Intro to culture

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Understanding Culture and 3C Lesson 1

Introduction

Welcome to the Introduction to Culture course!

Lesson 1 provides an introduction to the course as a whole. It introduces you to five key concepts:

1. The definition of culture 2. Culture-general and culture-specific knowledge 3. Cross-cultural competence (3C) 4. Cultural domains 5. The Cultural OODA Loop

These five concepts are essential to help you understand the content and design of the course, which may differ from what you might expect from a course about culture.

All of these concepts will set the stage for teaching you how to learn about culture, and how to apply a set of skills to improve your cultural learning.

Our goal in this course is to help you improve your knowledge about culture and your ability to build your own cross-cultural competence over time.

Objectives and Lesson Enhancements

Lesson Objectives

It's important to keep Lesson Objectives in mind as you go through this lesson. All of your exam questions - and improved life skills - are based on these objectives. While reading through this lesson, keep the following learning objectives in mind:

1. Demonstrate understanding of culture and its subcomponents

2. Recognize how visible cultural behaviors are driven by underlying beliefs and values

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3. Comprehend what the USAF means by cross-cultural competence (3C) and its related concepts of cultural domains, culture-specific, and culture-general information

4. Identify how the Cultural OODA Loop can help you understand an unfamiliar cultural environment

Lesson Enhancement

The required readings appear throughout the lessons. For your convenience, they also appear at the beginning of the lessons in case you want to read ahead. Not all lessons have required readings.

Cultural-Awareness-for-the-Military-Professional

Speegle, Lt Col Justin. Essay produced for Air Command and Staff College, U.S. Air Force.

BEST way to OPEN internal links like this one is by first RIGHT CLICKING the link and SELECTING "Open Link in New Window".

Why are you taking "Introduction to Culture"?

Students take this course for a variety of reasons. Some people have a personal interest and fascination with other cultures. They want to explore, get exposure to, and satisfy their curiosity about the ways people live around the world. If you're one of these students, then this course will fulfill that need by challenging you to:

• Understand how culture "works" in terms of human relations,

• Recognize the beliefs and values that guide our own culture, and

• Practice interpreting the cultural practices of other groups.

Other students take the class because of an upcoming deployment or assignment outside the US. This course provides the tools to help you quickly understand basic knowledge about culture that will help you function well with others during these deployments or overseas assignments.

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At the very least, most enrolled students need 3 credits to complete their CCAF degree. This class fulfills that need, but offers you so much more!

No matter what the reason, you will find this course filled with great information to help you operate in any culture. You will work hard, but it will be worthwhile!

The Air Force Definition of Culture

College textbooks and popular books about cross-cultural relations give their own definition of culture. The definition used by the USAF says:

Culture is the creation, maintenance and transformation across generations of shared patterns of meaning, affiliation, action and organization by groups. The definition can be divided into two parts. Part one includes "the

creation, maintenance and transformation across generations of shared patterns" and part two includes "shared patterns of meaning, affiliation, action and organization by groups".

The first part of the definition tells us that people create, maintain, share, and transform patterns of activity over time.

The second part of the definition tells us that shared cultural patterns are formed around meanings*, affiliations*, actions* and organizations*.

'Meaning' is actually important to both parts of the definition, since aspects of culture will not be maintained if they don't mean something to people; and affiliations, actions, and organizations must retain meaning in order to be useful to us.

Finally, the most important part of the definition of culture is 'groups of people'. Culture represents the process of interaction between people and the meanings people give to those interactions.

*The Shared Cultural Patterns

Patterns of meaning refer to systems of language, writing, symbols, and other things that people use to transmit meaning, like colors, sounds, images, etc.

Patterns of affiliation refer to the ways people form groups and support one another based on shared interests. Examples are families, hobby groups, political affiliations, and friendships.

Patterns of action include regular or repeated behaviors and activities.

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Patterns of organization are similar to patterns of affiliation, but more specifically include institutions that people create to solve specific problems in society. Examples are schools, military forces, hospitals, food co-ops, etc.

What's your favorite color? What meanings do you associate with that color? To Americans, red might indicate passion, anger, power, or danger, depending on the context (when, where, and how it's used). But what about in other cultures?

In Eastern Asian cultures, red often symbolizes good luck, happiness, and vitality, and may be worn by brides on their wedding day. To South Asian Indians, red means purity and is widely used in Hindu weddings it can also be seen in the traditional red dot on the foreheads of married women, symbolizing spirituality. To Ukrainians, the color red can represent spiritual awakening (red is a popular color on hand painted Easter eggs). To some people in West Africa, red is considered unlucky. Red can also refer to sacred land for Australian Aboriginal peoples.

