Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Youth, Family, and Culture)

The world is changing and demographics are shifting fast. In David's Livermore's previous book, “Serving with Eyes Wide Open,” he discussed the need to be better equipped for overseas mission work. In this book, Livermore brings it closer to home. Mission work might be moving into our neighborhood or maybe even next door. From the outset, Livermore introduces us to the “Other”, a concept developed by the German philosopher Hegel that refers “to those different from us.” As the subtext of the title suggests: unless we live in a remote island, we need to gain new skills in order to engage effectively in this new multicultural world.The book is written to a wide range of audience and is useful for anyone who will be engaged in any multi-cultural environment at home and abroad. Although it is written from a Christian perspective, Livermore uses a wide variety of sources and disciplines to make us points. In this book, divided into four-sections, the principle of love as expressed and taught by Jesus is emphasized as the impetus behind our willingness to engage and thrive with the “Other”. Overall, the book is well written with a chockful of valuable information and analysis.The four sections of the book cover the five main components of cultural intelligence. In part 1, “Love: CQ Overview,” Livermore has the courage to insist that love is the main drive towards cultural intelligence. He uses Matthew 22 to expound on Jesus’ command that loving God and loving one another is the greatest command in the Bible. Next, in section II, the book encourages us to seek understanding with “Knowledge CQ.” Here, Livermore defines what culture is and particularly what it means to be the “average American.” We seek to understand ourselves first. In section III, Livermore challenges us to go deep into the “Interpretive CQ,” where we are called to switch off the “cruise control” into the realm of “awareness” and “empathy.” According to Livermore, “interpretive CQ doesn’t occur in a neat, linear fashion.” (p.145) Lastly, he encourages us to put it all together and express our cultural intelligence through these last two factors, “Perseverance and Behavioral CQ.” Here according to Livermore, we come full circle and are driven to “move from the intention to love to expressing our love to the Other.” (p.210)Due to the complexity and subjectivity of the material, Livermore handles the subject matter with depth and insight, although at times the reader is left unsatisfied with the definitions of a few important terms. For instance, on page 94, Livermore tried to define the term “socioethnic” but conceded that it is an “elusive domain.” Also, it seems that Livermore is a little biased towards his own culture as he tries to help a primarily western readership figure out how to navigate the multi-cultural world. As such, it is an invaluable text that will help anyone or any organization gain the skills, knowledge and motivation to “engage our multicultural world.”

As a graduate student at Pepperdine University, this book was one of two primary texts we used in a class called Multiethnic Ministry and Cross-Cultural Missions. The author, David A. Livermore (PhD, Michigan State University) has his background in missions and youth ministry. He knows firsthand the failures that he and other White Christians have made when attempting to minister to people of other cultures and ethnicities. Livermore cringingly recounts some of these failures as warnings to heed and motivators to do better. He does an excellent job of laying out the structural theories and ideas to correct inappropriate assumptions made by dominant group members of the Church, in order to point us all towards a path of greater cultural intelligence. Cultural Intelligence, or “CQ,” as Livermore defines it, is a metaframework that measures and explains one’s ability to reach across the chasm of cultural difference in ways that are loving and respectful. Livermore presents the path toward cultivating and growing in CQ by focusing on love, understanding/knowledge, interpretation, and perseverance/behavior. Livermore excels at presenting a framework for CQ growth that can be applied in any multiethnic or cross-cultural ministry setting. He focuses on key differences between the belief and thought patterns of people of various different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Understanding these differences greatly informs the reader of what to be aware of in a given cross-cultural situation, and how to keep one’s own assumptions from creating a barrier between them and the person of a different culture--or as Livermore says, “the Other.” This is another primary concept in the book. “The Other” is anyone different from oneself as a result of a different cultural context. Rather than assume “color blindness,” homogeneity, or that “we’re all pretty much the same,” Livermore encourages the reader to truly identify when another person is “Other” than them, and to engage in the process of embracing, understanding, and loving that person and their Otherness. However, one of the major pitfalls Livermore seems to fall into, is perhaps an excessive veneration of the Other, and an excessive critique of the dominant culture, this being, in the World--the West, in the West--the U.S, and in the U.S.--Whites. His main audience is indeed dominant group Church members, but sometimes he confusingly conflates those descriptors when they should be specified. For instance, when he refers to an American having trouble doing mission work in an African or Middle Eastern country, it’s not entirely clear whether the barrier is their Americanness or perhaps their Whiteness. This, combined with a sometimes overly generous openness to non-dominant group “Other” cultures, sometimes leads to a lack in identifying any virtues of Western culture, and inattentional blindness to some vices of Other cultures. Overall though, I would describe this book as useful and enlightening, with minimal flaws, making it an excellent read for anyone looking to better understand the Other in their personal life, their society, their business/organization, and especially in their church.

Lots of good common sense content regarding cross cultural relationships that should be so obvious but is so easy to miss without it being pointed out to us.