The Culturally Intelligent Safety Professional S2E8 Yes Doesn’t Mean Yes

In this episode of The Culturally Intelligent Safety Professional, I speak with Emma Jordaan — cultural intelligence strategist, CEO of Infinite Consulting, host of The HR & CQ Show, and recently published author of Dubai Decoded. Emma brings over two decades of experience from across the UK, Europe, and the UAE to share practical insights on how cultural intelligence (CQ) transforms workplace safety and leadership in multicultural environments.

Our conversation dives deep into power distance, communication styles, and the psychological dynamics that affect trust, reporting, and risk perception, here are my key takeaways — especially in sectors like construction where safety is critical. Emma also shares reflections from her time in the Society of CQ Fellows. 

1. Storytelling is a Cross-Cultural Safety Superpower

In multicultural settings, safety messages often get lost in translation — literally and culturally. Emma highlights how storytelling personalizes risk and transcends communication barriers. A compelling example: an engineer shared his lived experience of losing an eye to drive home PPE compliance, far more effectively than a rulebook ever could.

Lesson: Stories evoke empathy and resonate universally — especially when traditional authority-driven messaging fails.

2. “Yes” Doesn’t Always Mean Yes — Especially in High Power-Distance Cultures

Emma breaks down how cultures with hierarchical norms often foster indirect communication. Workers may agree outwardly with leadership to “save face” or avoid conflict, even when they disagree or don't understand. This creates dangerous blind spots in safety-critical environments.

Lesson: Leaders must dig deeper — ask more questions, read between the lines, and foster an environment where people feel safe enough to say “no.”

 3. Language Matters — Simplicity, Clarity, and Translation Save Lives

In workplaces with dozens of nationalities, assuming everyone understands English the same way is risky. Emma recommends simplifying all safety communication — ditching jargon and fluff — and, where possible, translating briefings into employees’ native languages.

Lesson: Clear and inclusive communication reduces accidents and fosters trust.

4. Psychological Safety Requires Cultural Adaptation

Creating a “speak up” culture isn’t enough if the act of speaking up is culturally uncomfortable. Many workers, especially those on visas or in lower-status roles, fear consequences for being honest. Emma recommends anonymous reporting channels and culturally sensitive leadership to bridge that gap.

Lesson: Psychological safety is not one-size-fits-all — it must be designed with cultural dynamics in mind.

 5. CQ Drive Is the First Step — and the Most Critical

Of the four capabilities in the CQ model (Drive, Knowledge, Strategy, Action), Emma emphasizes CQ Drive as foundational. Without the internal motivation to adapt, no amount of knowledge or strategy will translate into behavior change.

Lesson: Cultural intelligence starts with the desire to understand and flex — everything else builds from there.

Transcript

Greg: 0:00

Hi, everyone welcome to another episode of the Culturally Intelligent Safety Professional, a podcast aimed at providing a platform where by safety professionals can develop a pathway to enhance their cultural intelligence capability which will help them function more effectively when working in a multicultural situation. I'm Greg Dearsly your host and I have a range of guests lined up to talk to this year. We have people with experiences across leadership psychology, health and safety, education and of course cultural intelligence. All of our guests come from a wide range of different backgrounds across the diversity spectrum, including from different organizational context. In this podcast you'll hear stories aimed at helping you the listener enhance your cultural intelligence. You'll gain an understanding of how you can create trust when working in diverse environments and quite frankly, that's all the time no matter how homogenous the place you work at might be, it's still full of diversity, people with different backgrounds, experiences and beliefs, all built on their figured world. So this episode we head to the UAE and catch up with Emma Jordaan who is a recognized thought leader in cultural intelligence and a distinguished member of the Society of CQ Fellows. As a top voice for cultural competence on LinkedIn, she has been featured in prominent Middle Eastern publications like the Gulf Business Leaders and Middle East Consultant, and has also appeared on the local Dubai Eye radio station. With over 20 years of experience leading teams and managing projects across the UK, Europe, UAE and the GCC, Emma specializes in cultural intelligence training, coaching and assessments. And as CEO of Infinite Consulting in Dubai, she helps leaders and organizations navigate diverse workplaces with confidence. Emma is also the host of the HR and CQ Show podcast, and is set to release a book on CQ strategy shortly, offering practical insights to help professionals thrive in Dubai's multicultural environment. Emma. Welcome to the show.