What about YOUR favorite color? Review the sites below by clicking on the images (note--these are not endorsed by the AFCLC or the Air Force), or find your own sites dealing with the cross-cultural meanings of color:

From the examples you found on these websites, you see a wide variety of meanings people give to ideas, objects, and practices that exist in all human cultures. All people see the color red, but they may not associate "seeing red" with anger for example, like we do. Colors have different meanings for people, depending on their culture.

Challenge Coins

An example that illustrates the definition of culture in the Air Force is the presentation of challenge coins.

Coins themselves represent a shared cultural pattern of meaning, namely the values of a unit and of the Air Force in general. The coins also show a shared cultural pattern of affiliation with the person or

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unit that "coined" you. In addition, the coins are associated with shared cultural patterns of action, as when a coin is presented to someone or when someone produces the coin when challenged. Finally, the coins demonstrate shared cultural patterns of organization, that of the particular unit, the USAF, and the US military.

These shared cultural patterns can be found in physical form on the challenge coins themselves, represented by particular words and symbols.

The challenge coin tradition exists today because Airmen created it and have transformed it over time. People actively maintain the tradition, too, which shows it still holds meaning for the Air Force culture.

Click HERE for a closer look!

The Iceberg: More Visible and Less Visible Aspects of Culture

The Iceberg Model

How do we learn more about another person's culture? How do we move past our first impressions and possibly false stereotypes? The first step in the process is to become a better observer. Therefore, it's useful to think of culture as made up of parts we can easily notice and parts that are more difficult to detect.

An iceberg provides a good model for thinking about the more visible and less visible aspects of culture. You see only a small portion of an iceberg above the surface of the water, while the majority of it is below the water making it more difficult to see.

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Think of this image of two icebergs as two cultures. Above the surface, we see Behavior as easily visible. Near the surface, but out of easy observation are Systems and Structures. Finally, well below our line of sight, we find Beliefs and Values at the bottom portion below the surface.

When icebergs collide, they usually do so below the surface of the water. The same can be said for conflicts based on cultural differences. We may see different behaviors and systems and try to understand them, but the beliefs and values that support them are the basis of the cultural differences, and the beliefs and values lead to the different behaviors.

For example, a foreign exchange student to the U.S. wrote these paragraphs about her first impressions of the U.S. educational system. Her name is Francine Nnyina. She was born in Cameroon, grew up in the Central African Republic, and spent time studying in France.

"I guess the difference between the French educational system and the American system is that in France, the courses cover a particular subject in depth, whereas here the classes embrace a large range of topics, but more superficially. However, the interesting point is how the classes are more alive here than in France because the American students are more apt to speak and to express their opinions clearly on a subject.

The classes here are also smaller, which could make them more interactive. But they aren't because most students do not try to study together. This would allow those who understand quickly to help those who do not, but instead each student works alone."

Source: http://unbound.intrasun.tcnj.edu/archives/lifestyle/old/lifes98/france/index.html

She noticed behaviors: teachers cover a wide range of topics, students express their opinions openly in class, and students are not inclined to study together. She compared two cultures by connecting the behaviors she observed to systems and structures: the educational systems influence the size of the classes, and the material covered. After some time, she also might have seen that students are encouraged to speak up in class from an early age and are even graded on it, which is another kind of system of educating our children. What are the beliefs underpinning these American behaviors and systems? Take a guess in the Knowledge Check.

Next, we'll discuss the more and less visible aspects of culture in further detail.

More Visible Parts of Culture:

More Detailed Iceberg Model

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Here's a slightly more detailed version of the previously mentioned iceberg model.

This model expands on what is meant by Behaviors. So in addition to Behaviors above the water line, you see the parts of culture that are easiest to observe: actions and symbols. Symbols are lumped together with actions because both are easy to observe, even though the meanings underlying them are not immediately easy to understand.

Here's a more in-depth explanation of actions and symbols:

Actions: Actions are the everyday activities and behaviors of a group of people, and their activities on special occasions.

Actions are the most visible part of any culture, so we can learn a great deal about people by observing their behavior and interacting with them. For instance, typical American practices of going to church, entertaining people over a meal, joining in a potluck dinner, and being sports fans all represent the importance of religion, community, and fair competition in our lives. These behaviors express our beliefs and values, even though those beliefs and values are not easily visible.

Symbols: Symbols are concrete expressions of beliefs and values that are shared by people in a culture.

Symbols can be items that we use intentionally to communicate our cultural beliefs and affiliations, like a wedding ring, a peace sign or a Christian cross. However, there are other objects that symbolize our values in less intended or even unintentional ways. In American culture, these things might be fences around our property, flowers you give to your mom on her birthday, musical tastes, and consumer items, such as cars, high- end devices, and name-brand clothing.

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Although these items are not designed to be symbols (except maybe for some brands of clothing!), they symbolize our beliefs and values, nonetheless.

So you know one thing for sure by now: Symbols and actions (behavior) convey meaning. If you recall from earlier in this lesson, we talked about patterns of action and patterns of meaning. These patterns and meaning are found in, and evolve from the less visible parts of culture.

