Women Empowerment: Lessons from Cartier
How can women overcome gender inequality and reach their leadership goals? Cartier Japan CEO June Miyachi shares her secret in this special course from GLOBIS Unlimited.
Confirmation Bias
We all subconsciously collect information that reinforces our preconceptions. It's natural . . . but it does lead to a kind of flawed decision-making called confirmation bias. To become more objective and impartial, check out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited!
Our globalized world has made having cross-cultural skills a necessity. Businesspeople looking to succeed need to increase their cultural knowledge, reduce their biases, and raise their cultural intelligence.
But how do you get started? GLOBIS Faculty Megumi Taoka and Price Global President Suzanne Price present, “Influence with Cultural Intelligence.” This seminar focuses on how professionals can successfully overcome cultural differences and communicate effectively in cross-cultural business settings.
The video features a dialogue between Megumi Taoka and Suzanne Price, two leading experts in the field of diversity and inclusion in Japan, followed by Q&A. Discussions include insights and practical advice for those seeking better understanding, as well as those wanting to be better understood, in global business settings.
Below is a partial transcript of the dialogue session, edited for clarity.
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Is anyone free from stereotyping or other types of biases?
Suzanne Price: Stereotypes are a form of unconscious bias, and we all have unconscious bias. This is a natural mechanism that we need for our survival. So, when it comes to stereotypes, we’re all going to be exposed to information about certain groups.
So if any of us do some kind of awareness test or some kind of an association test around certain groups, say women, Japanese, people with particular colored skin, with a disability even, then probably we will all answer in a way that shows some conscious and unconscious biases and stereotypes that we have about those groups of people.
Women Empowerment: Lessons from Cartier
How can women overcome gender inequality and reach their leadership goals? Cartier Japan CEO June Miyachi shares her secret in this special course from GLOBIS Unlimited.
And the thing with stereotypes is, to some degree, they can be useful. It may be useful for me to know, typically Japanese behave in A, B, C, and D ways. And then I can think about how I adapt my behavior accordingly. And I think that’s part of cultural intelligence.
But if I only see what’s been put on my radar, and I stereotype them, I won’t notice any individuality, or when anything is different from what my assumption is.
How can I recognize my unconscious biases?
Taoka: Yeah. In our process, we often receive questions about when I say, “Japanese people typically are like this,” they are all stereotypes. “You’re putting people into boxes.” And yes, I am. But it has a definite benefit, and it really talks about general tendencies. But we should be very aware that everyone is different.
Price: Yeah. I think one of the things is that, if we are conscious of the stereotypes we have, then we have a choice to separate that bias, that belief, from our behavior, or to question it.
Confirmation Bias
We all subconsciously collect information that reinforces our preconceptions. It's natural . . . but it does lead to a kind of flawed decision-making called confirmation bias. To become more objective and impartial, check out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited!
For example, when I lived in New York, people told me New Yorkers were rude. So, I would notice in the supermarkets when someone was being rude. I might not notice when someone was being polite or helpful.
In Japan, we’re told all Japanese are so polite and courteous. But there are some rude people here, right? People who will push right on by you on the train for that seat they know you’re going for.
If we recognize, well, that’s maybe a bias, it’s a stereotype that’s getting fixed, then we can recognize, “Okay, I may be treating all New Yorkers now as if they’re rude, and I’m kind of revved up, ready to have a fight with all of them. And perhaps that’s not appropriate, it’s not serving me, and it’s not serving them.”
With stereotypes, if we recognize we have them, “Japanese are like this, they don’t make decisions, or they’re polite, they’re too slow.” Then, if we recognize we have that bias and then put it aside, then we’ll be able to see individuals as they actually are.
So that’s the thing. We cannot suppress. If we try to suppress it, it starts squeezing out in the form of bad-taste jokes and so on. What we have to do is recognize we have biases, put them aside, and see individuals for who they are.
How can we tackle our explicit biases?
Taoka: Yeah. So, I introduced this triangle concept to explain the different factors. We have human nature and culture and personality.
When I encounter some interesting interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds, I try to determine if this person’s behavior is like this because of culture, personality, or a mix. And I can kind of distance myself to clearly understand what’s going on.
Price: And it can be a combination of all of it, right?
Taoka: Yes.
Price: Because your personality is going to dance with what you’ve learned in terms of culture, and the social expectations around you.
So, we may say, for example, Swiss people are always on time. But some Swiss individuals may be very flexible with their time, and often late as an individual.
The thing is their society won’t appreciate it, and then they get into trouble for it. Now, with the exact same personality in a culture in Latin America, it may be more acceptable to have a more flexible view of time, and they won’t be judged around it.
Often, I think sometimes our personality and our culture, they’re in a dance. And there’s a little bit of, “Do we conform to our own culture or not?”
Taoka: And it’s always relative. How you are perceived and evaluated in a particular culture is very interesting. When I was working in Japan in my twenties, I was told that I’m just too rude. I say whatever I’m going to say, and my boss goes, “You’re just so rude.”
But when I went to New York, I was told “You are not really contributing at all, because you’re not sharing things.” So, it’s quite relative, and something that we need to know.
Price: In some ways, it’s based on the context. I remember when I was living in Japan before, I was considered extroverted, and quite outspoken.
Then when I lived in New York, I was considered to be somewhat introverted, because I was being dragged out by people or maybe my British way of speaking didn’t allow me to give as much influence as I might have done in Japan.
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