Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Part XII
I’m writing a series of posts on the book Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore. We’re in the section of the book called “Sharpening Our Focus and Service with Cultural Intelligence (CQ)”. Today the focus is on the second aspect of cultural intelligence: “interpretive CQ”. Here are my highlights from the chapter:
- - “Interpretive CQ is simply the degree to which we’re mindful and aware when we interact cross-culturally. It’s turning off the ‘cruise control’ we typically use as we interact with people and intentionally questioning our assumptions. As we interpret the cues received through interpretive CQ, we continually adjust our knowledge CQ. These two elements of CQ are very dependent upon one another.”
- “Interpretive CQ is the ability to connect our knowledge with what we’re observing in the real world. It’s developing the awareness to see and interpret cues from our cross-cultural encounters It’s all about making connections between what we know and what we’re seeing and experiencing.”
- “Interpretive CQ follows a three-step process. First, interpretive CQ leads us to plan our cross-cultural interactions.”
- “Second, interpretive CQ begins to work itself out through a keen sense of awareness during cross-cultural interactions.”
- “Checking and monitoring is the final step in interpretive CQ. This is when we compare what we planned with what’s actually happening.”
- “Those with high interpretive CQ possess an ongoing awareness of what’s going on around them beyond what they can see with their physical eyes. They possess a mindfulness that makes them aware and thus able to more accurately interpret unfamiliar behaviors and events.”
- “Serving with eyes wide open goes against the grain of our fast-paced, urgent culture by pausing to reflect on and question our assumptions. Reflection shouldn’t mean that we simply sit off in isolation in a serene setting to write in our journals all day long. Instead we have to learn to engage in reflection and interpretation even when we’re dead tired in the midst of Shanghai’s city center.”
Livermore gives a couple of great tips for cultivating interpretive CQ such as stimulating the imagination (through culture-specific stories, narratives, myths, tales, rituals, etc.), adjusting the way we interact with others, journaling, and doing a cross-cultural immersion. I would also add developing meaningful friendships with people of other cultures (that’s a good tip for enhancing interpretive CQ as well as enhancing your life in general!).
Basically, the way I look at it, knowledge CQ is book smarts; interpretive CQ is street smarts. You have to be aware of what’s going on around you. Does this culture look like the one I read about? How and why? Or why not? When a person improves his or her interpretive CQ, he or she is one step closer to getting the full, rich experience of diving into a new culture in a short-term missions setting.
We’re flying right through this cultural intelligence stuff. Tomorrow we tack the third aspect of CQ: perseverance.
