“Y buen provecho a todos.”

That’s how I started my lunch session at Q2 in Austin this October. Food on the tables, people sitting together, and a simple invitation: talk to your neighbor. Hopefully you decide whether your mouth is full or not. That could be respectful or disrespectful. We’ll see.

Then I asked a simple question. What do respectful guests do?

One answer came right away: take your shoes off before entering the house. And just like that, the room discovered what I see every time. Some people nodded. Some people laughed. Some people had never done that in their lives. Same question, same room, completely different rules.

That is InterCulturaling. It’s a verb. It is something we do, all of us, every single day, every time two cultures meet in a conversation. We didn’t have a word for that action, so I created one. Because when you have a word for something, you can talk about it. And when you can talk about it, you can do it on purpose.

At Q2 we practiced P.A.U.S.E.™ (Pause, Assess, Understand, Shift, Engage), the moment that changes everything when someone’s words or actions don’t land the way we expected. Respect has an accent. Once you can hear it, you start listening differently.

And the laughter you hear in the video? That is my favorite part. Laughter means people are seeing themselves in the story.

Gracias to the employee resource group at Q2 for opening the door, and to everyone who came ready to talk, laugh, and lean in. This was one of many conversations to come.

If your team, your ERG, or your organization is ready to start InterCulturaling, I would love to talk. You can learn more about my keynotes and workshops on the Services page.