Being a cultural onion and stepping in the shoes of Neil Armstrong..

What surprises me is how little we know about culture. Culture, we take it for granted. Just like water running from our tap or the air we breathe. It is part of us. It impacts us in the way we feel, eat, behave more than we often realize.

We can’t grasp culture. We can’t hold it. We can’t see it. Yet it is everywhere. A nice way of explaining the phenomenon of culture is by using the onion as a metaphor. Now compare yourself to an onion. Look around.

We are all just like onions, yet we differ in shapes, sizes, colours and we all taste differently. Each of us is a unique onion. And like an onion, we consist of different layers. The core of your onion consists of values. Core values are hard to change. They are part and parcel of you. Changing core values usually means trouble. It does not mean that core values don’t
change. They do yet very slowly. Think of gender equality, a western core value, and how it takes time to change and adapt that core value. Also know that all core values, although they differ per culture, are in essence beautiful.

Culture is not just only a personal thing. It is an organisational, national, regional phenomenon. It presents itself at all levels.
I believe that understanding culture and how it impacts our daily life and interactions may help us to refrain from judgment. That is why I can’t help asking myself why we do not invest more in our cultural competence? We work and live with people from so many different backgrounds. Would it not pay off? It has helped me in understanding myself better, being a product of three cultures at least.

We know that conflicts start with judgments. Unfortunately, the world of today still confronts us with many conflicts. Even though conflicts at regional level may be fought far away, we are somehow all interconnected and in one way or the other linked to those wars.

Understanding how culture influences the way we feel, think and act may not stop the war,
but may improve communication between people from different cultures significantly. A small step for you and me, but would it not be a giant leap for mankind?