Less Visible Parts of Culture:

Below the water in the image below, you see the parts of culture that are less easy to observe. Here we'll go deeper (pun intended) into the specifics of Systems and Structures and talk a bit more about patterns and meaning.

As we gain more powers of observation and understanding, we start to detect people's patterns of organization, affiliation, values, and ultimately, meaning. The patterns are not invisible, but they are harder to see and understand at first, especially if you are not specifically looking for them.

SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES

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When we get closer to the iceberg (or spend more time in a culture), we start to detect the larger part below the water. Close to the surface are Systems and Structures. Systems and structures include non-tangibles such as patterns of affiliation and organization (e.g. kinship norms, power dynamics), as well as (or in combination with) physical structures and systems such as financial systems, education, transportation and infrastructure, to name a few. The impact of these patterns and systems and structures cannot be overstated because they have an indelible and inescapable impact on how people view their world and their circumstances and assign meaning to things. Lesson 3 covers more on this topic.

Finally, at the bottom of the iceberg, you will find beliefs and values which underlie the patterns and meanings, and are the basis of all aspects of a culture.

BELIEFS AND VALUES

Beliefs are ideas and assumptions about the world that we think are "true."

Many examples of beliefs are related to religion or spirituality, such as a belief in one God, a belief in the soul or the afterlife.

We also hold everyday beliefs, too. A child might believe that Santa Claus exists. Others might believe that men and women are not equals and should not be treated equally in the workplace.

Beliefs influence the assumptions we make, and also how we understand what we observe.

Have you ever observed professional baseball players going through the same series of actions over and over before they go up to bat? Most of us would assume they are superstitious and we would understand that the players believe those actions bring them good luck, or at least prevent bad luck. We tend to discount superstition as unscientific and somewhat irrational, but in some cultures, what many people would consider superstitions are actually strongly held beliefs about cause and effect relationships.

One study found HERE that personal belief in bad and good luck days cost the Japanese health care system millions of yen in the early 1990s. A traditional Japanese

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calendar runs on a six-day week, with each day having a special meaning. One of the six days, "taian" is the luckiest day and "butsumetsu" is the unluckiest day.

The study found that many patients avoided being discharged from the hospital on an unlucky day and tried to arrange being discharged on a lucky day.

This would be like someone in the U.S. not wanting to be discharged from the hospital on a Friday the 13th. The practice led to the loss of a great deal of money for the Japanese health care system. It is an example of the importance and impact of beliefs on people's behavior, as well as an example of the differences in the meaning accorded to certain beliefs in different cultures. For more information, check the links on the references page at the end of the lesson.

Values are beliefs shared by a cultural group. Beliefs become values when a cultural group holds them in common and finds them worthy of passing on to future generations.

Traditionally, Americans tend to value immediate family relationships, service to the country or community, and education—these things are important to us. They are based on beliefs about how close family members should interact, how people should treat each other, and what we should learn about our world.

Both beliefs and values are learned from our society, beginning with our family and later from other groups as we grow up. How are those based on a cultural group you might ask? Or, how are they related to worthiness?

Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders in particular and most motorcyclists in general share a set of values about what biking means to them, why they like it, and how bikers should act toward one another. For example, they talk about how much they like feeling the freedom of the open road, about leaving their cares behind them when they ride, their respect for an original American product (in the case of Harleys), and their wariness of people driving cars. These attitudes hold value for this cultural group, and knowing that many other bike riders hold similar values draws the group together.

Therefore, values act to bring people together, perhaps with some variation from individual to individual within the group. Values can also be used as reasons to exclude people from activities or social groups. Harley riders

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respect one another for having stayed true to an American product and for embracing the noise of the bike. They may feel superior to, make fun of, or even exclude people who ride other kinds of bikes.

Service Before Self

An example of a value that may be central to your life is the Air Force motto of "Service Before Self." What does it mean to you? What is considered Service, and who or what comes before your Self? How does this 'value' bring you together, or engender mutual respect with other members of the group (the Air Force)? Who represents this culture and who hold this value? Does Service Before Self apply to any other area of your life (e.g., family, church, etc.)?

Now, how do you think people in other cultures, professions, or communities serve each other? What would be their idea of service before self?

The response lies in the "shared patterns of meaning, affiliation, action, and organization" of the group or culture you are referring to.

Where is the Meaning?

Previously, the definition of culture stressed the importance of Meaning. Let's face it; aspects of culture are not perpetuated if they don't mean something to people. Likewise, affiliations, actions, and organizations must retain meaning in order to maintain usefulness. These relationships are seen through the iceberg analogy. And because Meaning permeates all levels, you can't place it in any one specific part of this analogy. Beliefs and values give rise and meaning to systems and structures. Beliefs, values, systems and structures all combine to create patterns of meaning that are expressed through behaviors.

