguing to see what each of the men thought regarding their conversation they had just had. It made me realize that it is not about trying to out-guess or out-know the other person's culture so that you can effectively communicate with them, but it is most important to know your own cultural ways and values first.

I would like to thank IMI for awarding me a scholarship and allowing me to attend this wonderful conference. I look forward to next year's 10th Annual Conference and all of the new knowledge, skills, and contacts I will come away with!

Thank you!