CQ Drive
Eight Christian college students left their dorm rooms in Indiana to spend their January term in Shanghai, China. Members of the team are all TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) students who by participating in this two-week mission trip will also receive three credits and hands-on experience in TESL. They raised support from family and friends, promoting the trip as a chance to share the gospel with Chinese peers who want to learn English. The team is led by Jake, a senior marketing major with a minor in TESL. Jake grew up as a missionary kid in Mexico. He’s spent more time living outside the United States than in it. The group’s Chinese host is Tan Jun.
After picking up the American students at the airport, Jun took them to a crowded Shanghai restaurant. Fortunately for the team, Jun speaks flawless English. After they were seated at the restaurant, Jun smiled and said, “Perhaps you’re tired after your long journey.”
Jake, the team leader, said, “Yeah, we’re pretty wasted, but it will be good to eat something other than plane food!”
After dinner, Jun decided the team should take a stroll down Nanjing Road, one of the busiest shopping districts in China. The streets were mobbed with people. The North American students were exhilarated and exhausted all at the same time. The pollution seemed intense, and the noise level caused a major headache for several of the jet-lagged students. Jun bought them all some dumplings at a hawker stall and insisted they try them. Brian, covering his mouth as he yawned, said, “So Jun. Where are we staying tonight? Is it close to here?”
“Don’t worry,” replied Jun. “We’ll go there after a while. I’ll show you where it is.”
Brian muttered to Sarah, who was walking next to him, “What I’m worried about is getting away from the stench and noise and lying down flat for the first time in thirty-two hours!”
Sarah said, “Remember, Brian, these are things Chinese people always do—stay up late, eat, and shop.”
“Well, I’m not Chinese!” Brian said a little louder than he meant to.
Brian is four months away from graduation. He hopes this trip will help him figure out how to use his TESL degree. He’s a little annoyed that the next three days are devoted to touring Shanghai because what he really came to do was teach English. As great as it will be to hang out with the rest of the team in Shanghai, Brian didn’t come here to eat squishy foods and visit temples. He came to teach English and share the gospel!
The more tired the students became, the less difference their pre-trip orientation seemed to have on their attitudes and behaviors. They were jet-lagged, tired, sweaty, queasy, and way out of their comfort zones. They just wanted to sleep. Finally, when they arrived at the hostel where they were staying, Brian was relieved to see a McDonald’s just a block away.
The motivation for participating in short-term missions was the first conflicting image we examined in part 2. Going merely for the sake of adventure or to experience a new place can get in the way of doing short-term missions well. On the other hand, viewing cultural experiences as a distraction from our true mission is equally problematic. The motivation behind our service is the first issue addressed by cultural intelligence: CQ Drive.
What Is CQ Drive?
CQ Drive refers to our level of interest and motivation to adapt cross-culturally. It’s a traveler’s robustness, courage, hardiness, and capability to persevere through cultural differences. A person high in CQ Drive draws great satisfaction from being in new places and interacting with people from different cultures. A person low in CQ Drive avoids engagement with the culture as a whole. Short-termers with low CQ Drive hope to stay in comfortable hotels, interact primarily with their fellow teammates, and eat familiar foods. In contrast, short-termers with high CQ Drive want to adapt to the new culture not only to do short-term missions well but also because they’re genuinely interested in learning about life in a different place.
People high in CQ Drive are internally motivated to learn about a new place. They want to ask the deeper questions that come about best through CQ Strategy, something we’ll look at later. As they begin to observe differences and some of the ways their own assumptions are challenged, they don’t run from facing those differences. Instead, they persist in trying to adapt in light of their observations. They don’t persevere through this process in isolation. They actively seek relationships with people who are culturally different. For these kinds of individuals, a short-term missions trip is just one of many opportunities in the course of a year when they will seek out cross-cultural experiences. A person with high CQ Drive is always on the lookout for opportunities to understand different cultures and different ways of seeing the world.
CQ Drive is one of the most overlooked aspects of short-term missions. CQ Knowledge and CQ Action are the elements of CQ often given the most attention. Many short-term teams conduct extensive orientation, which includes researching some of the understanding necessary to make the trip meaningful. Many teams spend time talking about the importance of their behavior on the trip and remind one another about that during the trip. But little attention is given to the aspect of motivation when it comes to short-term missions or, for that matter, how it relates to cross-cultural interactions in general. The motivational component of cross-cultural adaptation is generally neglected or given little serious attention.[101]
Ironically, CQ Drive is the most important aspect when selecting people for cross-cultural work, including short-term missions work. As we saw in chapter 3, the way one anticipates and is motivated to participate in a short-term project directly influences how that individual experiences the trip. Motivation shapes cross-cultural engagement more than anything else. A person’s primary motivation, whether to travel with friends or to “save” people, directly shapes how that person will engage with those he or she encounters.