In other words, culture represents the process of interaction between people and the meanings people give to those interactions. When people from two different cultures experience the exact same event, it could have a completely different meaning.

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Food for Thought

Consider these common actions or symbols. Is it possible these could have a different meaning to someone else than what they mean to you? How might Values impact the meanings? How might Systems and Structures impact the meanings?

wearing a burka boasting about one's own achievement, family, or possession truthfully telling an authority that it was one of your friends who destroyed a person's personal item paying a bribe to get out of trouble firing a worker to make room for a family member

Click HERE to find some thoughts about how different people might view these behaviors.

Now let's see how the Air Force teaches culture and cross-cultural competence.

Mission Focus

David H. Petraeus

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Let's get more specific about the kinds of cultural knowledge we teach in this course, and how that knowledge relates to Air Force missions.

To do that, we turn to an article written by Gen. David H. Petraeus (US Army, Retired) describing his lessons learned from war in Iraq. In the article, he presents reasons why military personnel should study culture.

Culture-Specific Knowledge

First, Petraeus notes the need for knowledge about specific information related to the culture of the host country:

"Working in another culture is enormously difficult if one doesn't understand the ethnic groups, tribes, religious elements, political parties, and other social groupings—and their respective viewpoints; the relationships among the various groups; governmental structures and processes; local and regional history; and, of course, local and national leaders. Understanding such cultural aspects is essential if one is to help the people build stable political, social, and economic institutions."[1]

In this course, we call the type of information that General Petraeus lists here culture-specific because it is related to one particular cultural environment. To assist Airmen in deployed locations, AFCLC provides ADLS training modules and information found in culture-specific Expeditionary Culture Field Guides available HERE.

Culture-General Knowledge

General Petraeus then goes on to discuss the need for general knowledge about culture:

"Indeed, this [information about culture] is as much a matter of common sense as operational necessity. Beyond the intellectual need for the specific knowledge about the environment in which one is working, it is also clear that people, in general, are more likely to cooperate if those who have power over them respect the culture that gives them a sense of identity and self-worth."[2]

Part of respecting another culture is understanding general concepts that can help you relate to all people of all cultural backgrounds. This is what the AFCLC calls culture-general knowledge (broad enough to apply to any culture). Just like general education requirements at school help students understand a broad range of topics and prepare for any eventual career, culture-general education prepares you for interaction with people from any culture.

This diagram illustrates the three areas that the Air Force considers foundational to cross-cultural competence: language, region, and culture. Language and regional information are more culture-specific.

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An interesting side note is that the Language portion of the diagram is the smallest, and, simply knowing a language is not sufficient on its own to operate effectively in a foreign culture.

In culture-specific education, you might learn about the culture of Egypt and study the Arabic spoken there, and this will lead to learning some general topics about interacting with people in different cultures. On the other hand, educating Airmen about culture and how it operates is a culture-general approach that will enhance your ability to be effective in any country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Mission

In 2006, Air University created the Air Force Culture and Language Center in response to the need for culture- general and culture-specific learning across the armed forces. Our mission is to "develop and maintain a cross-culturally competent Total Force across the Continuum of Learning (education, training and experience)."

Your reading for this lesson concerns the importance of cultural awareness in military operations. Written by USAF Lt Col Justin Speegle, the essay describes how cultural awareness "gives military personnel the ability...to (1) comprehend when cultural factors/background are having an impact and (2) determine how to adapt their behavior and expectations to achieve the desired effects."[3] Moreover, Lt Col Speegle offers a few pointers for how Airmen may better understand their own culture as well as other cultures.

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Information from this essay will be used in your end-of-lesson quiz and in your Milestone 1 Assignment. Click the link below to open the document. If you cannot access the document, please contact Student Support at [email protected].

Reading 1:

Cultural-Awareness-for-the-Military-Professional

Lt Col Speegle also re-focuses our attention on cultural meaning. He describes culture as a 'web of meaning' and an 'operational code'. The belief system shared by people in a culture acts as a lens through which they perceive events and filter information. This further enhances our earlier discussion of "meaning" and its importance to cultural awareness and competence. Remember the color "Red" and what it signifies to someone from South Africa? (Clue: DON'T wear it to a wedding!)

Lt Col Speegle emphasizes that understanding belief systems, or at least attempting to understand and respect other belief systems, is critical to success in how we influence allies, foes, and anyone else we encounter in pursuit of mission objectives.

Finally, Lt Col Speegle provides a framework for understanding by presenting Dr. Brook Peterson's five dimensions of culture that can be used to classify and compare cultures:

1. Equality/ Hierarchy

2. Direct/ Indirect

3. Individual/ Group

4. Task/ Relationship and

5. Risk/Caution.

Read the article for details about each of these dimensions, then take the Knowledge Check to practice placing different cultures on these scales and comparing them.

