Do you know your strengths and pitfalls for working with people from other cultures? Or do you have a lot of experience in this area, so are you quite comfortable working with other cultures anyway?

In either case I challenge you to assess your ‘Intercultural Readiness’.

Already for a while I was looking for a good instrument to complement my trainings and coaching on intercultural cooperation. But the tests I found were either over-simplified (“Do you like working with people who are different? Score yourself 1-5”), over-complicated (people tend to over-intellectualize this field in my view) or not well-researched and therefore of limited validity. This changed when SIETAR’s Ursula Brinkmann alerted me to the Intercultural Readiness Check (IRC).

IRC assesses your Intercultural Readiness on 4 dimensions (each with 2 sub-orientations). The result is a fully personalized report that provides you with scores, and concrete suggestions for development. The IRC database contains the profiles of 22.000 people worldwide so there’s comparison enough. The instrument has been scientifically validated, and proves to be of great help for individuals who want to know how ‘ready’ they are for cross-cultural encounters.

I am qualified now to use this instrument in personal coaching and training, so contact me when interested to assess yourself or your team members!

The 4 dimensions of IRC are useful and recognizable for anyone working frequently with other cultures. The first 2 dimensions are what you expect of an instrument like this: intercultural sensitivity (are you really interested in others, and do you pick up their signals?) and intercultural communication (are you open for the inputs of the other person, and can you adjust your communication style when needed). The 3rd dimension is building commitment: do you build diverse networks and do you succeed to get commitment from (international) stakeholders for your plans. And finally there is managing uncertainty: can you deal with the complexities and uncertainty that cross-cultural encounters bring?

We all have strengths and weaknesses in these areas. What I particularly like about IRC is the practical tips and concrete advice that the reports contain: not only does the instrument assess your relative strength on each dimension, it also tells you what you can do to (further) increase your effectiveness in this area.

I am enthusiastic, and happy I found this instrument to use in my intercultural work from now on. Have I made you enthusiastic for giving it a try? Let me know and contact me to schedule an assessment!