Emma: 2:27

Thank you for having me.

Greg: 2:29

Great to have you here. So tell me, how does one get from the UK to end up with a career in Dubai?

Emma: 2:39

Yeah, so I'm originally from the UK. I spent about 20 years of my career working in the construction industry as a learning and development professional. And the company that I was working for have sent me on multiple trips across the world basically leading different training projects, whether that was across continental Europe, in Germany, Italy, Belgium, France and such like. And then from there over to the Middle East, initially in 2015 with the intention of setting up a training function for the business that would oversee all of the training required in the GCC area.

Greg: 3:20

Wow. And and you got there and what never went back?

Emma: 3:26

Pretty much. Yeah. What obviously come from the UK where the weather, as isn't too great. And moved to a place that's just full of sunshine pretty much most days. Yeah. You can't blame a girl for wanting to stay there.

Greg: 3:40

Fair enough too. Although it sounds like in months you have to spend all your life inside with the air con on full.

Emma: 3:48

I think it's just like living in the UK in reverse. So in the UK we spend six months of the year inside.'cause it's so cold with the heating on, and here we spend six months of the year inside because it's too hot with the AC on yeah. Yeah. So I'm not missing much.

Greg: 4:03

Fair enough. So you made the transition from a construction background into the work you do in cultural intelligence. Firstly, what sparked that shift and how has your past experience shaped your perspective on CQ in those high risk type sectors?

Emma: 4:24

What sparked the interest was just as I'd alluded to that I'd spent lots of time working overseas in in working on different projects, working amongst different cultures. I actually left the UK at the age of 18. To work overseas.'cause I was just curious about, what the rest of the world would look like. But then that exposure throughout the rest of my career just really fascinated me. And I wanted to start up my own business in learning and development. And it felt right to, to put something that I was interested in and passionate about into the classroom because, the, there's, nothing better than, doing a job that you actually really enjoy. And I really enjoy, talking about culture advancing people's understanding about culture. And so that was the first step stone into setting up my organization.

Greg: 5:14

And I guess just moving on, on from that, your past experiences in terms of the perspectives that you have about CQ in a sector like construction in Dubai or in the UK where you I guess, spent a lot of time as well?

Emma: 5:33

Yeah, culture impacts everything in the workplace from safety communication productivity, and I've got, multiple examples from here in the Middle East where culture really, the way that things were done or the, issues that might have been faced through misunderstandings and miscommunications. Where an employee says yes, but they really mean no.

Greg: 5:57

Yes. Yeah. And I guess the, I dunno how many of our listeners are familiar with the with the Dubai environment. Pretty multicultural. I believe there's somewhere in the vicinity of 200 different cultures that potentially work There is that about right.

Emma: 6:12

Yeah expats make up about 92% of the population in the UAE. The large majority of people come from different places around the world, and that means that we are bringing together a multitude of different nationalities in the same, in the same workplace. One of my clients has 86 different nationalities working, in the same space within the UAE. So you can see that as this leader or somebody that's involved in safety has a real job on their hands to try and make sure that everybody's working in a, streamlined to one, one view of the way that we do things,

Greg: 6:49

some description maybe last year with a guy who he was working on a, the construction of a, I think it was a power plant in Abu Dhabi. And similar story said, there was 50 different nationalities on, the site. And just having to make sure that they navigated their way around appropriate communication. With that mixture of people was something that took up a lot of time. And I suppose in those safety critical environments and we talk construction and and the like communication and trust essential. Have you seen how cultural intelligence can influence the effectiveness of safety leadership? Or that frontline engagement in diverse teams how does that come together in your experience?

