Cultural Intelligence: Strategy

By Dr. Graham McKeague

How much do you like to plan ahead? Imagine you’re going to the grocery store because you need to get food for the next week – do you look through your fridge and the kitchen cupboards first, figure out the meals you’ll be preparing for the next week, then make your list, or do you just head out the door and figure it out once you get to the store? Consider another scenario – you are going on a road trip – do you think about where you want to go, perhaps narrowing to a specific destination from a list of ideas, look up things to do and places to stay, then map out the journey and finalize your playlist? Or, perhaps you grab some clothes and a few snacks and hit the road, figuring out where you’ll end up along the way and seeing what happens. 

In both of these examples, you’d likely have the same general experiences – you would buy some food and have meals for the next week, and you’d go on a road trip. The key difference, however, is that they are likely to be quite different kinds of experiences in terms of effectively maximizing the opportunity and getting the most from what you’re doing. 

The same holds true for going on mission. We can choose to simply “go”, figuring things out along the way and hoping that great things will happen. God is good and faithful, and He will often use even this approach to ministry, but when it comes to mission, especially to places and people we don’t know, it’s better to have some planning in place. Think about the following example from the life of Paul. 

In Acts 17, starting in v16, we read that Paul was in the city of Athens, where he was waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him. As he was waiting, his heart was disturbed to see so many idols of other gods – he came up with a plan for a mission! We read that he was brought to a famous place in the city, Mars Hill, where the philosophers would debate ideas. Paul, who was from a different city and a different cultural background (Jewish, not Greek), would need to figure out how to communicate about Jesus in a way that made sense to the philosophers. What did he do? Instead of using language and cultural examples that would make sense to him, he used cultural examples that made sense to his audience – he quoted Greek poets and acknowledged their religious devotion seen throughout their city. Paul intentionally planned what he would say and how he would say it, so that he could be more effective in his mission. This is a wonderful example of using strategy!

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a research-based approach to becoming more effective in working with others who are different from us. It has four areas that can be developed over time so that you can become more effective in ministry. These areas are: 

• CQ Drive
• CQ Knowledge
• CQ Strategy
• CQ Action

This blog post covers Strategy, which focuses on the importance of areas such as planning and awareness. As we read in the example above, Paul used planning and awareness when he visited Athens. As he walked around the city, he became aware of the differences he was seeing in the culture from what he was used to – the city was full of idols! This would have also caused him to reflect on his own identity and cultural background (self-awareness) and ask himself how he could share the Gospel most effectively. This led him into planning, and you might imagine Paul, as he walked around the city of Athens, praying and thinking about how to take what he was seeing and experiencing around him and how to use it for mission. CQ Strategy follows this pattern – rather than jumping straight into action based on knowing some aspects about a culture, a CQ approach uses strategy to plan ahead and develop awareness so that we can minimize causing offense and maximize the opportunity to serve effectively.  

So, how do we build our strategy using CQ? 

1. Strategy builds on the first two parts of CQ Drive (which focuses on motivation) and Knowledge (learning about how cultures are the same and different from each other). Once we know something about another culture, we need to figure out how to put it into practice. Strategy helps us to do this, beginning with slowing down enough to prepare well and asking how we are likely to use the knowledge we’ve gained. 
2. The next step is to envision very specific moments or scenarios that will happen when we’re on mission. These moments are often very “everyday” situations – someone from a different culture asks you to share about who you are and where you are from – using Strategy, you could prepare a response to this question ahead of time. Perhaps you are serving somewhere where they will speak a different language, perhaps Spanish. How would you greet someone in Spanish, even using a few words to help bridge the cultural gap? You could learn a few words and phrases ahead of time and practice. As you prepare for your trip, as a team, think about the ways in which you can prepare for different things you will do, conversations you are likely to have or hope to have, and ways you can plan to share in ministry. 
3. Consider your level of self-awareness. In CQ Drive, you considered your motivation, and in CQ Knowledge, you reflected on information and cultural patterns. With CQ Strategy, the focus is on awareness, including self-awareness. As you prepare to go on mission, reflect and discuss the ways in which you have been shaped by your cultural background. One way to do this is by thinking about your cultural story. This is where you describe the various things in your life that are important to you and shape who you are, specifically cultural aspects such as the food you eat, clothes you like to wear, music you listen to, ways you celebrate holidays and what holidays are important to you, what your local community is like, language(s) you speak, and how much experience you have with people from other cultures, etc. Thinking about these aspects of your story can help you develop deeper self-awareness, an important step in knowing how to effectively serve others. 

Discussion Questions

1. How would you describe your overall level of planning in life? Do you like to go with the flow or plan the details ahead of time? Describe an example of what this looks like in your life.  
2. As you prepare for your trip, what are some advantages you can think of (individually or as a group) for planning ahead and thinking about using CQ in particular? What is one area you can focus on for your trip and planning ahead?
3. Read Acts 17 where Paul is in Athens. How would you describe his CQ planning and awareness in your own words? What lessons can you personally learn from this story?
4. Can you tell your cultural story? As you prepare for your trip, practice telling your cultural story in 3-5 minutes so you can become more comfortable sharing more about yourself with others.