It’s not enough simply to be motivated to do short-term missions. Quite honestly, we’re not short on passion and zeal when it comes to short-term missions. Many of our short-term endeavors are driven by our confidence that they’re biblical, our love for adventure, or our desire to make a difference in the world. All these motivators powerfully shape our assumptions about what should happen on the trip. The question lies in whether we also see the importance of immersing ourselves in the local culture and how doing so will help us learn and serve.
CQ Drive doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Our levels of motivation are connected to the motivations of those with whom we travel and, most of all, of those closest to us. Throughout the past couple of decades, as North Americans have traveled and worked abroad, a great deal of research has examined the role of one’s family and friends in how an individual works cross-culturally. If you’re really excited about going on an overseas assignment but your spouse or kids aren’t, that has a direct impact on your level of motivation. If a close friend is on a trip with you and has little interest in really experiencing the culture, that immediately challenges your level of interest in engaging with the culture.
Motivation is also shaped by our cultural backgrounds. While we can’t assume everyone from one place is more motivated than everyone from another place, it’s important to understand the relationship between our cultural programming and how we’re likely to score on CQ Drive. For example, Americans typically have lower success rates adjusting to other cultures compared to many other ethnic groups. There are a number of reasons for this. One of the primary contributing factors for our poor adaptation cross-culturally comes from the urgency factor we looked at earlier. We’re programmed to solve problems and fix things efficiently. The very idea that we might go primarily to learn and relate goes against the grain of our cultural ethos. Furthermore, despite our espoused desire to learn from others, it’s been ingrained in us as Americans that we’re the best country in the world and we should therefore help other people become more like us. With that mind-set comes a whole set of assumptions that make it more challenging to calibrate our motivation for effective cross-cultural engagement.
In similar fashion, for many Americans, receiving positive feedback is a key motivator. I’ve often been a bit paralyzed in cross-cultural settings because I hear so little direct feedback on whether the ministry that’s happening is effective. However, in many cultural contexts, directly expressing feedback—positive or negative—is viewed as a form of humiliation and embarrassment, so more discreet feedback is preferable. All of these cultural dynamics play a part in understanding CQ Drive.
In contrast, cultures that are more collectivist in their orientation—an idea we’ll explore more fully in the next chapter—are motivated differently than those that are more individualistic (e.g., most Western cultures). Collectivists are motivated most by what’s good for their group, not for each individual. For example, McDonald’s wasn’t successful in using its “Employee of the Month” program in India in the same way it uses it in North America. It was humiliating for most Indian employees to be singled out as the employee of the month. So McDonald’s began rotating the award among teams of employees rather than singling out an individual.
One of the most important aspects of CQ Drive is our desire to adapt not only to the immediate task at hand but also to the culture as a whole. Typically, people who travel overseas to work, whether for business or for missions, are motivated to do their work well. An American businesswoman wants to run the branch office in Bangkok successfully. The Chicago pastor training in Ghana wants to feel as if he’s communicated the content well with the people being trained. However, the same individuals often demonstrate a much lower level of motivation for adjusting to the culture as a whole. The US businesswoman in Thailand might think a ride down the Chau Phraya River in a river taxi has little to do with how she runs the office, and the North American pastor might think eating Ghanaian food has little influence on his teaching. The research demonstrates exactly the opposite. Our level of interest in connecting with a culture as a whole directly shapes how well we do our work in subtle but profound ways.
The same dynamics apply to short-term missions. Most short-term participants have low CQ Drive when it comes to truly engaging in the life of a culture. We have a strong desire to complete the roof project and do it well. We want to reach as many kids as possible through the vacation Bible school program we’re running, or we want to really help the pastors we’re training. Those are noble and worthy forms of motivation, but by themselves, they aren’t enough. In fact, too much motivation to do our tasks well may impede our ability to engage with people. We’re inclined to be so focused on our task that we miss out on some of the more important conversations and experiences. As a result, many of our short-term projects are done with a low level of CQ Drive. We end up observing the novelties of a new place from afar rather than really immersing ourselves in the context. We look for familiar foods and crave a current copy of USA Today on our way to paint the wall, and so we miss a huge part of the experience.
