Intercultural Development

Inventory v.3 (IDI)

INDIVIDUAL
INTERCULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP)
Prepared for:
LA-TOYA ASHWORTH, Pacific HESS Tiger P.R.I.D.E.
Delivery Team Fall 2015 PRETEST

Prepared by:
Serjio Acevedo, Director of Multicultural Affairs,
University of the Pacific, September 21, 2015

In conjunction with Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D.

IDI, LLC

For information or ordering the

IDI, contact:
www.idiinventory.com

The IDI and the IDI Intercultural Development Plan

are registered Trademarks and Copyrighted (2007, 2011) by
Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D.,
IDI, LLC,
P.O. Box 1388
Berlin, Maryland 21811
USA

An Intercultural Development Plan (IDP)

Completing the Intercultural Development Inventory and reviewing your own individual IDI
profile results with an IDI Qualified Administrator provides key insights into how you make
sense cultural differences. The next step is to systematically increase your intercultural
competence by working through your Intercultural Development Plan (IDP). This Plan is
specifically customized to your particular IDI Profile results. After completing the suggested
activities in your IDP, you should again take the IDI to determine your progress in increasing
your intercultural competence. Accompanying this new IDI profile report will be another
customized and different Intercultural Development Plan that can help you further increase your
skills in shifting cultural perspective and adapting behavior.
By completing this customized, Individual Development Plan, you will:
Gain insights concerning intercultural challenges you are facing and identify
intercultural competence development goals that are important for you,
Gain increased understanding of how your Developmental Orientation (and Trailing
Orientation(s), if any) impacts how you perceive and respond to cultural differences
and commonalities, and
Identify and engage in targeted, developmental learning that increases your
intercultural competence in bridging across diverse communities.

Why Have an Intercultural Development Plan?

Some of us may believe that as we gain experience in the world, we should be better at
communicating and interacting effectively with people who are from different cultures. We may
also believe that traveling and living in another country for a period of time automatically results
in our developing greater intercultural competence. Unfortunately, these are two common myths
regarding the development of intercultural competence. Intercultural competence does not
simply happen as a result of being in another culture. For example, assume you are from the
United States and you go to Japan live for six monthsor even six years! Does this mean that
you increased your ability to shift cultural perspective and adapt behavior more effectively as a
result of your Japanese experience? Not necessarily. You may have lived in and experienced
Japan largely from your own, monocultural perspective. You may, for instance, have lived in an
area of Japan where people from your own culture predominate and your relationships may have
remained largely with people from your own cultural group. Further, your behavior may have
changed little even though you were working and living Japan rather than the United States.
Under these circumstances, you would likely gain little intercultural competence development.

LA-TOYA ASHWORTH, Pacific HESS Tiger P.R.I.D.E. Delivery Team Fall 2015 PRETEST

Making A Commitment
Developing intercultural competence is a self-reflective, intentional process focused on
understanding patterns of difference and commonality between yourself (and your cultural
group) and other culture groups perceptions, values and practices. It is this self-reflective,
intentional process that is highlighted in this Intercultural Development Plan. Before working
through your Individual Development Plan (IDP), it is important that you have reviewed and
understood the Intercultural Development Continuum (the foundational concepts identified in the
revised DMIS (Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity). This information may have
come from a presentation by a qualified IDI administrator and/or information from our website,
www.idiinventory.com. You may also have received information about your Group IDI Profile
and/or feedback regarding your own individual IDI profile results from an IDI Qualified
Administrator.
Concentrated, self-reflective efforts at building your intercultural competencetailored to your
own IDI profile resultscan result in movement along the developmental continuum of one or
more orientations (e.g., from Minimization to Acceptance and to Adaptation). These efforts can
include a wide variety of activities. Below is a list of ten key learning opportunities to consider
for your Intercultural Development Plan. Throughout this IDP, look for ways to incorporate
some of the suggestions given into one or more of these ten powerful learning arenas.