Consider the following scenario and then answer the following questions:

While working at the US Embassy in Beijing, China, you become friends with Li Qiang; a trusted local national hired to work in the embassy. You agreed to have dinner with him and his family, so naturally they are excited to meet you and to learn more about the United States. Unfortunately, you must change the date because of an unexpected situation popping up. You ask Li Qiang if it would be ok to move the date back a day. He reluctantly responds with "I must ask my father. Let me discuss it with him and I will tell you tomorrow." The next day, Li Qiang says good morning, but seems to avoid you for most of the day. Although his awkward avoidance behavior was concerning, you opted to prioritize completing an extra heavy workload and worry about talking to Li Qiang later.

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Your tasks require an immediate decision from the Security Cooperation Officer (SCO), who is TDY for the week. You went ahead and made the decision you felt was right and plan to explain it when she gets back, even though she may not like it. At the end of the day, you decide to see Li Qiang and ask him about the date change. He smiles politely and nods, but then looks down and walks away.

What is Cross-Cultural Competence?

Lt Col Speegle describes the need for cultural awareness and gives one model used for building more awareness through culture-general education. In his conclusion, he alludes to the definition of cross-cultural competence:

Cross-cultural competence, or "3C", is "the ability to quickly and accurately comprehend, then effectively act in a culturally complex environment to achieve the desired effect--without necessarily having prior exposure to a particular group, region, or language."[4]

The definition of 3C illustrates the focus of this course: your aim is to comprehend culturally complex environments, act more effectively in those environments, and achieve your mission objectives by influencing positive outcomes.

The last part of the definition —"without necessarily having prior exposure to a particular group, region, or language"—is another important indicator of the purpose of this course.

In order to act more effectively in any new environment, we've focused this course on culture-general information about culture that you can apply to any cross cultural situation. As explained above, it consists of principles, concepts and other information that apply to all people of all cultural backgrounds. To illustrate these principles, we will use culture-specific examples.

Finally, you should remember that Cross-Cultural Competence (3C) is a collection of knowledge, skills, and abilities that you will draw upon to comprehend and act effectively in cross-cultural situations. No one is "perfectly" competent—each person exhibits competence in different ways, and may be more competent in one area and less competent in another.

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When you enlisted in the Air Force, you quickly learned a lot of new information, such as the Airman's Creed, how to dress and act like an Airman, and the importance of following AFIs at work. This information seemed structured and rigid at first, but now you know that it makes Airmen all a part of the same culture. In a way, it was "general education" for Airmen, and "specific education" for your AFSC.

TSgt Wolfe, Military Training Instructor (MTI), marching a basic training flight to their next appointment. Joint Base San Antonio- Lackland, Texas Jun 9, 2017. (U.S. Air Force Photo By Andrew C. Patterson)

3C education (including culture-general and culture-specific knowledge and training is a little different from your other military training. It requires you to be more flexible in your approaches to cross-cultural interactions while still maintaining your mission priorities. There are no regulations or AFIs to help you when you realize your Afghan counterpart can't read, or you suddenly discover the squadron you're assigned to doesn't follow the same safety standards you've been taught.

Building your cross-cultural competence helps:

1) analyze the influence of culture on your interactions

2) learn from each new situation

3) prepare culturally appropriate responses.

Communicate, Negotiate, Relate

Here is the USAF model for cross-cultural competence. Notice that the goal of 3C is at the center of the model: to have influence over cross-cultural situations in ways that improve your mission success. You can do this by learning how to better communicate, negotiate, and build relationships in cross-cultural contexts.

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You will see the terms communicate, negotiate, and relate used frequently during this course. They refer to the skills that support cross-cultural competence.

How do you learn those skills?

You start by building your knowledge in culture-general and culture-specific areas, and become more conscious of the ways you learn about other cultures and the ways you interpret cultural information. You continue to learn and increase your skills by consciously practicing them in any environment - not just "foreign" cultures! This course will get you started.

Cultural Domains

This course offers several tools for making sense of your cross-cultural experiences. One of these is the concept of cultural domains, which are categories of human interaction, belief, and meaning that every culture shares.

Here is a visual representation the 12 cultural domains defined by the USAF.

Cultural Domains

Cultural domains provide a framework for comparing one culture to another by helping you categorize behaviors for easier analysis.

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Example

Going to school is an activity that would fit clearly into the Learning & Knowledge domain. Going to a religious school could be categorized as both Learning & Knowledge and as Religion & Spirituality, so then you would have two bases of comparison. The ways children speak to the teacher in the classroom would add a third category for comparison--Language & Communication.

Even if a particular culture doesn't value formal education in the way we know it (through organized schools, with university-educated teachers, etc.), every culture values learning and knowledge. The subject matter and means may be different, but not the value of passing knowledge to future generations. The same is true for each domain. Since all cultures have some way of fulfilling these domains, we use the domains to find similarities and differences between the cultures. To put it simply, the domains are an organizational framework.

Here is a brief description of each domain.

If you've ever studied in a social science class, you might have seen domains of culture categorized slightly differently (see the Learn More section below for examples). Nevertheless, each way of organizing the domains conveys the same basic idea. People in all cultures share these broad categories of behaviors, beliefs, and meaning, even though they have different ways of behaving, expressing meaning, and living out their beliefs.

Expeditionary Field Guides Library

For comparison with the Air Force 12 Domains, click HERE and then on the Contents tab and see similarities of the categories and organization with mainstream anthropology and sociology textbooks.

Exploring Cultural Domains

Let's combine what you've learned about culture-general and culture-specific information with domains of culture.

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Cultural Log Exercise 1.1: Click on the illustration below to begin.

Note--the following activity may not work in all web browsers. If you see nothing below, then try another browser.

The OODA Loop

Now that you know our definition of culture, the Air Force's focus on cross-cultural competence, and the 12 Domains of Culture, let's turn to a framework that helps build knowledge and improve your ability to relate to other people in different cultures.

The OODA Loop demonstrates a process by which you can build your cultural knowledge, compare one culture to another, and make decisions based on cultural information.

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Illustration from Boyd's original work

John Boyd

Don't worry about details in the illustration above. Relevant highlights of the OODA Loop are coming up. Over the course of his career, Lt Col John R. Boyd, USAF developed the OODA Loop, what he called the "time competitive decision cycle." He described the decision-making cycle as a continuous process made up of four sets of actions: OBSERVE, ORIENT, DECIDE, and ACT. Boyd's OODA Loop was originally conceived as a way for fighter pilots to think and respond to tactical situations more quickly than the enemy.

Over the years, the OODA loop has been adopted by the sister services and the business community, because this framework and the process it teaches has proven to help people function better in very complex and fast-changing environments.[5]

In this course, we relate the OODA Loop to cultural learning—to the focused gathering, organizing, and analyzing information in cross-cultural contexts. Observing and Orienting are the methods by which we build and compare knowledge. Deciding and Acting are the steps in which we test our assumptions and assessments. We constantly and almost naturally go through this process—it's a loop, not something we do just once.

The OBSERVE Phase

The Observe part of the OODA Loop includes the following activities:

• Gathering information

• Noting the cultural landscape

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• Identifying people and activities

• Reviewing the consequences of your previous actions

Observation involves focused attention on your environment and gathering information through the five senses. However, each person's perception of the information they receive depends on their own culture and experiences. We observe and perceive the world through the lens of our own cultural experiences. They act as filters for seeing and interpreting the world.

The totality of our experiences, cultural background, and beliefs and values that shape the way we perceive and interpret things is often called a "worldview." Let's apply the Observe phase activities to an example.

Cultural Log Exercise 1.2:

Take a look at this photo of an Iraqi street. (Click for a larger view)

This is a street lined with shops in the Husseiniya area of Baghdad. What jumps out at you as different from what you would expect in a U.S. strip mall or shopping center? What is similar? Write your observations in your Cultural Log.

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Here is this same exercise below which you can download or print and use to record your responses for future reference.

Go to the next page to compare your responses to ours.

Cultural Log Follow-Up

Dr. Kerr (mouse over picture for biography)

In 2008-9, the AFCLC Professor of Cultural Geography, Dr. Robert Kerr, was deployed to Iraq as part of a Human Terrain Systems team with the U.S. Army. He took that picture (see previous page) in Husseiniya. While he was there, he found out how Observing, Orienting, Deciding, and Acting were crucial skills in his work with the 3/82 Brigade Combat Team.

Before you read Dr. Kerr's story, let's compare your observations to what we came up with.

What parts of the Iraqi street photo did you spend the most time looking at? Why? How would you have identified it as a shopping area if you hadn't had that information and you came across this street in the course of your duties?

Most likely, you would have done so by noting the things that are similar to a U.S. shopping area. This is something your brain naturally does in a matter of milliseconds and you probably don't even realize it. The things you noticed more specifically result from your worldview, which frames your expectations of shopping centers based on your own experience and knowledge.

So, what did you find similar? Here are our responses:

Similar

Wide sidewalks

Locked doors that might lead to stores

Decorative signs that look like advertisements and store names

The color red used to draw attention to advertisements or signs

Stores facing the street

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Long building with stores side by side

Sometimes it's hard to describe what's similar because we're so concerned with what's different. However, your brain processes all of your observations to help you orient and make conclusions about what you see.

What did you find different about the scene from a U.S. shopping center? Here are our responses:

Different

Different language

Not every door has a sign over it

Sidewalk quite broken

Curb is sloped to the street

No clear parking area

Trash on the ground

Dusty

Did you try to interpret the signs and writing in Arabic? If you're like most Americans who don't read Arabic, you didn't focus on the writing. You identified it as a language you don't understand and then moved on to other parts of the scene that you could interpret, like the pictures on the signs or the state of the road. This is evidence of the fact that if something is too unfamiliar; we might not focus on it as a source of information. It just becomes "something foreign."

Would you have spent more time looking at the signs if they had been in Spanish, a language closer to English and one that many Americans speak and study?

Go back to your observations. Did you describe the locked yellow box with the blue lid on the side of the road? What did you make of it? Did you spend mental time trying to identify it?

Go on to the Orient stage to learn more!

The ORIENT stage

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The Orient stage of the OODA Loop includes the following activities:

• Organizing and coordinating various pieces of information

• Comparing information to what we already know

• Making preliminary interpretations about the information

• Develop alternatives for next steps

Orient is the stage of the OODA Loop where we make sense out of our observations.[6] When we orient, we categorize or organize information in a way that is useful to us. The 12 domains of culture are one way of helping you organize new cultural information.

We also compare what we're seeing to our past experiences, identifying what we recognize and what we don't. This process helps you establish patterns and begin to interpret what you see.

Orientation (orienting, organizing, categorizing information) depends on a person's worldview, previous experience, and the tradition, beliefs, and values that person brings from his or her culture. Just as with observation, we tend to orient to new information naturally. In this course, we will practice how to orient more mindfully, in order to achieve better interpretations. When in a new or strange culture, sometimes relying on your 'natural' observations and orientation can easily and frequently lead to an erroneous 'understanding' of what is really going on.

Finally, in the Orient stage, we develop alternative courses of action, or what we think may be useful to do next.[7]

Please note that the OBSERVE and ORIENT phases often occur simultaneously in our minds. They are treated as separate phases in the OODA Loop first because we need to explain the dynamics of each, and second because we will give you cultural tools that emphasize one over the other.

Think back to the Iraqi market photo. When Dr. Kerr began working with the 3/82 Brigade Combat Team, he noticed the yellow boxes and asked the Soldiers what the boxes were for.

"It's just Iraqi stuff," was the response.

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In terms of the OODA Loop, the Soldiers were categorizing the boxes as something local, since they couldn't interpret the writing. However, they ignored a crucial part of the OODA Loop. They didn't make any hypotheses about what the objects were, and they didn't observe that the boxes became more numerous in that neighborhood over time. They overlooked the boxes because the boxes were just too different from anything they had ever encountered.

In fact, the boxes were a means of collecting donations for the party of the leader of the political opposition and the insurgent forces. It may not be too much of a stretch to then imagine that people were sending messages to the insurgents in the boxes. Therefore, the arrival and growth of the boxes' placement in that neighborhood was a clue to the local political and military climate. The knowledge of locals' political leanings turned out to be very important for their eventual success in the area.

Other things that are unfamiliar may stand out to you. One example is women in headscarves or complete burqas, the first time one sees them in person. Why do they stand out and not the yellow boxes? It's because we have a cultural schema for women, their clothing, and their general participation in public life.

* Schema is the mental representation of an item, activity or concept, based on our accumulated knowledge and previous life experiences.

Our schemas for charity donations, military tactics, and political support don't include little yellow collection boxes, so the boxes didn't fit in to what the Soldiers expected in that situation.

The DECIDE Phase

The Decide stage of the OODA Loop includes the following activities

• Predicting others' behavior

• Planning next steps

• Seeking further information

• Questioning assumptions and interpretations

The Orient phase of a cross-cultural experience leads to interpretations and possible alternatives. In the Decide phase of the OODA Loop, you weigh your options and interpretations and choose to move forward with one. Your decision is based on the information gathered (observing) and your understanding of the data (orienting).

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You might decide how to act/react to a particular situation, what form of behavior is appropriate, and whether to pursue certain areas of interest in your conversation. On the other hand, you may decide to do nothing.

An important part of deciding is questioning your own assumptions—have you made the best judgment? Are you relying on your observations or your opinions?

One decision would be to go back through the first two stages of the OODA Loop process:

If you need more information, or think you neglected to notice some factor, you can go back to the Observe phase If you're not sure of your interpretation, you can "re-Orient" to the information, reorganizing the information in a way that makes more sense, which would result in different alternatives for decision and action

As mentioned above, the three phases OBSERVE, ORIENT and DECIDE overlap and happen very quickly in your mind. However, it is useful for this course to discuss each one as a distinct component, or step, of a process.

To review the OODA Loop cycle thus far:

1. Observation is the gathering of data, taking in information. Being observant means knowing how to gather pertinent data for better understanding

2. Orientation is the processing, or categorizing of the data, what you make of the information and experiences you have had, and what importance you assign to it

3. Decision-making means planning what to do next, questioning your assumptions, judging whether you have enough information to proceed

The ACT Phase

The Act stage of the OODA Loop includes the following activities:

• Enacting your plan

• Reviewing your decisions

• Reviewing your actions

• Reflecting on your results

As one author notes, "The proof of the success of the OODA Loop is in the success of the Action taken."[8] But how will you know if your action is successful? As with any exercise, you do an After Action Report (AAR), even if only to yourself. You review what you've decided and how you enacted your decision. You also reflect on what happened, how others responded, whether or not you made people more angry or diffused a situation.