CQ Drive goes beyond simply the excitement of traveling to a new place. It’s the perseverance required when the novelty wears off and the differences start to chafe at us. Given its importance and our tendency to neglect motivation, it’s essential we consider a few ways to nurture CQ Drive.
Nurturing CQ Drive
Nurturing the desire and motivation to adapt cross-culturally is especially challenging when it involves a project as brief as ten days to two weeks. When expatriates move overseas for several years, they often have a much higher level of motivation to adapt because they’re going to be there much longer and adapting to the local culture is essential for them to succeed. However, there’s often little interest in working hard to adapt to a culture when you’re only there for a few days. There are a number of ways to address this. Here are a few considerations.
Be Honest
A great deal of the research we’ve looked at in this book raises questions about the long-term impact of short-term missions. There is evidence that short-term missions can have a positive impact on both goers and receivers, but we need to look honestly at the questions raised by some of the findings. One of the things that continued to emerge when comparing the perspectives of North American short-termers and those of majority world church members was our exaggerated descriptions of what happens as a result of these trips.
Our motivation for short-term missions often involves an overstated description of what happens in others and us. We talk about changing entire communities that don’t look all that different after we leave. We describe the lifelong changes in us, including our commitments to pray more and give more, but within six to eight weeks, most of us are praying and giving about the same as before the trip.[102]
There are compelling, redemptive reasons to engage in short-term missions. But in our need to defend our trips to ourselves and our supporters, we must not overstate the influence of the trips—upon us or those we serve. I have little trouble believing that some kind of transformation occurs when we leave the comforts of home to live in an entirely different part of the world for a couple weeks. Likewise, when a group of Mexicans hosts a group of North Americans for a week, surely there is some sort of impact. Every encounter in life plays at least some role in who I am and how I view the world and God. However, we need to move toward seeing our short-term missions trips as one of many life experiences that make an impact on us and others.
When we become more honest about seeing short-term missions trips as one of thousands of life experiences that change us, we’ll be motivated more appropriately, which in turn will help us engage more effectively. Let’s stop thinking about short-term missions as a service to perform and see it instead as another expression of living in the way of Jesus, which includes giving and receiving from our brothers and sisters in Christ globally. Let’s think about missions as a time when we’re responsible to learn. When we’re with brothers and sisters from another part of the world, let’s spend less time thinking about how we can tell everyone back home what we did for them and more time finding out what they’re truly facing and getting their perspective on how we can help them and they can help us. Before we spend time painting a wall, let’s spend time deciding if that’s the best thing we can do. With high levels of unemployment in most of the places we visit, are we taking jobs away from people who need them when we do our building projects? There are probably times when it’s appropriate to do a building project, but be willing to slow down and ask the question before jumping in.
This is challenging because often the request to build a building or to provide training comes from the local believers themselves. I encounter this all the time. I frequently interact with majority world church leaders who request curriculum and resources developed in the West. I don’t doubt they can make use of them, but part of my being honest about their true needs means sometimes challenging even the requests that come from our majority world church brothers and sisters. The honesty we’re after has to come from a broad perspective of what God is doing among people all over the world and continually learning what our role is in that. Sometimes we need to sacrifice our egos and say, “I’m not going to train. I want to do whatever I can to help you train your people using the material that’s developed by your context for your context.” Or we may need to say, “We’re not going to build that. We’re going to raise the money for you to employ your people to build it.” Or maybe we refer them to another ministry that’s already working effectively in their context who can better meet their needs.
As we pursue this kind of honest reflection, we begin to move away from the drive-by mission trip mentality. An accurate perspective on what can happen within others and us is the kind of honesty our supporters deserve, not to mention our brothers and sisters in Christ in the majority world and the others who live there. This kind of honesty is an essential part of nurturing CQ Drive. Over the long haul, we’ll stay motivated far longer and persevere through much more cultural dissonance when we are honest about what we have to offer and what we have to gain.
Look for Relevance
Few of us are motivated to do something if it feels irrelevant and disconnected from our lives. In order to be motivated to persevere through the challenges of cross-cultural work, we must see how they relate to our other goals. This is a basic rule of learning. We aren’t motivated to learn about things that we perceive to be irrelevant to our needs. The mind-set is, “If I have to learn algebra, help me see why I’ll ever need it!” We have to see how eating unfamiliar foods, sitting through services in a foreign language, and touring ancient temples are relevant to God’s call on our lives. It’s imperative that we frame our experiences as pertinent and related to the overall goals of our lives.
