Geography of thought - What influences culture

Cultural awareness and sensitivity is essential in Leadership and yet forbidden in my work. The Department of Real Estate (who regulates the practice of Real Estate in CA) is very clear that all people should be treated the same, without regard to "race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, familiar status, marital status, sex, sexual preference, age, source of income, or disability." This policy not only recognizes the current law, but exists to combat decades of discrimination and steering (where certain minorities are kept out of specific neighborhoods) etc. So I don't ask work related people where they are from, what languages they speak or anything that would indicate awareness of race, because in the Real Estate world a conversation about race/age etc. opens the door to a discrimination lawsuit.


When I first started with the MBA I was surprised to hear people talk about where they were from. I was also very perplexed by the value judgements placed on location, like "they are from the North, not like us." I wonder if that is because Americans tend to move more frequently and farther from their birth place than people in other nations. I spoke to a man in New Zealand who told me he relocated when he got married and settled down in his wife's city. The distance from his hometown to his new place was 25 miles, I know people who commute further than 25 miles. I would never say that all occupants of Fremont are... because I couldn't accurately generalize.

After I graduated from college I spent 5 weeks in Europe. I didn't realize how much of my personality was influenced by my culture until I left the US. Some things like the American ideas of independence and self-sufficiency are different than much of Western Europe. In some ways this benefits the US in that we tend to be very creative, driven and innovative. In other ways this hurts the US in that sometimes we protect the independent idea at the expense of the majority.

I could not easily think of a time that culture differences created a negative interaction from my point of view, and I think that's due to an underlying belief that blaming difficult situations on a person's race or culture is discrimination. So even in my mind any difficulties I attribute to myself or the other person specifically.

However, after reflection, I think I probably have left a negative impression on other clients by addressing them by first name, especially clients who are older or from more formal cultures. Addressing business people by first name is something I have done throughout my life, from my earliest childhood memories, and I know from both class discussions and my travels that that is not true throughout most of the national and international business culture. It didn't even occur to me to consider changing the formality of my emails and conversation until I was talking to a friend about the honorific -san, and how he addressed his Asian clients vs. Indian clients, vs. Western European clients.