Ten Key Intercultural Learning Opportunities

Workplace
Activities

Training
Programs

Personal
Interactions

Theatre,
Film &
Arts

Intercultural
Journal

Travel

Educational
Classes

Books

Site
Visits

Coaching

Which of these ten learning opportunities can you do to

accomplish

your

intercultural

goals

and

address

your

create

your

intercultural stress points? Below is a description of these ten

learning

opportunities

to

consider

Intercultural Development Plan.

as

you

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Training
Programs

Training programs: Are there training programs offered by your

organization, educational institution or community that focuses on
intercultural relations? These programs may include e-learning
training on cultural patterns, websites that present solid information on
cultural differences, and various programs that review both culture
general patterns of difference as well as culture specific dimensions.

Workplace
Activities

Workplace activities: Are there workplace committees and groups in

which you can participate to build your intercultural skills? This can
include participating in your organizations diversity and inclusion
efforts, joining various affiliation/affinity/employee resource groups,
volunteering on diversity or inclusion committees, and taking on
additional work-related responsibilities that involve cultural bridging.

Theatre,
Film &
Arts

Theatre, Film & Arts: Are you able to attend cross-cultural movies,
plays and other artistic exhibits and performances? Use the
opportunity to attend cross-cultural theatre/film/art events to increase
your own cultural self-awareness as well as learn about the cultural
perspective found in the theater/film/art work. Such events often hold
post event discussions that allow you to explore the concepts
presented with others who share your interest.

Educational
Classes

Educational classes: Are there classes at your community college or

university that focus on cross-cultural communication and crosscultural relations? Other useful courses include ethnic and gender
studies classes.

Personal
Interactions

Personal interactions: Could you engage in intentional work-related,

personal, social, or community interactions with people from different
cultures? This could focus on cross-cultural communication with
others in ways that provide insights into how people from other
cultures experience the world and more specifically, how their
experiences are similar and/or different from your own.

Intercultural
Journal

Intercultural journal: Could you keep an intercultural journal in

which you reflect on cultural differences and commonalities you
observe in your daily interactions with people from other cultural
groups? In what ways do these individuals perceive, value and act that
is similar to or different from your own group? You might consider
focusing your intercultural journal on critical incidentsthat is,
situations you have observed or been a part of in which cultural
differences arose and you and/or others needed to understand those
differences and then respond appropriately. You can structure this
journal in terms of: who was involved, what happened, what you think
were the cultural differences present, how people responded, and the
outcome.
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Books

Travel

Coaching

Site
Visits

Books: Are there books you would like to read that specifically
describe and explain patterns of cultural difference and similarity?
Many
of
these
books
can
be
obtained
from
www.interculturalpress.com. Select books that relate to past, current
or future cross-cultural settings you have or will have some
experience. These settings can be domestic (within your own country)
or international (cultural groups you may be working with who are
outside your own country). There are also many novels and fiction
books that can provide insights into the history and cultural norms of
culturally diverse groups.
Travel: Are there cross-cultural travel opportunities on the horizon
where you can systematically observe and engage cultural diversity?
When visiting or traveling for shorter periods of time in other cultures,
make efforts to experience how people from that cultural community
interact, make decisions, share information, and treat visitors.
Intercultural coaching: Is there an opportunity to contract for IDI
Guided Development coaching? This kind of one-on-one
engagement should be done with an IDI Qualified Administrator who
also has experience and training in workplace coaching. Reviewing
your IDP with a coach can be helpful to your own development.
Site visits: Are there specific cultural/ethnic site visits that can
increase your knowledge about diverse cultural experiences? Visit, for
instance various museums and centers in which diverse cultural group
experiences are represented. Many countries have National Museums
of Art and Culture, within the U.S. you might visit the National Civil
Rights Museum or Ellis Island. Make additional efforts to engage a
Docent or someone who can be share their expertise with you in order
for you to gain a deeper understanding of your site visit.

