APPENDIX B
Intercultural Development Inventory v.3 (IDI)
INDIVIDUAL
INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP)
Prepared for: Tamara Lebak, Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association FCC
Prepared by: Beth Zemsky, Lead Consultant, April 30, 2012
In conjunction with Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D. IDI, LLC
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
For information or ordering the IDI, contact: www.idiinventory.com
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 months—or 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.
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 group’s 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 competence—tailored to your own IDI profile results—can 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
Which of these ten learning opportunities can you do to accomplish your intercultural goals and address your intercultural stress points? Below is a description of these ten learning opportunities to consider as you create your Intercultural Development Plan.
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: Are there workplace committees and groups in which you can participate to build your intercultural skills? This can include participating in your organization’s 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 incidents”—that 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.
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.
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 one’s mindset and behavior to bridge across differences.
Mitchell R. Hammer, 2011