Emma: 7:36

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that, people perceive risk and authority quite differently across cultures. And so that impacts the way that people choose to communicate and the way that they choose to build trust. And I think safety leaders are responsible for identifying those cultural differences and thinking about the way that they can adapt their communication style to make sure that the message is received and one of the examples that I can give of that is through storytelling. So rather than, saying to everybody this is the way that you've gotta do this, and mandating it from the front and not really explaining too clearly why we are doing the doing it this way or why we're stipulating that you must do it this way and instead storytelling the safety message. So I saw that done really well in my old organization. The regional and engineering manager was trying to hammer home the importance of wearing safety goggles in the workplace while they were using equipment. And he brought somebody in who'd actually lost their eye through not wearing the correct safety equipment. And he got this person to, retell their story of how the accident had happened and the impact that it's had on them. Having, lost an eye. And that I think really hammered home and the importance of wearing goggles through the message of telling a story of somebody's personal life experiences. I was gonna say through the eyes of somebody else, but I don't think that's probably appropriate in terms of the story. So the other person's life experiences.

Greg: 9:17

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess with the diversity that you experience in Dubai one of the other areas that there could be a challenge is the whole power distance thing of people not wanting to embarrass the boss, wanting to make sure that they just appear that yes boss, no boss, whatever. Is that something that's quite common on any, not, doesn't have to be construction, but in any workplace in that part of world.

Emma: 9:44

Yeah, absolutely. So if we think about the demographic of the people that are here in Dubai there, there's about 70% that would typically align, not all, but typically align to a more hierarchical culture, indirect communicative style, which basically means that, if the boss has said that this is how you've gotta do something, we're just gonna say yes. Because we want to appease the boss. And we, it's not our role to challenge the boss. And I, again, I had an example of that where the team. I'd asked the team that I was managing to take a particular approach on something and it later transpired that we perhaps should have taken a different approach. And when I discussed that with the team the answer was we did it, we did it that way because that's the way you told us to do it. It came, it became evident that they thought there was another way that we should have done things, but they didn't feel the freedom to speak up and voice that with me, and that was quite early on in my career and my time in the UAE. And it's through those sort of experiences where I then started to realize that actually I needed to take quite a different approach in the way that I chose to communicate to my team. And, one of my tips is often just ask more questions. If somebody's giving you a yes when they mean no, you can decipher that usually by asking more questions around the answer that they've given to read between the lines and read what's not being said so that you can then determine how actually, they mean no. And then you can then move on from there.

Greg: 11:18

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess those sorts of things very similar here. And that's where a lot of the discussion heads is, and as you've said, storytelling, asking questions, being curious all of those sorts of things, help in making sure A, that we understand and b, that we've that the person or people that we're dealing with also understand what it is we are trying to achieve. There's that there's that cultural norm in some parts of the world of saving face. where, it's not right to, to get the boss in trouble effectively is is really what that boils down to. Is that something that I guess it's a little bit connected, isn't it? Just say yes to the boss all the time therefore we are not gonna embarrass him. Is that something that's present in that part of the world as well?

Emma: 12:03

Absolutely. Yeah. Saving face is definitely something that's for example, ingrained in the local Emirati culture and there wouldn't, there wouldn't be that desire of wanting to embarrass either the other person or even oneself. There's always that desire to keep a level of harmony within a different, within the different conversations that you're having. So through that then means. There's a level of indirect communication of, we won't actually say what we really mean or what we're really thinking because we want to protect the way that I'm perceived or the way that the other person is perceived amongst others. So when those sort of situations occur, it might be that there has to be a conversation that takes place, privately in a one-on-one situation so that it preserves that person's, that, the way that person's being perceived.

