Connect mid-month RAP: 8/17/23 ~ SKILLs across cultures

Greetings!

Since it's mid-month, it’s time for another of our RAP sessions (Review And Process, deeper and wider). Each RAP revisits a cross-cultural theme or topic from a previous Connect. This month we are going to revisit the topic of ‘Silver Linings’ from several early Connects back when Covid was raging in the summer of 2020. (*) We’ll be focusing on transferring skills across cultures, which are covered in the Learner Identity section of Global SKILLs’ 3D Dynamics HOME dimension and the Applications component of our PROACTive Framework. (**)

In the midst of all the uncertainty and upheaval that first ‘covid summer’ 3 years ago, some of us began to search for and discover potential pandemic ‘silver linings’. One was about learning new skills, which gradually complemented our Learner Identities. Zooming, social distancing, mask making (!) - all these and so many more skills were added to our daily endeavors. Another silver lining was about transferring skills to new contexts, which we then applied in different ways. New roles, new living conditions, new social imperatives - all these dictated how we needed to develop our skill sets.

This summer, with Covid (thankfully!) more or less somewhat under control but new challenges always on the horizon, I am once again looking for some silver linings! This time its in the context of several new part time jobs. I am taking skills I have mastered into these new work opportunities. I’m also transferring and tweaking some of my skills to be useful in my new roles.

The cultural insights I see here have to do with how we manage our existing skills and master new ones necessary for daily cultural contexts and encounters. Whether it’s interpersonal relationships with neighbors or our team at work, these dynamics can be both scary and exhilarating. Let’s seek and embrace silver linings even when it is challenging, and be empowered through our skill sets - past, present and future!

How about you ~ what is one skill you have recently either added or transferred in a cultural context?

Share about that with a friend or note it here.

And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for more on skills.

Thanks for being part of this Connect community.

Until next week,

Betsy

Global SKILLs LINKs

~ visit my website - which needs an major update but offers a nice tour of community focused skills beginning with language programs and moving into, for instance, community building in the Tiny Circles section: https://www.globalskillspartners.com/

~ silver lining skills across generations: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/silver-linings-demographic-revolution

~ culture as “the strongest skill set” for Latin Americans: https://hispanicmpr.com/articles/finding-the-silver-lining-in-cultural-appropriation/

Notes

* Related Connects: 7/1/20 - silver linings, independent learning; 7/14/21 - silver linings - tourism; 1/5/22 - Orientation; 7/26/23 - Arrivals (scroll down in this blog to find the posts by date)

** Through my business Global SKILLs and several partner subsidiaries I offer unique cross-cultural consulting and training including:

3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: 1st dimension = HOME (which we explored this week); 2nd dimension = HOST ; 3rd dimension = HARBOR

PROACTive Learning Strategies:

PRO = PROfile, PROcess, PROgram

ACT = Applications (which we explored this week), Collaborations and Transformation

~ contact me for more information on this model and these strategies and how you might use them in your current programming: betsy.barbour@gmail.com

2023 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in

intercultural communications and global community building

“It takes a community to build a community”

Please Note: this is copyrighted content.

Please do not reproduce or share without my permission (betsy.barbour@gmail.com)