Remember, however, it is not simply participating in activities or attending cultural events that is
important; rather, it is the intentional reflection on the cultural patterns of commonality and
difference that make up these activities/events that will contribute to your intercultural
competence development.
You should plan to spend approximately thirty to fifty hours of concentrated effort at building
intercultural competence to achieve a gain of one full orientation (or more) along the
Intercultural Development Continuum. While this thirty to fifty hour recommendation is not
rigid, it nevertheless provides a guideline for you to determine the time frame you should plan to
dedicate to your Intercultural Development Plan.
It is recommended that working on your Intercultural Development Plan should take place over
approximately three to nine months, with participation in training or some coaching interaction
that can range from weekly interaction to once-a-month programs or dialogues. To initiate this
process, the information in this Intercultural Development Plan is an important first step.
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The following five-step process will help guide you through your Intercultural Development Plan
(IDP):
Review your IDI Individual Profile results
Describe your intercultural background in terms of your IDI Profile results
Analyze developmental goals and progress indicators
Identify those intercultural stress points that are barriers to your goal attainment
Create your Intercultural Development Plan (IDP)
Each of these five steps is explained in greater detail in the following sections with sample
activities for each step.

Developing intercultural competence is a core

capability in the 21st century and involves

cultural self-awareness, understanding the

experiences of people from diverse
communities, and the capability to adapt
ones mindset and behavior to bridge across
differences.
Mitchell R. Hammer, 2011

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Preparing an Intercultural Development Plan:

Step 1Review Your IDI Individual Profile Results
As a first step, review the results from your individual IDI profile. Take some time to
answer the following questions. Some of these questions you may have already discussed
with an IDI Qualified Administrator; if so, then you can move more quickly through these
questions.
1.1

What are your overall Developmental Orientation and Perceived

Orientation? Check your orientation in each column.
Developmental Orientation

Perceived Orientation

Denial

Denial

Polarization

Polarization

(Defense/Reversal)

(Defense/Reversal)

Minimization

Minimization

Adaptation

Adaptation

Acceptance

1.2

Is

there

an

Acceptance

Orientation

Gap

between

your

Developmental

Orientation and your Perceived Orientation indicated in your IDI

profile? What does this mean in terms of your own sense of how

capable you are in shifting cultural perspective and appropriately

adapting behavior around cultural differences and commonalities?
1.3

Do you have any Trailing Orientations? If so, what are they? What
impact do you feel these Trailing Orientations have in terms of
holding you back from more effectively dealing with cultural
differences and commonalities?

1.4

What is your Leading Orientation? As you design your Intercultural

Development
Leading

Plan,

your

Orientation

are

Developmental
the

development planning should focus.

Orientation

Orientations

on

and

which

your

your

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Preparing an Intercultural Development Plan:

Step 2Your Intercultural Background & IDI Profile Results
Surprisingly, people often have not thought much about the experiences they have hador not
hadaround cultural differences and commonalities. For some of us, we may have had quite
varied and extensive living and working experiences in different countries yet have not reflected
much on those experiences. For others of us, we may think we have had little cross-cultural
experience when in fact we may have had significant cultural influences on how we live our lives
and the goals we set for our work teams and ourselves.
2.1

Take a moment to reflect on your experiences with culturally diverse

groups.

When did you first become aware of cultural groups that were different from your own?
What kinds of experiences have you had with people from different cultural
communities?
What has been challenging and what has been rewarding in interacting with people from
different cultures?
2.2

Listed below are 12 primary dimensions of diversity. Put a check

mark by the three diversity dimensions that have most influenced

your views of cultural commonalities and differences?
Diversity Dimension

Check () your Top Three

Diversity Dimensions

Gender
Nationality
Race/Ethnicity
Age
Family background
Abilities/disabilities
Religion
Educational background
Home/geographic roots
Sexual orientation
Socio-economic status
Work experience

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2.3

How have your top three diversity dimensions influenced (1) your
perspective toward cultural similarities and differences, and (2)

your work practices? If this is difficult, you may wish to return to

this question later in the process.
2.4

In what ways might your experiences with people from your own

nationality/ethnic group and with people from different countries

and ethnicities have influenced:

Your perceptions about what you find challenging in working with people from
difference cultures?

Your Developmental Orientation identified in your IDI individual profile?

