The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
The world of Many Truths
The name Many Truths stands for both personal and cultural diversities. We value diversities and embrace them. We take the stance that “We are all different and we are all good”. With the stance of curiosity, open-mindedness and non-judgement, we all can learn, grow and enrich our lives with diversities.
We live in the world of Many Truths. It is a pure necessity that we learn to communicate well and build constructive relationships with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, both in our private and professional lives. Intercultural competences are basic life skills for all.
Personal leadership
Personal leadership is the way we chose to lead our lives and relate to others, from our families, friends, colleagues to total strangers. Our lives are made up of all the big and small choices we make. We can shape our lives by making conscious and intentional choices.
Personal Leadership in the world of Many Truths
Many Truths takes the stance that culture and diversity management is a matter of Personal Leadership. It entails more than just understanding the cultural differences and knowing how to treat the elderly in China or how to get things done smoothly in Brazil. The knowledge about different behavioral patterns in different cultures are of course useful and we provide this type of information in our trainings. But the process does not stop there. Many Truths invites you to exercise Mindfulness in all your intercultural encounters.
Even after extensive culture training and years of expatriate experience, we will still encounter intercultural situations where you feel puzzled, frustrated or triggered. What we can do then is to slow down and adopt an attitude of genuine curiosity and non-judgment and be mindful about the situations and what is happening to ourselves, physically and emotionally. And from there, we can make conscious and intentional choices about how to re-open the conversation with people with Other Truths.
This is what we mean by Personal Leadership in the world of Many Truths. Mastery of Personal Leadership in the world of Many Truths takes continuous, conscious and intentional efforts. Since we will encounter new people in new situations every day for the rest of our lives, our journey is never-ending.
(Our vision of Personal Leadership in a culturally diverse world is inspired by the book “Making a World of Difference Personal Leadership” (Flying Kite Publications, 2008) by Barbara Schaetti, Sheila Ramsey and Gordon Watanabe)
Practice what you preach
Having lived as an expat for more than half her life, Masako knows what Personal Leadership in the world of Many Truths takes. She does not pretend to have mastered it, but she practices it consciously and intentionally every day and it has become her second nature.
Intercultural encounters can be more often stressful than fun, certainly when stakes are high (e.g. When we are under time and performance pressure). But any puzzling moment teaches us a new perspective that we never considered before and brings us closer to deeper mutual understanding and better solutions. “We all have our truths and nobody has the whole truth”.
Our mission
The mission of Many Truths is twofold and the twos are intertwined. The first is to help individual clients embrace diversities as their growth opportunities and practice their Personal Leadership in the world of Many Truths. The second is to help clients create inclusive team cultures where people feel safe to express themselves and feel the sense of belonging. Personal leadership of the members builds inclusive team cultures and inclusive team cultures encourage and strengthen Personal Leadership.
