Imagine an Iceberg

I saw this image in an airport, on my way to a country that was new to me.  I knew lots about what was going on in my destination above the waterline, and I had little insight into what was happening below, and how it was related.

It is the same for all of us, whether we are encountering a new country, a new organization, or a new relationship.  We react to the visible and interpret it based on what we already know, or on what we imagine.

The consequence may be misunderstandings and a failure to achieve what we want in an effective and efficient way.   It took me time to realize that differences in priorities and behaviors were logical within my destination, and shaped by what lay below the surface that I could see.

In your imagination, picture an iceberg at sea, rather than the image above. A small part of that iceberg, perhaps 10%, is visible above the waterline.  The rest, getting ever broader towards its base and holding up the visible part, is hidden below the surface. So it is with culture.

Geography and Climate

The base of the cultural iceberg is geography and climate.  All humans have the same needs, most profoundly the ability to survive in a particular environment and to raise the next generation.  The place in which each group finds itself means that it will need to do that in a unique way.  Is there abundant rich soil, encouraging larger cooperative social groups?  Are people living in more challenging environments that only allow small groups to survive in a given space?   Such factors shape what is seen as normal, even inevitable.  This is also the root of many cross-cultural misunderstandings. 

History

Our geography shapes our history.  The location of the Caribbean islands put them in the path of European explorers looking for the orient. Their potential for hosting plantations fed the slave trade and created the mix of peoples who live there now.  What is now Afghanistan lay in the middle of a highway of movement of civilizations for thousands of years, both enriching the culture and creating a nation of people determined to defend their land.

Values and Social Structures

The environment and history shape what is important to a culture – its values – and the ways that societies are structured.  Must leaders be warriors? Do those who intercede with the divine have a lot of influence? Are the old and wise or the young and strong important? What roles do men and women play?    The answers are the best each society can create at that time and in that circumstance.  

Norms of behavior

In each culture there are internalized and unwritten rules about how to do things.  What is the ‘correct’ way to greet someone?  How do we find agreement and deal with differences of opinion? What comes first – building and maintaining relationships or getting jobs done quickly? All of these things are known yet largely invisible – and confusing to those who have different norms.

The institutions at the waterline

Institutions evolve in cultures to maintain order and  to manage the pressures for change that come from outside. Institutions that are ‘legitimate’ can manage those changes.  Those that are artificial (for instance government or religious or educational institutions imposed by conquering societies) have a hard time affecting sustainable, positive change – unless by force, which tends to have the impact of fracturing the iceberg and producing dysfunctional societies.

The process of change

Change is inevitable.  What tends not to work well is change that is forced from the outside.  Outsiders see a state of affairs or behaviors and look within their own cultural context to make sense of it and devise strategies to ‘improve’ things for the others.  Because outsiders often fail to understand the targeted population’s circumstances, history and values, the solution may be inappropriate. It may not be accepted, ‘owned’ and sustained by the people it affects.   The solution may even turn out to be destructive.  Effective, sustainable change must come from within.  Outsiders can play a valuable role – by sharing ideas, access to technologies and ways of doing things, by listening and being supportive. 

When icebergs collide

When icebergs, literal or cultural, encounter one another they often don’t collide above the waterline.  Because of their shape they maintain some distance at that level, perhaps even admiring each other’s uniqueness and beauty.  Below the waterline, however, they may grind together.  When working with communities in another culture our failures to understand one another usually come from not comprehending the impact of place, history and values on shaping what appears to each of us to be logical.

Bridging the cultural divide

To close the gap of understanding and to be effective in supporting positive and sustainable change, we need to look both within our own iceberg to understand why we are the way we are and within theirs to more fully appreciate the differences.