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Preparing an Intercultural Development Plan:

Step 3Analyze Developmental Goals & Progress Indicators
The third step is to identify key goals and progress indicators important to you. These goals
should focus on what you would like to achieve when cultural differences and commonalities are
present and need to be successfully navigated. The progress indicators are how you will know
you are achieving your goals.
Review your responses to the contexting questions in your individual IDI profile in identifying
your goals.
3.1

Identify 3-5 goals and their progress indicators that you are willing
to commit to achieving in the immediate future. Make sure these goals

are important to you and are directly related to increasing your

ability

to

effectively

commonalities.

navigate

cross-cultural

differences

and

Write out each goal and progress indicator in the following format:

I would like to . . . . I will know I have made progress on this goal

when . . . .
Here

are

statements:

two

examples

of

different

goal/progress

indicator

Goal #1: I would like to more deeply understand how my own cultural community has
influenced some of my core beliefs and values.
Progress Indicator #1: I will know I have made progress on this goal when I can better
explain my own views and values in cultural terms to people from my own cultural
community and to people from diverse groups.
Goal #2: I would like to increase my leadership in my organization around diversity and
inclusion efforts.
Progress Indicator #2: I will know I have made progress on this goal when I volunteer
and become a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, when I insure each of
our monthly work meetings includes an agenda item related to our teams progress in
meeting diversity and inclusion goals, and when I engage in conversations about cultural
differences with people from my own cultural group and other cultural communities.

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Preparing an Intercultural Development Plan:

Step 4Identify Intercultural Stress Points
The next step is to identify those work-related, personal, social or community challenges or
situations you are facing or will be facing in which cultural differences and commonalities
make a difference. These challenges or situations should be related to your goals to be more
interculturally successful that you identified in step 3.
One way to think about these situations is to think of them as intercultural stress points where
you are challenged to be more effective around cultural differences. For example, some people
find situations in the workplace that revolves around how to handle disagreements or conflicts
when the other party is from a cultural community different from their own to be challenging.
Another situation might involve how to more effectively interview diverse talent for your
organization. A third situation may involve how to more effectively manage classroom learning
when students are from multiple cultural backgrounds. As you think about these situations, you
might find it useful to refer back to your responses to the contexting questions in your individual
IDI profile.
4.1

Identify 3-5 intercultural stress points that you find challenging in

effectively responding to cultural differences. These intercultural

stress points should describe situations you face that you believe
interfere with your effectively accomplishing the goals you identified
earlier in Step 3 of this IDP.
4.2

How do these stress points act as barriers to you being as effective

as youd like to be? Consider factors over which you have some
control and the removal of which would enhance your capability in
navigating cultural differences and commonalities.

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Preparing an Intercultural Development Plan:

Step 5Create Your Intercultural Development Plan
This section highlights questions, activities, and opportunities for intercultural development
related to your specific Developmental Orientation and Leading Orientation. Not every
suggestion may be useful to you. Review the various suggestions and select those you feel would
be most beneficial to increasing your understanding of cultural differences and commonalities
and helping you more effectively adapt to observed differences.
The first set of suggestions is related to your primary Developmental Orientation while the
second set of suggestions focuses on your Leading Orientation. You should review these
suggestions in the order presented, first working through suggestions related to your
Developmental Orientation and then moving to activities related to your Leading Orientation.
The suggestions are organized into three main developmental categories:
This symbol refers to a learning suggestion that involves reflection on past, current or
future perceptions, values, and behaviors.
This symbol identifies a topic that is suited for writing your thoughts and observations in
an intercultural journal.
This symbol refers to an activity in which you do something that is beneficial in building
your intercultural competence.
When selecting some of the suggestions provided, we encourage you to select those
recommendations that you feel would be most helpful and applicable to you, your goals and the
situations (intercultural stress points) you identified earlier in the developmental plan. This will
best support your intercultural competence development. Your IDI development journey is
now underway. Aldous Huxley, after he returned from his first overseas exploration, said:
So the journey is over and I am back again, richer by much experience and

poorer by many exploded convictions, many perished certainties . . . I set out on

my travels knowing or thinking I knew, how [people] should live, how be

governed, how educated, what they should believe. I had my views on every

activity of life. Now, on my return, I find myself without any of these pleasing
certainties . . . When one is traveling, convictions are mislaid as easily as
spectacles, but unlike spectacles, they are not easily replaced.
Quoted in J. Wurzel, 2004, Toward Multiculturalism, p. 7

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ACCEPTANCE

Definition:
An orientation that recognizes and appreciates patterns of cultural difference and commonality in
your own and other cultures.