Greg: 12:52

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you've given us a whole bunch of stuff already and and the next question is has really directed it at any advice, but and keeping in mind that you're not a safety professional, although you've been exposed to the safety sector, I guess in, in a lot of the work that you've done. But from those experiences. Other than the storytelling and the curiosity is there anything else that organizations could take on board to integrate some of this cultural intelligence work into their safety systems?

Emma: 13:28

Yeah especially somewhere Dubai where it is so multicultural, I I think there's, there's something to be said in terms of thinking about the internal communications that you send out. If you've got safety briefings, they need to be very clear and explicit so that if somebody is perhaps, reading something in English and it's not their first language, the there is, there's no cause for concern in terms of whether what's being, what's been written is gonna be misinterpreted. Don't fluff things up. Use simple language that can be understood by people that are using English as a second language. But my second point to that specifically would be, if you've got the resources to do translate your safety bulletins and briefings into the multiple different languages that you've got so that people can read their safety bulletin in their home, in their own native language. And again, that then reduces the cause for concerns around whether there's miscommunication in the message. The other thing would be, I think a lot of people, talk about how we can drive a speak up culture. But I still think that we are missing the mark in thinking about, that just isn't something that comes naturally to some people. Even if you really try to create a psychologically safe space where people feel the freedom to speak up, it's just not their natural orientation to do that. And so what are the ways that we can enable people to speak up without, without having the concerns of the repercussions if they're to do that. So things like can you create anonymous safety reporting, methods that enable people to report issues, safety issues that they see anonymously, so that they know that yes they've done what's expected of them. They've brought it to people's attention, but they've been able to do that with the freedom of knowing that they're doing it anonymously and so there's no repercussions for them. Because sometimes they might need to report somebody that's more senior than them, or, or a decision that's been made Yeah. By a senior person that they don't feel is safe, but they don't feel the freedom to report that unless it's done anonymously, because they're worried about the repercussions of, reporting somebody more senior than them.

Greg: 15:34

It's something that, that is an area that we have to focus on here in New Zealand. We've got a large percentage of migrant workers that come in particularly in construction, healthcare and other sectors. And one of the perceptions is that there's a lack of reporting for fear of a getting in trouble and then b, if it's bad enough, if I've had an incident or I've broken something or done something that, that maybe shouldn't have been done that potentially my visa is at risk and I get turfed outta the country. Is, would that be something that, that theoretically could occur in Dubai as well?

Emma: 16:14

So obviously there are laws around the ability just to, release somebody from the organization. But the concern would definitely be there from the employee's point of view of does, are the company gonna just get rid of me if if I've spoken up when I shouldn't have done. And yeah, everybody everybody that's here, those 92% of people that are here as expats are all here on a visa, are all here reliant on their employer's sponsorship, and and so there is always that concern that if you've put a, a foot wrong that you might be at risk of losing your visa. But that's not necessarily to say that there's truth in that. But but I can see the point you're making is, would that then hinder somebody from feeling comfortable for speaking up then? I would argue yes. There is an element of which that would exist in this region.

Greg: 16:58

Absolutely. Having said that my recent trip to Dubai was one of the things I did learn is that Dubai is a very welcoming country, anybody's welcome to, to turn up. And some of us are lucky that we don't have to get visas and others or for, certainly for short periods of time anyway. And I guess others have to go through that process. But yeah, it was it was a great experience and and learned a lot from that that short time that I was up there a few months ago. I guess many of my colleagues as safety professionals we are trained in compliance. A bit of a dirty word, but we're playing trained in compliance and technical risk. And the technical aspects of our job. But my observations globally really would be that cultural nuance is not part of the safety curriculum. What advice would you give to somebody in safety who wants to strengthen their own understanding and application of cultural intelligence.

