About This Week's Guest

Lisette Sutherland

Lisette Sutherland is the Director at CollaborationSuperpowers.com, a company that helps teams work together from anywhere.

She is also a Founder of Happy Melly, a company helping to globalize companies that are improving the lives of knowledge workers.

With over 10 years of experience with web-based collaboration tools and online community management, her goal is to get the best people working together regardless of location.

Lisette Sutherland gives three tips to become more culturally competent:

Slow down. Ask what you don't know. Although you might not know what you don't know (a blind spot) still ask questions and more questions. When working virtually, you can create a Holiday Calendar. Holidays are important in every country and this way you can find out more about the other culture by asking why the holiday is and how it is celebrated.

Create a "Personal Map"; like a mind map, but then you put your name in the middle. Around your name, you write things about yourself. But you don't explain it yourself, you let your virtual team members ask what they see. This is a great way to get to know each other and do virtual team building.

Create a virtual water cooler or  "Kitty Talk" (this is explained in the podcast). This means that you simply pick a time when you all meet online and just chat. Not about work per se. This can be about everything.

Interview Links

Links that are mentioned in this episode:

Twitter: @lightling

Website: http://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/

Build Your Cultural Competence

In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories.

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Finally

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast.

I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!