The Role of Design Thinking in Intercultural Communication

Several years ago I started to get very interested in innovation. In addition to taking courses on design thinking and systematic inventive thinking, I created an innovation tool kit to help spark creativity and increase engagement on my team. Over the past few years, I’ve specifically looked at innovation and its relationship to culture through correlation analysis, taking a more quantitative approach. Here are some of those studies:

• Innovation & Culture: How are they Connected?
• Are Happier Countries More Innovative?
• How to Promote Innovation in Multicultural Teams

This article takes a more qualitative approach in looking at the connection between innovation and intercultural communication and focuses on the role design thinking can play in intercultural encounters.

Simply put, Design Thinking is an approach to innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. It is an iterative process focused on human-centered design — specifically empathy and understanding the target user. It allows one to challenge assumptions and redefine problems in new ways. The 5 stages of Design Thinking are:

1. Empathize — with your users
2. Define — your user’s needs, their problem, and your insights
3. Ideate — by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions
4. Prototype — to start creating solutions
5. Test — solutions

Humans naturally develop set patterns of thinking, often referred to as schemas. Essentially, these schemas make us think or react in the same way every time we encounter a certain stimuli. You probably don’t even realize it’s happening, but the likelihood that you are attacking similar problems in the same way every time is very likely. Design Thinking attempts to break our usual patterns of thinking and helps us to develop new ways of seeing.

So what does Design Thinking have to do with Intercultural Communication? Let’s take a closer look.

At the heart of Intercultural Communication is…well…communication! Whether you’re an expat, a business traveler, or a global nomad, intercultural communication is important to you because it provides you with a framework for how people communicate and behave differently around the world. But the focus of intercultural communication isn’t just to show you that differences exist — it’s to teach you how to manage these differences. And managing these differences involves a lot of creativity!

Like Design Thinking, Intercultural Communication asks you to challenge assumptions and break away from usual patterns of thinking, communicating, and the way you’ve done what you’ve always done. It asks you be open to other realities and to recognize that your perception of the world might not always be correct.

The focus of intercultural communication isn’t just to show you that differences exist — it’s to teach you how to manage these differences.

When communicating with someone from another culture, you are constantly being creative. You are forced to come up with alternative approaches to the way you typically do things — whether it be when managing a team, leading a project, or negotiating a deal.

So… Can Design Thinking aid in Intercultural Communication? I say YES!

Here are some ideas for applying Design Thinking’s 5 stages to Intercultural Communication:

1. Empathize — with those from other cultures; be sensitive to and respectful of differences. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes, and try to imagine things from her perspective and from her cultural lens
2. Define — what the other person or team needs and where the miscommunication is coming from. Take time to observe non-verbal communication cues, such as eye contact and facial expressions
3. Ideate — come up with various ways for solving any miscommunications or intercultural misunderstandings. In multicultural teams, this can be a great exercise. There are various ideation techniques out there, such as brainwriting, Worst Possible Idea, and SCAMPER
4. Prototype — start creating actual solutions. Prototyping is typically used for product design; however, it can be used for any design thinking activity. With intercultural communication, you would expand upon the ideation phase and come up with a few possible solutions to any miscommunications. You would then investigate these solutions and either accept, reject, improve, or re-examine them
5. Test — your solutions with those from other cultures, specifically with those whom you are experiencing communication issues. Take your best solutions identified in the prototyping stage and give it a go! Try a less direct communication approach, try to be more process-oriented, try to emphasize the group over the individual

People are often aware that cultural differences exist, but many do not know where to begin when miscommunications arise. Intercultural training can help. But, in order for the discipline to grow, we need to incorporate other ideas into the traditional methods of teaching intercultural competence. Design Thinking is just one of those ways that can help — especially with enhancing communication on multicultural teams. For the intercultural consultants and coaches out there… What are some unique approaches that you use in your intercultural work?

• Design Thinking can be used to come up with creative ideas for solving intercultural misunderstandings
• Design Thinking can help us break our typical thinking patterns
• Design Thinking can help us open ourselves up to other ways of communicating
• Successful Intercultural Communication involves innovation and creativity

Contact me at hello@nicolebarile.com if you’d like to learn more or visit me here.

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