Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Part IX
We’re in the middle of a series on the book Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore. Today we’re switching gears, turning to the section of the book called “Sharpening Our Focus and Service with Cultural Intelligence (CQ).” This is where the rubber meets the road, where Livermore moves from “what we’re doing wrong in short-term missions” to “what we can do to change what’s wrong!”
There are some important concepts in the introduction to this section of the book that Livermore goes into more detail in the remaining chapters. I’m going to follow Livermore’s model and simply introduce the concepts in today’s “Part IX” of Serving with Eyes Wide Open:
Cultural Intelligence (CQ)
…a way of measuring our ability to interact effectively when we cross cultures, comprising four areas: Knowledge, Interpretation, Perseverance, and Behavior
Knowledge CQ: Understanding Cross-Cultural Differences
…measures our level of knowledge and understanding about cross-cultural differences.
Interpretive CQ: Interpreting Cues
…measures our ability to accurately interpret cues we receive as we engage cross-culturally.
Perseverance CQ: Persevering through Cross-Cultural Conflict
…measures our degree of interest in persevering through cross-cultural conflict.
Behavioral CQ: Acting Appropriately
…measures our ability to actually act appropriately when interacting cross-culturally.
I bet you didn’t know there are four components of cultural intelligence, which together form our ability to adjust and interact effectively in another culture! (I surely did not know!)
Begin thinking about the qualities we need in to be able to flourish in another culture (most of your ideas will probably fall into the Knowledge CQ and Behavioral CQ categories). We’ll tackle each aspect of “CQ” over the next four weekdays. Stay tuned…