Emma: 18:03

Yeah. It's something I see all the time living in a, an expat environment where people come in from different countries, very technically competent, but have had no experience of, maybe working with people of different cultures. And it, I think people just think it's. It will all just fall into place. And then maybe quite quickly they realize that they've been a little bit naive to thinking that they would just be able to work with people from different cultures without any sort of deeper thought into what, what that might look like. So I think for me not just in safety, but in, in all industries, globalization isn't slowing down at any pace. Sure. I think it's something that's key for everybody really. Which is to, to get. Cultural intelligence training to really start to understand beyond cultural awareness. What can you do to be more effective when you're working with people from different cultures? CQ training would be my first recommendation, but that would then help you to start to become more aware of different cultural values so that when you are in different settings, it's different safety settings within the workplace, you can then start to, see how different cultures perhaps perceive risk. Do they perceive risk to at this, to the same level as yourself or even, on a wider scale to the same level that of the organization are they aligned with the safety values of the organization? And you can determine this based on, asking questions safety questions, observe the answers that people give you. Think about how you can pot potentially adapt your communication style so that your safety messages are received in a way that they prefer to be communicated to. I think there's lots of things that, like I said earlier, thinking about, how are you enabling people to report safety issues? So there's lots of things that we would be thinking about, but we are not naturally inclined to think about, safety perhaps in those ways, unless we've first gone out of our way to educate ourself on, how do different cultures perceive safety and risk. And you can only do that through starting to develop your cultural intelligence.

Greg: 20:18

Yeah, and I think certainly it's been my experience. I've been talking about cultural intelligence for a few years and locally here my observation early on, and I think this hasn't changed a lot, maybe a little bit, but not a lot. We use the term cultural intelligence, people nod. And go, yeah, I know what that is. And then, if you dig a little bit deeper what they're describing in terms of their knowledge is, oh yeah, I know some stuff about that particular culture's values and norms. And it's. I guess it's cultural competency, it's cultural knowledge, it's not cultural intelligence. And again, I dunno if that's been your experience of when start talking about this. Is that a similar understanding that you get from the people that you work with or speaking to?'cause you speak quite a bit in terms of conferences and events. Is that the feeling that you get from people?

Emma: 21:11

Yeah, so I think especially people that have been in the region for a number of years, they've certainly got cultural awareness because they've been working with colleagues from all different countries and cultures for a long time now. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they have cultural intelligence. The the difference with cultural intelligence is, and am I now with that cultural awareness, willing to think about how I need to adapt my approach so that I can be more effective in those cultural interactions. I. So somebody with just cultural awareness is somebody that says, yes, I know about that culture, but this is how I am and this is how I'm gonna carry on working. And they and there's almost an expectation that the other person is gonna flex to me. Whereas somebody with cultural intelligence says, ah, okay, this person operates in a different way to me. They communicate differently. They perceive risk in a different way. They understand, authority in a different way. And so with that understanding, my approach now with these, with this team of people is gonna look slightly different so that I can maximize that interaction that I have with them and get the most out of my team. If you want to be a good manager you need a team that trusts you. And so I think it's important that you think about, how is trust built across different cultures? In some cultures it's built based on, our competence, what our CV says, how skilled we are, whereas in other cultures, it's built on relationship In Dubai specifically, most of the people that operate here build trust on the relationship. And as a safety leader, how are you investing time in building those relationships with the people that report to you so that if they did want to come to you with any concerns, that they feel that you know that it's gonna be received well from your side.

Greg: 22:53

You mentioned something during that response about yeah, I know something about culture, but this is me. This is how I'm gonna work. And our combined mentor Dave Livermore I think wrote something a couple of months ago about in, in a in a diverse situation, who has a responsibility to adapt. Yeah. And the answer. There's somewhat twofold, but there's probably really only one right answer. And the first answer was if you're in a homogenous situation, then it's whoever's got the highest level of cultural intelligence. I'm not sure how many homogenous, real homogenous situations actually exist in the world anymore. But the more, I guess the more appropriate answer is whoever has got the most power in. Whatever that situation might be. And your perceived power could change depending on which particular room you're in at that particular moment in time, depending based on who the other participants are. So I thought that was quite a, I guess a useful scenario to, to consider is if you feel that you've got the most power in the room, then it's up to you to change.