Strength:
You are curious about, appreciate, and seek out differences. You recognize and understand
specific cultural differences that impact situations and to see value in these differences.

Developmental Opportunity:
Your developmental task is to continue to engage in intercultural interactions to gain more
knowledge about cultural differences, including culture general and culture specific frameworks
and to gain skills in adapting to these differences. In addition, your task is to develop strategies
for making ethical judgments by fully considering what a particular practice means from your
cultural perspective and the meaning and value a cultural practice represents in a different
cultural community.

Suggestions for an Acceptance Orientation:

Take advantage of your own motivation to learn about others by increasing your
interactions with other cultural groups in as many ways as possible to ensure
you are gaining knowledge, skills and comfort with cultural differences.
Examples include:
Everyday encounters with people (where you shop, in your social networks and at
your workplace).
Professional development (join diversity, multicultural, international networks
within regional and local organizations).
Academic and cultural presentations (attend formal presentations where you can
gain in-depth knowledge about patterns of cultural difference and engage in
dialogue with others who have similar interests and questions).
Ask for input from trusted colleagues and friends from outside your cultural group
to share their experiences of common ways they are misunderstood and what
assists them in feeling accepted in multicultural settings.
Identify individuals in your organization whom you have seen interacting
successfully across cultures. Ask this person to mentor you and to share strategies
and to dialogue with you.
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 Consider opportunities for more training in intercultural competence (courses,

workshops, or readings) to learn tangible ways cultures can differ, culture specific
information, and successful models of individual and organizational adaptation.
Courses and training in intercultural relations and cross-cultural communication
are particularly helpful.
Review M.R. Hammers Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) model and assessment
inventory at: www.icsinventory.com.
Engage in targeted contrast culture readings, including books and articles that
provide a comparative analysis of culture general frameworks (e.g. individualism
vs. collectivism) as well as novels written by authors from or set in cultures
different from your own. Review materials on culture general and culture specific
patterns of cultural difference by visiting www.interculturalpress.com. Lists of
novels can be found at websites such as http://nceawidereading.wikispaces.com.
Make a concerted effort to truly shift cultural perspective and to engage in
adaptive behaviors based on these cultural frameworks.
Read newspapers and magazines online from other countries or cultural
communities. Pay attention to how writers from diverse cultures may report a
major global event from a different perspective than writers from your own
cultural group. This can highlight differences that you may not have thought
about previously.
Appreciate your willingness to consider multiple perspectives.
Challenge yourself to consider specific dilemmas (where there does not seem to
be an obvious solution when different perspectives seem to clash) in your
community. Consider creative ways to resolve these dilemmas.
Push yourself to discover the underlying reasons for these dilemmas and the
extent to which there is anything in common from the perspectives involved.
Consider carefully how these dilemmas would be resolved from another cultural
perspective and whether or not there are strategies that would be appropriate to all
parties involved.
Draw upon your networks to discover how others have resolved seemingly
irresolvable situations.
Being interculturally sensitive or competent does not mean you should refrain
from making judgments about cultural practices you may view as incorrect or
inappropriate. Rather, intercultural competence means that your judgments
should not be made solely by considering what a cultural practice of another
group means only in your own culture. Rather, interculturally competent moral
or ethical judgments are made by also considering as well what the meaning and
value a cultural practice represents in a different cultural community.
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Identify those cultural differences in values or behaviors that are difficult for
you to consider bridging because they diverge from your own moral or ethical
compass. For example, this may involve practices that you would define as
inappropriate, insensitive, or incorrect.
Write down 1-2 of these cultural practices that you find violate your sense of good
and bad, right or wrong. Think of these cultural practices not so much in the
extreme but rather, practices that you have seen or are experiencing, for instance,
in your workplaceeither within your own country or internationally.
Consider the reasons why you believe these practices challenge your own moral
or ethical values. What specifically is wrong, inappropriate, etc with these
different practices?
What reasons would people from the cultural group in which these practices are
found give that would support these practices? That is, why would at least some
people from that cultural group consider these practices right or appropriate?
If you cannot identify such reasons in detail, is there some source of information
(a person, the internet) you could consult to find out why at least some people
from that cultural group support these cultural practices?
After considering what the meaning of the identified practices are in your own
cultural group and the other cultural group, reflect on the following questions:
Are there strategies you can use that would
bridge across these moral/ethical differences in
ways that do not violate your own culture
groups laws or values yet also do not violate
the other culture groups laws or values?

