Busting the Myths of Cultural Intelligence — Part 1

The truth can set you free, but it will piss you off first. Are you familiar with the Five Monkeys Experiment?

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage; in the middle of the cage was a ladder with bananas perched at the top. Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, whenever a monkey started up the ladder, the others pulled it down and beat it up. Eventually, none of the monkeys even tried climbing the ladder despite the temptation at the top. The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys. The first thing the newcomer did was start to climb the ladder. Immediately, the others pulled him down and beat him up. After several beatings, the new monkey also learned never to go up the ladder, even though there was no evident reason not to, aside from the beatings. A second monkey was switched out and the same thing occurred: the first substitute participated in the beating of the second. When the third monkey was swapped out too, the same again. The fourth monkey was changed with the same results, and finally the fifth. What was left was a group of five monkeys that — without ever having received a cold shower — continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder. If it were possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up on all those who started climbing the ladder, their most likely answer would be, “I don’t know. It’s just how things are done around here.”

Descriptions of this experiment have appeared many times in various blogs, books, and speeches, even though the experiment as described here never actually happened. The story originated with G.R. Stephenson’s 1967 research into the learned responses of rhesus monkeys. Why is this story relevant? Because we are still driven by very similar principles. If you go to YouTube and search for Brain Games — Conformity (Waiting Room), you will find an eyeopening human version of an experiment that explains why social conformity is tremendously more powerful than most people realise. This is the approach we see in the field of leadership and intercultural training. A lot of solutions exist. Some of them are popular, and some of them are proven, although there is not much overlap within these categories.

For example, Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular psychometric tests. Over two million people use it every year even though 50% of them have a significantly different result when they take it five weeks later. (Fortune, 2013) This can be confusing, both for those who get a different result each time and for those who hope to understand themselves and others better by using the tool.

Companies are passionate about upgrading their technology and streamlining their process, yet there has hardly been any breakthrough in terms of understanding and leveraging diversity in the workforce. Are they using the same old tools because that’s what they have always used or because they work? What costs more in the long run — investing in the latest solutions or sticking to the same old methods? Here are some recent numbers:

• 89% of hiring failures within the first 18 months are due to a poor cultural fit. Only 11% are due to lack of skills. (LeadershipIQ, 2016)
• 75% of employees leave managers not companies. (Gallup, 2016)
• 71% of surveyed organisations aspire to have an inclusive culture, but only 12% have achieved this objective. (Deloitte, 2016)
• 89% of CEOs know addressing leadership, culture, and engagement are the most urgent priorities. (Deloitte, 2016)

Business is about people and their mindset. Not knowing what we consider common sense before trying to figure out what common sense is to someone else can cause a business to fail. Cultural intelligence is an increasingly well-known topic but a less clearly defined concept. Most people think about statistically average national differences and workshops run by trainers who used to live abroad or academics who have written books about it. This is not a sarcastic comment, I qualify for both categories, too, and the next few articles are going to be about sharing my insight about why that is not enough and why current people solutions do not deliver better results than the above-mentioned ones.

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