Your Commitment

My overall goal regarding developing a CM is making sure that I am fair, unbiased and
welcoming with my actions and when I am interacting with those around me. This is important to me
because I want to foster a warm, welcoming inclusive environment and show others in marginalized
groups such as myself that they are welcome and their differences are what make them great. Growth in
my CM will allow me to break down barriers among all cultures and understand cultural differences
clearly as to make sure not to offend anyone when interacting. Growth in my CM will allow my
team/organizations to communicate more effectively and efficiently. This will help us to adapt and be
more successful and self aware in our surroundings. My level of commitment to this endeavor is second
to none. I am 100% committed.

Review
You should have completed a number of self-assessments while reading this book, including the
ICMI. In this section, pull together all the information from those self-assessments and provide the
results. You are going to be looking for trends, strengths and weaknesses. There will be things you
know and perhaps some that will surprise you.

 Your overall ICMI score and score in each factor (Self-Assessments 2.1; 4.1)

CM Factor Score CM Factor Score

1. Cultural Self-Awareness (CSA): 27 6. Plural (PL): 60
2. Fixed Mindset (FM): 22 7. Meta-Cognition (MC): 41
3. Growth Mindset (GM): 29 8. Cultural Knowledge (CK): 31
4. Parochial (Pa): 30 9. Cultural Curiosity (CC): 42
5. Ethnocentric (E): 42 10 Self-Monitoring (SM):
.

1. I don’t think my scores from the above test will hinder my cultural interactions. I feel that being
“average” in all of the categories is actually a good thing and will make me more aware in
interactions in the future.
2. Again, being average I think wouldn’t help or hurt me, but might be a little inconvenient in a
multi-cultural setting where I need to learn and adapt a bit quicker.
3. I’d like to tackle my Culture Self-Awareness and Fixed Mindset primarily.
4. I consider myself to be pretty well entrenched in my pluralism belief. But I have seen multiple
occurrences of ethnocentrism in my former employer. The idea was even though we were
building a global tool, we were only focused on what worked for the US.
 Your cultural background (Self-Assessments 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3)

Admittedly, I don’t know much about my own Culture background. I know I’m Irish and Italian but that’s
the extent of my knowledge. I’d like to enhance, or rather create, a Growth midset so that I may learn
more about not only my cultural background, but others around me. My values and beliefs have shifted
as I’ve gotten older. I grew up in a strongly catholic household and have since moved away from that
and have also come-out which was a big culture shock of my own and to my parents.

 Your key values (Self-Assessments 1.2 and 7.2; Exercises 2.1, 7.2, 10.1, and 10.2)
 Your biases and the stereotypes you hold (Self-Assessments 5.1 and 5.2; Exercise 6.1)
 1. I completed the IAT on Sexuality.
2. The results really surprised me. It said I had “a slight automatic preference for Straight
people over Gay people”. Being gay, I found this kind of surprising and then my boyfriend
was so kind to point out that I only have 2 gay friends and all my other friends are straight
and I only just came out. Makes sense.
3. I learned that I need to embrace my community and culture more.
4. I am going to use this information to make sure that my decision are evenly displaced with
minimal biases regardless of the issue, topic, or any other concern.
 Other personality or abilities (Self-Assessments 2.1, 6.1, 7.1, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, and
11.2)
 Your overall knowledge of culture and bias. You can use you ICMI cultural knowledge-factor
score and your work in TBW as starting points

Identify Areas of Strength

During this course I had the pleasure of learning a lot about the impact culture has on the workplace
and on myself. I found out that I was more accepting of those with differences that I have expected
my own self to be. Additionally, I was more curious about other cultures than I would have
imagined. The TBW Courses truly made an impact in my understanding and of culture in the
workplace and in life in general.

Identify Weaknesses/Areas of Opportunity

During this course I learned a lot about myself. My biggest areas of opportunities have a lot to do
with my self image. I don’t do well with humiliation, I don’t acknowledge other cultures as easily as I
want to and my mindset to be more open than the score reflects.

Reflect on Your Destination

Using the TKD roadmap in your textbook, reflect on what you would like to or need to address and
adjust your mission accordingly if needed. Please note if you adjust your mission.

This course has opened my eyes to culture and business. There are many things that I have already
began to use in my daily life. My path to being an effective leader in my organization has continued to
move forward and advance. If I can just continue to focus on my growth mindset and improving my
Fixed mindset. The items presented in each weeks modules really created an eye-opening look into
myself to find out truly what kind of leader I am and how I can improve to be more welcoming to those
around me.
Set SMART Goals
Using all the information you have gathered from this exercise so far, identify short-term and long-
term goals; you may also choose to further create in-between goals or any time frame that you
prefer. As you now know, your CMC may affect your goal-setting time frame. You should refer back
to your mission statement and revise it if necessary. While long-term goals may be more generic and
less precise, similar to short-term goals, they should follow the SMART guidelines; meaning they
should be specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and have a time frame. Use your strengths
and weaknesses to assess the degree to which the goals are achievable and reasonable. For
example, if your general cultural knowledge is low, it would not be reasonable to achieve a high
level of knowledge through a short-term goal.

Short Term Goals (1-3 Months)
1. Gain more knowledge of the Chinese
professional culture
2. Offer to take on more tasks in groups
3. Encourage others to provide feedback
4. Acknowledge my implicit biases and work to
avoid them
5.
Long Term Goals (6-12 Months)
1. Create a welcoming environment for all team
members
2. Improve my leadership skills
3. Actively seek feedback and advice/input
4. Read more regularly
5.

Strategies: How Will You Get There?

Now that you have a series of goals, for each of them identify strategies to achieve them. For
example, if your goal is to increase your cultural knowledge, strategies might include taking a
course, attending cultural festivals, reading literature, watching films, travelling, and so forth. The
worksheet below is just a suggestion to get you started. You will need strategies, time frame, and
resources.

Goal 1: ___________________________________________________________

Strategies, time frame, and resources:

1)
2)
3)

Goal 2: ____________________________________________________________

Strategies, time frame, and resources:

1)
2)
3)
 Goal 3: ____________________________________________________________

Strategies, time frame, and resources:

1)
2)
3)

Do
Implement your various strategies and keep track of your progress. Obviously, in the space of a 7-
week course, you cannot completely implement everything, but if you have started moving forward,
tell us about it. Hopefully, in the future you will be able to move forward with your plan thought.
Remember to take small steps and do not get overwhelmed or discouraged. Consider mistakes to be
a learning opportunity (growth mindset) and keep your sense of humor. Achieving your goals and
developing a CM is a journey; expect successes and failures and learn from both. Enjoy the process;
the outcome is worth it!

Review
Best practice is to set yourself a timeline to review your progress and assess whether your strategies
are having the right impact, or whether your goals are appropriate. At this point, depending on your
level of commitment and your motivation, you can start the cycle back with new goals, and so forth,
and continue to develop and refine your CM. Again, there isn’t enough time in the course to execute
a timeline, but please describe what you think your timeline will look like.