Welcome to IllumiNations Cultural Training!

Welcome to IllumiNations Cultural Training!


We provide Cultural Intelligence tools and perspectives for multicultural Australia. With a decade of developing cultural competencies on three continents, we bring the latest global findings to work for you locally.


We equip participants to communicate and connect better across cultures, and contribute to a thriving multicultural society. We look forward to shining light on cultural diversity and equipping you to do the same in your organisation and community.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

"Ailing Multiculturalism" Wailing

"Multiculturalism is failing", wail European leaders, from Germany's Angela Merkel to France's Nicolas Sarkozy and now the UK's David Cameron.

When democracy is failing or ailing, we are quick to define what that failure consists of. Corruption, oppression and dictatorship, for instance. When George Bush won his first US election by a dubious margin, some of those words got called out - but nobody suggested democracy itself was a problem, and should be abandoned. Rather, the calls were for a stronger, better democracy.

When multiculturalism fails or ails, it gets called... multiculturalism. Giving the actual phenomenon of societies with many cultures a bad name! It should at least be called dysfunctional multiculturalism,  in contrast to productive multiculturalism. Or define the problem as segregation, assumed assimilation, or terrorism (which is certainly not multiculturalism, any more than Stalin was part of democracy).

Multiculturalism is not failing us. We are failing multiculturalism. We should be calling for a stronger, better supported multiculturalism. One that contributes to a thriving society, as it already does in so many places, instances and organisations. Nobody ever wails, or whoops, about that.


And why are these leaders denouncing multiculturalism? It couldn't be populism, could it?

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Why do I have to do cultural training?

"Why do we have to talk about culture? Why can't we just see each person for who they are instead?"

That was the opening line of one of my participants in my latest group training. It is a valid question.

The short answer is: so that you can see each person for who they are even better.

Culture is part of who people are. It is not the only part. We all have personalities, and we are all human beings. I would argue that there is more that unites us than that sets us apart. And yet, culture has a significant influence on us. It may even cause us to misinterpret the other person, in spite of our best efforts to see everyone for who they are.


The same woman, after training, said "I get it!
I have been treating people who are from hierarchical, group oriented culture as insecure. I thought their lack of initiative and inability to be direct was a sign of personal weakness; now I see that it is possibly a sign of respect and a way to maintain harmony.
Now I just wonder what they make of my direct, confrontational style..."

She had come a long way - from saying "What culture? I don't care about culture!" to saying "How can I act for a better outcome?". She gained clear CultureVision, and is ready to spring into CultureAction.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Finding the cultural keys


Knowing how to kiss, bow and shake hands in different cultures may be useful, but is it what is going to clinch the deal? Would others be so mortally offended if you stretched out a hand when you were meant to bow, or kiss twice instead of three times?


 No, culture works in more subtle ways than that. And looking for answers in “what not to do” type check lists is a bit like looking for your lost car keys under the street light instead of in the dark ditch where you dropped them. Easier, but ultimately ineffective.

It is our ability to communicate in a multicultural environment that makes the real difference.  To navigate the invisible assumptions we bring to the interaction, around hierarchy, harmony and sense of self.  Cultural values are those lost car keys. Shed some light on culture, and you will find them.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Making Multiculturalism Work

We can’t just throw people from different cultures together and expect it to work perfectly. And yet, when we do just that and it doesn’t work, we conclude that Multiculturalism has Failed! That is what the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech last month. Actually, she said “Failed Utterly”.

The comment was sparked by preliminary facts that around 3.8% of immigrants have not completed obligatory language and culture courses. 3.8%! It is politics, of course. And those of us who do the multicultural footwork may not be much helped by it.

So let’s move on the Cultural Intelligent discussion.  How does the way in which we communicate and connect differently across cultures impact our understanding for one another, and therefore our ability to as Dr Merkel says, “live side by side and be thrilled for each other”?

As we meet in society; in the boardroom and on the sidewalk, in the job interview and at school, we try to read each other. We try to establish who this person is. Will I hire him or her? Befriend? Tolerate? Avoid?

In a cultural sense, we are doing something called “decoding behaviour”. It is much more complex than noticing and interpreting a veil or a turban; most of us can see past differences in clothing. It is a subtle, subconscious process of reading behaviour, and guessing at the person within.
Take something as simple with eye contact. People from some of Australia’s main immigrant cultures are raised and rewarded not to look their counterpart directly in the eyes. “It drives me crazy”, said one of my participants. “It is so rude! I feel like they don’t care enough to even acknowledge me. Why are they here in the first place, if they don’t want to be part of this society?”.

So we jump to conclusions, on all sides. “This society” is Australia, where we look each other in the eye on the street and possibly even say “G’day” to strangers. That is no more right, or wrong, than the way 2/3rds of the world’s population does it – with less eye contact. If we don’t understand how culture works on us, especially our own culture, we won’t automatically know that.

So, if we are going to make our multicultural society work, we won’t get there by simply stating our grand ambitions. That would be like a sports person turning up to the Olympics without training. We need practical, validated, tried-and tested tools.  Cultural Intelligence is one such, and a key ingredient in a thriving multicultural society.