Emma: 24:04

Agreed. And so that's the difference between looking at the horizontal lines of culture where we've been talking about authority and communication and instead looking at the vertical line of. Of, power dynamics that, where do we sit in terms of our social economic position on that line? Whether that's because of our agenda, whether that's because of our job title. So if you are perceived to be the person with the most amount of authority or power in the room it might not be as I say, because of job title, but it's your responsibility to think about how you can adapt. Which is an interesting one when you're a female in the construction industry.

Greg: 24:46

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I just wanna, while we were talking about Dave Livermore maybe I'll just divert quickly and talk about in the intro I mentioned that you were part of the Society of CQ Fellows. And you went through that process last year. 2024. It's the process that I'm going through this year in 2025. Just really keen to hear a couple of snippets of your experience of that program.

Emma: 25:14

Sure. So for me, I found the program fantastic. It was a great way to, interact with people from different cultures on a topic that you know, on a topic of culture. So in the cohort that I was part of we had people from Japan the Philippines, Singapore, America continental Europe UK. So it was a real mix of different people with different perspectives because even something like cultural intelligence where we talk about culture, we need to also think about how is that perceived from different cultural perspectives as well. So it was great. It was great to, hear different people's views on that across the room and, share our different research and insights with one another and really see how we can come together and support one another in building lots of different cq products or services that will just help to continue to leverage that CQ is a, an important skill for the future it's not one to be undermined really or undervalued. I think it's something that's over time is going to gain great attraction. But I also think that it was fantastic to have the opportunity to have one-to-ones with David as well. He's a guy that I look up to real source of intellect knowledge about cultural intelligence and so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to have dedicated time with him as well.

Greg: 26:39

Yep, absolutely. And, I think one of the things that he reflected just a few weeks ago actually at our first retreat was the concept of the, or the reason for bringing these cohorts together. And, there's been, I think we are the third. We might be the third group that's gone through. And maybe there's a few more in, in coming years. It's really about taking cultural intelligence from being this theoretical academic construct, which it's been for 20 years while the research has been carried out and having people around the world who are then able to take that theory and put it into practice in their own specific areas of interest and their own sort of niche focus areas. Yeah, it's about making it creating the practical side of it and really trying to, I guess prove the theory. So it was it's an outstanding experience to go through that group.

Emma: 27:37

Yeah. As you say that it's, the cultural intelligence model is very much an academic theoretical model, but the fact that we can now apply it into different industry sectors based on different people's technical expertise that were in those different cohorts whilst at the same time they're all coming from different countries is a really great way to champion that message of CQ around the world.

Greg: 28:00

Yeah. Yeah. I've got one question or point of discussion to go and I don't know, it might be we, you've given us so much already in terms of recommendations and advice. And I guess the last question is if you could embed one CQ skill into every safety professional's toolkit, what would that be? And why?

Emma: 28:25

The culture intelligence model has the four, four capabilities, CQ drive, which is your motivation, CQ knowledge, which is your knowledge you've got CQ strategy, which is how you adapt and CQ action, how you put that into practice. So for me, it has to be that first one, CQ drive. You have to have that initial motivation to actually want to make a difference, to actually want to change, to be open-minded to the idea of actually, there's a different perspective out there. And so for me it's about CQ drive that motivation to, to want to consider different perspectives. And then, and that naturally then leads into the other three.