The average short-term team won’t see how eating at McDonald’s every day could hinder their vacation Bible school program. Yet we need to see the subtle but profound connections between where we eat, where we stay, and how we interact with how we fulfill our mission tasks. We need to soak in the culture and set the tone for others traveling with us about the importance of cultural immersion for effective relationships and ministry. We need to persevere through difficult interactions, try the foods and the language, and seek to understand what’s really going on beneath the surface of what we see. If you’re leading a short-term missions trip, challenge your group members to experience as much of the culture as possible. Help them see how taking it all in can directly relate to fulfilling your mission—both your short-term mission and your lifelong calling to extend the redemptive mission of God.
Connect to CQ Knowledge
Finally, one of the best ways to improve CQ Drive is through the next CQ capability: CQ Knowledge. By learning about a culture, its history, and its values, we become more motivated to engage with it, particularly if we can see the relevance of cultural understanding to the mission at hand. And learning about a culture can help us persevere through the things that can otherwise be disorienting and stressful.
For example, a highly relational, empathetic North American who takes a short-term trip to a society that sees a big distinction between leaders and followers (something we’ll later describe as “power distance”) needs to relate and serve in light of what he knows about how the culture views status. Perhaps the North American thinks, Forget about all these distinctions based on the color of skin or money. I’m going to show these people I don’t believe in that. Imagine he meets a low-status cleaning lady, stops to talk with her, and then gives her a warm embrace as he walks away. His desire to love her just as she is is commendable. However, she may miss entirely what he’s trying to communicate because he violated the cultural norm about roles and status. This may well be an area in which visiting Christians need to be countercultural. However, the short-term missionary needs to understand that the cleaning lady may get a different message than he intended.
The first step in dealing with this is motivation. But once we are motivated to best demonstrate our love for God and people, we inevitably come to see the importance of understanding how to best communicate that love in the various cultures we encounter. Sheer willpower to effectively express love cross-culturally isn’t enough, and neither is pure head knowledge about what a culture values. But together, CQ Drive and CQ Knowledge can play a powerful role in helping us effectively love and serve across borders. High CQ Drive helps us use our cross-cultural understanding to love God and love others.
Back to Shanghai
Brian had a great night of sleep, and he was ready to conquer a new day—even though he still wouldn’t get to teach for a couple more days. Jun walked in the room, and everybody was sipping instant tea and coffee. “Breakfast has arrived,” he said, as he set noodles and congee on the table.
Jun looked at a couple of the students and said, “You live close to Chicago—right?”
“Yeah, not too far,” one of them replied.
“Shanghai looks pretty much like an American city, don’t you think?” he asked.
A few of the students nervously chuckled.
After a few more minutes of small talk, Brian asked Jun for some more information about the teaching later that week. “How long will our sessions be? Can we freely share our faith? What do they know about our visit?” Jun didn’t really answer his questions and just said things like, “Oh, they will really like you. This will be a very good week.”
Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Brian thought he’d spend a few minutes looking over his teaching notes while he felt fresh. He said, “I’m going to grab a hazelnut latte! Anyone else want to join me at Starbucks around the corner?”
Jun said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I don’t know if we have time right now, Brian. Some of the university students have invited you to join them at Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan Garden is said to be part of the Ming Dynasty. It’s a peaceful, beautiful place right in the heart of the city, and a group of my students asked if you’ll be their guests there for a while.”
Brian asked, “Can I ask what ‘a while’ means?”
Jun said, “Don’t worry. We’ll just go for a while and see how you like it.”
“Wow, that sounds really great,” Brian continued. “My only concern is that I really need to spend some time preparing for class.” Inside, Brian was thinking, I don’t need to hang out in some ancient garden! I’m not here to be a tourist. I want to be on top of my game to teach here.
You see what’s happening here. Brian is the epitome of the conscientious short-termer who wants to perform his task with excellence. He’s to be affirmed for that. He knows teaching Chinese students isn’t something that can be done just by winging it.
Unfortunately, Brian doesn’t understand that one of the things that might help him most in teaching is spending time with a group of Chinese peers in a place they’ve invited him to come. A trip to the garden probably won’t directly translate into teaching material; however, persevering through cultural experiences like this and, most of all, spending time with local students will be far more important to how he engages with his own students than he can imagine. Eating local food, walking down Nanjing Road, and lingering in Yuyuan Garden are probably what Brian needs far more to enhance his cultural intelligence and his effectiveness in teaching than spending a couple more hours reviewing his notes.
Strategies to Improve Your CQ Drive
Anytime:
On Your Short-Term Trip: