Adapting in a changing Global World: Cultural Intelligence

In the past seven years, I have lived the speed of change first hand: from gaining new knowledge in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley (2018) to relocating to the Netherlands without speaking the language (2019), through a global pandemic (2020), wars reshaping Europe (2022), and now, in 2025, ongoing conflicts that alter the world’s scenario and the lives of people in a dramatic way in weeks.

We live in an interconnected, interdependent, fast-changing world.

In many contemporary, globalized contexts where diversity and rapid change are a reality, technical expertise and emotional intelligence are no longer enough. A “one size fits all” approach to leadership and communication doesn’t work. Adaptability, collaboration, and cultural intelligence (CQ) are no longer “nice-to-haves”; they're core competencies.

Yet when I run workshops, I still hear:

“Culture doesn’t matter much, as long as I’m polite.” 

“Adapting my emails just takes too much time.”

Globalization has standardized some practices: English as a common language, professional etiquette, corporate norms. But there is no universal way of doing business. Every decision, negotiation, or partnership is shaped by people: their values, cultural background and norms, communication styles, personal preferences, lived experiences and contexts.

Adapting your communication isn’t just about translating or fitting into another culture, but about co-creating a new, shared space where multiple perspectives can co-exist, a space of shared understanding, the in-between space of hybridity, where diverse individuals meet, where cultural interaction occurs and new, hybrid meanings, practices, and identities emerge. Your Company Culture, your team culture, the third space. 

This is the foundation of strong company culture and antifragile teams. 

Research supports this: organizations want employees with high CQ because they make better decisions, negotiate more effectively, and lead more inclusively. (Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne & Mei Ling Tan, Cultural Intelligence, in Sternberg & Kaufman’s Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence).

And if leaders struggle to adapt an email, how ready are they to adapt to global market shocks, shifting client needs, or geopolitical disruption?

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2025) highlights agility, adaptability, and resilience as some of the fastest rising skills in demand. Ability is good. But agility, adaptability and cultural intelligence as meta-competencies are essential. Most importantly, human connection, shared understanding, and spaces where people are truly valued is what’s needed in today's world.

I invite you to reflect...

What are you doing to ensure adaptability and cultural intelligence in your teams?

Building spaces of shared understanding is not a one person task, it’s everyone’s responsibility. 

As an individual, what's your role in shaping that space?