Greg: 29:07

Yeah, it's interesting when you go through the CQ training, I think they had some videos of people and they, they asked them all. What's the most important bit? Of course, they had people there that would, say, oh, CQ drive or knowledge or strategy or action was for them the most important. But it for me it almost, I. Leads, you start with drive and it's almost a natural progression to go through those four from drive to knowledge, to strategy to behavior. I guess you could argue that action and strategy. Are together because you know that, that bit about adaptation. How do you respond in the moment is all about your speech and your body language and how you talk. So those two almost maybe become part of one. But yeah, look I agree. You've gotta wanna do it. And you've gotta see the value in it. And you've gotta have as the, I guess the framework talks about having that confidence to to put yourself into an unfamiliar environment with the purposes of trying to understand other perspectives. And so probably unsurprisingly, we might be on the same path or same track, the same opinions on that. It's been lovely to speak to you again and I, yeah, your book is that, how's that progressing?

Emma: 30:35

So it's with the authorities here in the UAE awaiting a permit so that it can be published. So you just have to watch this space.

Greg: 30:43

Okay. Excellent. Oh I'm sure it'll be all over LinkedIn when that comes out and we'll be sharing it and and and getting it out there for you. And the podcast reminds me, it's called the CQ and the HR podcast. It's the

Emma: 30:55

HR and CQ show.

Greg: 30:58

Yes. So if people, yes. And your colleague.

Emma: 31:01

Yeah, my PO colleague Sarah Brooks. So if people follow me on LinkedIn they'll be able to find the link for the podcast show from there.

Greg: 31:09

Yeah, sure. And we can put a a link into that on the show notes. And as I say, we'll we'll bang the drum when the book comes out as well. Thank you very much. Hey lovely to to speak to you again. And yeah, look forward to to catching up again in in the not too distant future and just thanks so much for spending some time with us.

Emma: 31:28

Thanks so much for having me. Thanks, Greg.

Greg: 31:34

Didn't our conversation dive deep into power distance, communication styles, and the psychological dynamics that affect trust reporting and risk perception? Here are my key takeaways. Firstly, storytelling is a cross cultural safety, superpower. In multicultural settings, safety messages often get lost in translation, literally and culturally, Emma highlights how storytelling personalizes risk and transcends communication barriers. There's a lesson here that stories evoke empathy and resonate universally, especially when traditional authority driven messaging fails. My second key takeaway yes, doesn't always mean yes, especially in high power distance cultures. Emma breaks down how cultures with hierarchical norms often foster indirect communication. Workers may agree outwardly with leadership to save face or avoid conflict even when they disagree or don't understand. This creates dangerous blind spots in safety critical environments. The lesson here is leaders need to dig deeper, ask more questions, read between the lines and foster an environment where people feel safe enough to say no. My third takeaway language matters. Simplicity, clarity, and translation saves lives in workplaces with dozens of nationalities, assuming everyone understands English the same way is risky. Emma recommends simplification of all safety, communication, ditching jargon and fluff, and where possible translating briefings into employees native languages. The lesson clear and inclusive communication reduces accidents and fosters trust. My fourth takeaway, psychological safety requires cultural adaptation. Creating a speak up culture isn't enough if the act of speaking up is culturally uncomfortable, many workers, especially those on visas or in low status roles, fear consequences for being honest. Emma recommends anonymous reporting channels and culturally sensitive leadership to bridge that gap. The lesson, psychological safety is not one size fits all, it must be designed with cultural dynamics in mind. And finally, CQ Drive is the first step and the most critical of the four capabilities in the CQ model, drive knowledge, strategy, action, emma emphasizes CQ Drive as foundational. Without the internal motivation to adapt, no amount of knowledge or strategy will translate into behavior change. In our final lesson, cultural intelligence starts with a desire to understand and flex. Everything else builds from there. So we've come to the end of this episode, thanks so much for listening. I hope you found something valuable that you can take away that might enhance aspects of your own cultural intelligence. I'll add the transcript from the episode to the show notes. If you'd like to talk about cultural intelligence, get in touch with me via LinkedIn. I'm posting content regularly, so keep an eye on your feed and comment if you see something that resonates. If we aren't connected, send me an invite. If you want to hear more about CQ, you can follow and subscribe to this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you did that, and keep an eye out for the next episode. Ma te wa.