Cultural Self
Personality
The Cross Cultural Kaleidoscope is a simple but powerful tool to help users situate themselves in their cultural context. This context is multi-faceted and varies from person to person. In broad strokes, we can say that it means the external cultural influences that affect a person's internal world; their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
For a quick exercise on understanding which elements of your cultural context have the most impact on you, do the following:
- Choose one of the segments of the Kaleidoscope that resonates with you the most
- Think about the experiences related to that segment that have affected you throughout your life. This can be in your home country, your host country, or in your organisation
- Imagine yourself standing inside this segment, think about how experiences from this lens have affected how you relate to the other lenses. Think about how these experiences have influenced your identity
- You can repeat this process with a second, and even a third lens, to explore how multiple lenses have shaped you
- Now imagine yourself in the middle of the Kaleidoscope. Think about how your cultural influences and your personality affect your relationship to your chosen lenses.
- Think about how your cultural influences - your chosen lenses and your cultural self - have shaped you, how they have brought you to where you are now. How they have all contributed to your unique identity.