If not, what is your moral/ethical judgment and

reaction to these identified cultural practices?
How might you support your view when
interacting with people from the other cultural
group?

Summary questions for reflection

What new information was most meaningful to you after completing these
activities?
Could this new information have changed a situation you experienced in the past?
How would this situation have changed?
How can this new information change your perceptions, interpretations,
judgments, reactions and/or behaviors in the future?
The multicultural person is someone who is intellectually and emotionally committed to the

fundamental unity of all human beings while at the same time [recognizes], legitimizes, accepts,
and appreciates the fundamental differences that lie between people from different cultures.
Peter Adler

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ADAPTATION

Definition:
An orientation that is capable of shifting cultural perspective and changing behavior in culturally
appropriate and authentic ways.

Strength:
You have a deep understanding of at least one other culture and are comfortable bridging cultural
differences.

Developmental Opportunity:
Your developmental opportunity is to continue to build on your knowledge of cultural
differences and to further develop skills for adapting to these differences. It is beneficial for you
to develop cultural mediation and advocacy strategies so that you will be able to more effectively
assist others in your community and organization who do not have the experience and skills to
bridge cultural differences on their own. Learning more deeply about cultural patterns of
difference is a lifelong process. Therefore, you task is to further deepen your Acceptance
(understanding) mindset and to incorporate adaptive strategies when interacting across cultural
diversity.

Suggestions for An Adaptation Orientation:

Continue to learn about others by increasing your interactions with other
cultural groups so you can gain further knowledge, skills and comfort in
adapting. In these situations, in contrast to your earlier work in building an
Acceptance mindset, focus more attention on developing perspective shifting and
behavioral skills for bridging across cultural differences. Examples include:
Everyday encounters with people (where you shop, in your social networks, your
professional networks and at your workplace). Look for ways to authentically
engage others in ways that are adaptive for you.
Professional development (join diversity, multicultural, international networks
within your regional and local organizations). Look for ways to authentically
bridge across cultural differences.
Academic and cultural presentations (attend formal presentations where you can
gain in-depth knowledge and engage in dialogue with others who have similar
interests and questions). When dialoguing, look for opportunities to stretch your
behavioral repertoire.

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 Ask for input from trusted colleagues and friends from outside your cultural group
to share their experiences of common ways they are misunderstood, what assists
them in feeling accepted in their communities and what strategies are successful
for them in adapting across cultural differences.
Identify one or more individuals in your organization whom you have seen
interacting successfully across cultures. Ask this person to mentor you and to
share strategies and opportunities to dialogue with you. Focus on how you can
better make sense of situations from that persons cultural perspective and what
behavioral adaptations are appropriate.
Consider opportunities for more training in intercultural competence (courses,
workshops, readings) to learn tangible ways cultures can differ, culture specific
information, and successful models of individual and organizational adaptation.
Review M.R. Hammers Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) model and assessment
inventory at: www.icsinventory.com.
Engage in targeted contrast culture readings, including books and articles that
provide a comparative analysis of culture general frameworks (e.g. individualism
vs. collectivism) as well as novels written by authors from or set in cultures
different from your own. Review materials on culture general and culture specific
patterns of cultural difference by visiting www.interculturalpress.com. Lists of
novels can be found at websites such as http://nceawidereading.wikispaces.com.
Make a concerted effort to truly shift cultural perspective and to engage in
adaptive behaviors based on these cultural frameworks.
Read newspapers and magazines online from other countries or cultural
communities. Pay attention to how writers from diverse cultures may report a
major, global event from a different perspective than writers from your own
cultural group. This can highlight differences that you may not have thought
about previously.
Select a culture in your community with which you are less comfortable and
about which you have less knowledge.
Apply your skills in observing, reflecting, and understanding different cultural
values and behaviors of the culture you selected.
Find ways to get involved with various cultural groups and organizations (e.g.,
refugee resettlement organizations or Sister-City organizations in your local
community). Consider ways to engage with them as a peer as well as from an
outside expert position if appropriate.
Encourage your organization to put resources into developing cultural
competencies of all stakeholders.