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Keep in mind that all of your actions affect your future observations and orientations. If you go back a few pages, you'll see that "Reviewing the consequences of your previous actions" was one of the activities in the Observe stage. Since the OODA Loop is a process, you naturally will go through it again and again. With the experience you gain, you become a better observer and orienter, which leads to improving your cross-cultural competence.

Knowledge Check

Summary

There's a lot of information in this first lesson of Introduction to Culture! As the foundational lesson of the course, you will see these same terms and concepts outlined here repeated throughout the remaining lessons. Knowledge of these general concepts is the first step to learning to understand how culture "works" in terms of human relations. Here's how. You must first recognize beliefs and values of your own culture before you can effectively interpret the cultural practices of others.

The lesson began by introducing the USAF definition of culture, where "meaning" was emphasized in both parts of the definition. The Air Force challenge coin provided an example showing how meaning is maintained and transformed over time within a culture, how it can expand beyond a culture to have meaning for others, and how challenge coins show affiliation and entail a shared set of actions that have meaning.

The lesson discussed the various meanings people in the world assign to the color red, and we read that the Marines and Army also emphasize the importance of meaning in their definitions of culture. Determining the meanings of things, actions, behaviors, etc. provides invaluable insight to the values that people hold dear, and is important to a cultural observer in foreign cultures.

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Becoming a better observer is, in fact, the first step to cross cultural competence, and this lesson shows how to observe beneath the surface of a metaphoric iceberg.

Like culture, and like every individual, icebergs have much more to them than is visible at first glance. We compared the deepest part of the iceberg to human and cultural values and beliefs, which we can't see and can often be understood by determining the meanings associated with the actions and symbols that we can see – the top of the iceberg.

Click on the image below for a simple (and optional) jigsaw puzzle depicting this important concept.

The lesson discussed the importance of values in other ways as well, such as drawing together people with shared values like motorcycle riding. It presented articles from two military professionals on their shared value for cross cultural competence, which both deemed absolutely essential to success in military missions. U.S. Army General (ret.) David Petraeus emphasized the criticality of both culture-specific knowledge and culture-general knowledge as operational necessities. USAF Lt Col Justin Speegle described the need for military personnel to comprehend when cultural factors are having an impact, and to recognize when and how to adapt as necessary to achieve the desired effects. Both men highlighted the need to respect the culture one is operating in.

As foreign as any culture may seem at first glance, all cultures share common categories of interactions and beliefs, which we introduced as cultural domains.

Cultural domains provide a means of categorizing our observations, and finding common ground in an unfamiliar environment. Mentally filing observations in terms of cultural domains, along with the framework and focus of the OODA loop, can help to overcome natural tendencies to stereotype or judge a foreign culture. More importantly, it can minimize the tendency to overlook things that are completely outside our own cultural schema as illustrated by our real-world example of American soldiers in Iraq.

Each stage of the loop focuses on one part of your decision-making process: Observing, Orienting, Deciding, and Acting. Although our brains handle these four things continuously, naturally, and in some cases, simultaneously, the OODA loop is a process that requires practice. Observing and Orienting tend to occur naturally, but when in a new or strange culture, it is important to perform these activities mindfully. The experience you gain from practicing focused observation and orientation can immeasurably build your knowledge and ability to relate to other cultures, or in other words, cross-cultural competence.

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The rest of the course is designed to deepen your comprehension and application of these Lesson 1 concepts. The quizzes will help to prepare you for the graded assignments and Final exam, and will cover lesson material and lesson articles. If you haven't completed the readings, go back and do that now, and then take the quiz. We'll see you in Lesson 2!

References

Lesson 1 Endnotes

[1] Petraeus, Lt Gen David H. 2006. Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq. Military Review Jan.-Feb. 2006, p. 8.

[2] ibid. emphasis added.[emphasis added: endnote Petraeus 2006, p. 8]

[3] Speegle, Lt Col Justin. Essay produced for Air Command and Staff College, U.S. Air Force. P. 4.

[4] Air University. 2009. Air University Quality Enhancement Plan 2009-2014: "Cross-Culturally Competent Airmen." Revised 15 Apr 2009. P. 1.

[5] Ullman, David G. 2005. "OO-OO-OO!" the Sound of a Broken OODA Loop. Robust Decisions, Inc.

[5] Spivey, Duane. 2008. The OODA Loop and Learning. Chief Learning Officer (website).

[6] Ullman, 2005.

[7] ibid.

[8] ibid, p. 6