Growing up in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia I often found myself saying that all inclusive term “Who don’t know that?!” at my favorite hangouts at least a googol times in my conversations with the other local mid-teen to early twenty loiterers. The bowling alleys, either the affectionately known “Pit” or the newer “Palace”, both close to Washington Lane and Stenton Avenue or the Hot Shop, at Broad and Stenton were bastions of the usual trivial talk and eyeing of the opposite sex. But on occasion creeping intellectualism took hold and we’d go on for hours about everything from physics to the evolution of human beings (or lack thereof).

As age came along and I knew that I had to make a living for myself, and soon enough my family, I also started to realize that that little phrase became less and less usable. “Who don’t know that?!” Why me of course!

Business is a learning process. Day in and day out new things hit you over the head. Sometimes the smash is like that of a “Nurf” bat and sometimes it’s like a sledgehammer.

As our society gets more and more diverse we must broaden our views to the visions and values of others. Not just the obvious, like clothing styles and holidays, but the not so obvious as well.

It’s impossible to be all knowing. Though we all know people who think they are.

A great example of the differences in business today and the way it was done when I was a budding entrepreneur, back in what seems like the 1870s (not a typo), is the globalization of commerce. We have to be more understanding of other folks’ methods of conducting their capitalist pursuits.

Since more and more of us are dealing with cross border and cross cultural business people we must take the time to recognize how we interact with those people from other cultures. Our actions could be the difference between lost contracts and contacts and a very lucrative deal.

Our perceptions also pertain to the individuals we hire to help run our companies.

How many people think about the way those across from us process our gestures, learn our teachings, understand our speech and view our surroundings? Well, if you do then you comprehend that it’s even more imperative that you view it cross culturally when necessary. If you don’t, then you better “get on the stick!”

There are some things that most Americans take for granted. You write things down and if you need to refer to them, you look them up. We’ve spent our whole life learning the 26 characters we call the alphabet and putting those characters together to form words. We may not be a country of the greatest spellers in the world but thank goodness for spell check!

That’s not totally the case in other cultures. The Chinese must master (memorize) two thousand characters just to be basically literate. So they may need some time to accommodate themselves to our more experiential way of processing information.

Then there are cultures where there is an inbred respect for anyone in a position of authority. You may have employees, clients or prospects from those cultures who would never tell you that they think you and/or your product or service could use some changes because of their respect for your position. With those individuals you may have to gently pry their thoughts out of their minds while assuring them that it in no way shows a lack of respect towards you and in fact, in our culture, it breeds mutual respect.

Recently a poignant cross-cultural incident was relayed to me by a friend who lives in Oklahoma. She told me of a Native American man who worked for a manufacturing company. He was sitting with his team supervisor going over particulars. The supervisor was getting visibly frustrated with the lack of eye contact he was receiving from his team member. After the supervisor left the meeting he began complaining about the behavior the other man was displaying. Fortunately the person he was speaking with was very familiar with Native American cultures and told the supervisor that within the values of many tribes making eye contact was considered an act of aggression. Not making eye contact showed respect. After that explanation the behavior took on a totally different meaning to the supervisor.

When was the last time you were in a meeting or company/industry sponsored seminar and when the leader asked “Is everything clear?” very few people, if any, raised their hands or shouted out questions. We all know that some of us may choose to be silent so as not to show what we may feel could be perceived as ignorance, while others cultures may call this act, saving face. For some asking questions means losing face. You or whomever is leading the discussion would be wise to outline information in detail, ask participants to explain a specific part of the session, or invite questions by setting up role-playing and or real life situations.

By understanding that diversity in the workplace is more than putting up Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanzaa displays around the Holidays we can bring about real and meaningful growth within our businesses. We live in an increasingly shrinking world. A world made up of so many different ways of conducting business within the confines of capitalism. Which means that if you really want the capital that capitalism can provide it may be time to think about what you don’t know when it comes to the people and cultures that make up the wonderful world of business.

And remember, the next time you hear “Who don’t know that?!” be ready to stand up proudly and respond “Why me, of course!!”.

Bowling anyone?