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 Continue to draw upon a broad network of culturally diverse individuals to inform

you in your roles in your organization and community. Identify areas in which
you need to expand your network.
Form a small group of motivated individuals to collaborate on diversity,
inclusion and intercultural competence advocacy strategies. Where does your
workplace need to focus first and how can you help them develop a plan?
Acknowledge to yourself that your expertise and knowledge of one or more cultural
groups can sometimes lead to fatigue and allow yourself opportunities for on-going
support from the small group you formed.
Check whether others may see you in ways that discount your experiences across
cultures. What can you do to build better relations with others who may not
share the same adaptation orientation as you?
Acknowledge to yourself that your expertise and knowledge of one or more cultural
groups may be useful to others, but only if you can share your resources in ways
that value the other persons viewpoint and experience.
Do you have difficulty remaining in one organization or geographical place
because you become frustrated that the people or the organizations are not as
far along the developmental continuum as you think they should be?
Recognize that your desire to exit organizations or places may be due to your
own frustration and/or inability to bridge across different developmental
orientations.
Reflect on whether some of the difficulties or frustrations you may have in helping
individuals and organizations become more interculturally competent could be due
to your lack of awareness and understanding that not all people share your
Adaptation mindset? That is, individuals with a Denial, Polarization, Minimization
or Acceptance orientation make sense of cultural differences and commonalities in
ways consistent with their developmental orientationnot in ways consistent with
an Adaptation mindset.
What can you do to bridge across different developmental orientations so that your
cross-cultural effectiveness is increased?
Find positive strategies to engage others around intercultural learning and
development in ways that do not make your own views and experiences the center
of attention.

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LA-TOYA ASHWORTH, Pacific HESS Tiger P.R.I.D.E. Delivery Team Fall 2015 PRETEST

Summary questions for reflection

What new information was most meaningful to you after completing these
activities?
Could this new information have changed a situation you experienced in the past?
How would this situation have changed?
How can this new information change your perceptions, interpretations,
judgments, reactions and/or behaviors in the future?

I do not want my house to be walled in

on all sides or my windows to be
stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands
to be blown about my house as freely as
possible. But I refuse to be blown off
my feet by any.
Mahatma Gandhi

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LA-TOYA ASHWORTH, Pacific HESS Tiger P.R.I.D.E. Delivery Team Fall 2015 PRETEST

CULTURAL DISENGAGEMENT

Definition:
A sense of disconnection or detachment from a primary cultural group. Cultural Disengagement
is not an orientation on the Intercultural Development Continuum, as it does not relate to
intercultural competence. However, consideration of a Cultural Disengagement score that is not
resolved suggests some lack of involvement in a primary cultural community.

Strength:
Cultural Disengagement when resolved means that you feel involved and connected to your
cultural community. This can provide a sense of attachment towards a group important to you.

Developmental Opportunity
Cultural Disengagement when it is not fully resolved may be experienced as a feeling of
separation from a cultural community that is (or was) important to you. You may want to
consider how to become more fully engaged within a cultural community important to you.

Suggestions for Cultural Disengagement:

Review the suggestions below ONLY if your Individual IDI Profile
indicates you are not resolved on Cultural Disengagement. If your

IDI profile indicates resolved, then this section does not need to
be completed.

If you are not resolved in Cultural Disengagement:

Identify the ways you feel disconnected from your primary cultural group. For
example, is this sense of alienation more political, more social, or something else?
Reflect on why you perceive yourself as disconnected from your cultural group?
Do you want to do anything about this sense of detachment? Do you want to reestablish deeper connections with people from your primary community?
Are you in search of a blended sense of cultural connection between two
different cultural groups?
If so, what does this mean in terms of your involvement and sense of connection
to these different cultural communities?

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LA-TOYA ASHWORTH, Pacific HESS Tiger P.R.I.D.E. Delivery Team Fall 2015 PRETEST