The Story behind “Cross-Cultural Ambassadors & Specialists“ Part 2 – EXODUS
1976 BACK TO BLIGHTY AND A SLIGHT FAUX PAS!!
After our adventures in Madrid, North Africa and Malta (see Blog 1), my wife and I found ourselves back in the UK. Seeking new horizons, we planned our return to Madrid, where a contact from my time at The Castellana Hotel, Robert Sirabella, suggested a path that would change everything: train as Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL Certification) and teach at the school he had just opened.
True to form, my course at Canterbury University started with a cross-cultural gaffe. Trying to strike up a conversation with an older gentleman next to me, I asked, “Are these Linguarama guys any good?” Little did I know, this man was none other than Richard D. Lewis, the founder of Linguarama and a pioneer of cross-cultural theory. A few minutes later, he demonstrated his “Direct Method” for teaching English and proved his genius.
Despite this “faux pas”, both Carmen and I were selected to work at Robert’s new school in Madrid. I started as a teacher and eventually became Business Development Manager. This period, from 1977 to 1981, was more than just a job; it was a front-row seat to Spain’s transformation from a dictatorship to a monarchy, whilst we attempted to learn how to raise our first two children with no mothers to guide us!!
1981 – The Chilean Gambit: From Crisis to Cultural Dialogue
In 1981, we decided to move to Chile, where the children could grow up amongst their cousins and relatives in the rural setting of Talagante, Carmen’s hometown. My plan to convince Richard to open a Linguarama School in Chile was thwarted, partly due to the country’s political and economic fragility – Pinochet’s curfew was still in place … and also perhaps because the Falklands War broke out the day Richard left!! The Embassy advised him to cancel his trip to Argentina where he probably would have been arrested! (Read more in his book: “The Road from Wigan Pier“.
This set-back turned out to be an opportunity. I found out from the Embassy that the representative for BBC English in Chile had gone bankrupt and a senior executive was coming to Chile seek a new representative. The deal was sealed over lunch by the swimming pool on the roof of the Sheraton Hotel overlooking the Moneda Palace!
Two months later, I launched my own language training business – International Language Consultants – representing BBC English and Riversdown House and featuring the very best adult learning resources in Video: “Follow Me”, “The Sadrina Project”: “The Bellcrest File” and “Bid for Power”. We became pioneers in Chile in Blended Learning and were moderately succsessful in the Educational market with Muzzy in Gondoland!! (Peter -insert photo of caratula please)
In the meantime, Richard was focussing on the cultural aspects of communication, largely as a result of the living cross-cultural workshop that operates 14 hours a day 355 days per year at his Residential Center, Riversdown House. This has allowed him to observe and interact with over 50,000 executives from 68 + countries over the last 50 years.
In Spring 1991, I received Volume 3 of his Cross Culture Magazine titled “The Cultural Gulf”, featuring a great cartoon of Saddam and George snarling at each other from either side of the Gulf and a brilliant article on how inevitable the war was because of the lack of cultural awareness on either side.
This prompted me to raise the topic at the Education Committee of AMCHAM CHILE and in 1994 we organized a Cross-Cultural Seminar, starting with top comedian, Coco Legrand, poking fun at Chilean idiosyncrasies. This was a great icebreaker to open the discussions about the communication challenges between Chileans, Americans, and expat members from many different countries. A brilliant opportunity to create awareness of the importance of Cross Culture.
Despite our best efforts, however, we were unable to generate enough interest to bring Richard back to Chile to run a programme on culture. The market wasn’t ready, but I was gaining a deeper appreciation for the subject myself as I observed the communication challenges within my own company.
By this time IBC Language Training, as it was now called, had grown considerably, with over 20 teachers, largely Chilean but with a growing contingent of British, American, Australian, New Zealand and South Africans, plus administrative staff, most of whom spoke little English.
None of the leaders had any training or prior experience in management so it was remarkable how we were able to run the business so successfully. I was genuinely surprised to read an article in “El Mercurio” newspaper in 1995 that we had trained more executives in English than any other institute in Chile.
I could blame the subsequent downfall of IBC on my serendipitous purchase of Stephen Covey’s ”The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” in a bookshop in Miami that same year. Or on the synchronicity that led me to be invited to the 7 Habits workshop in Argentina, six weeks later, where I returned to Chile with the license for Chile under my arm. The truth is, I was so enamoured with the concept of Principle-Centered Leadership that I took my eye off the ball at IBC, believing that the 50% shares I had given my Academic Director and General Manager (who subsequently married) would ensure they would take the best care of my teenage company!!!!
In 1996 we launched CLC Chile (subsequently representing FranklinCovey) and for the next seven years we enjoyed amazing synergy with Puerto Ricans, Tom Morell and Walter Santaliz and all their regional partners from Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. It was here that I learnt to dance and sing “Macarena” and other tropical rhythms and had my first experience negotiating as a multi-cultural Latin Team with our North American colleagues, largely from Utah.
IBC finally closed in 2002 triggered by changes in the” Tax Exemption for Training” scheme in Chile which created major liquidity problems… and associated disagreements between the partners.
In 2003, due to a major shake-up of FC’s business model for Latin America, I decided to change boats and team up with Joseph Grenny and his co-authors of Crucial Conversations, with Vital Smarts/Crucial Learning. This deeper dive into Habit 5, Accountability and Execution has been extremely rewarding and has given me the opportunity of training programmes in Spain, the UK and the UAE as well as most of the major countries which make up South America.
The Turning Point in Dubai: A New Paradigm
My journey took another pivotal turn in 2017 while I was leading a Crucial Conversations training in Dubai. I was faced with a classroom of 15 different nationalities. Within the first hour, an Egyptian delegate challenged a video showing a mild-mannered approach to feedback. He argued that a more direct, forceful style was necessary in his culture. A few hours later, a Thai participant politely pointed out that a video of a nurse giving feedback to a doctor would cause a profound “loss of face,” a concept her culture goes to great lengths to avoid.
Fortunately, I had recently attended a facilitator training on The Lewis Model with Richard and Caroline Lewis, led by Michael Gates. This allowed me to immediately address their concerns. I took a break to prepare a 15-minute presentation on the model, highlighting the critical error of simply translating American “scripts” without adapting the communication for their own cultural context. My message was clear: Silence is NOT an option – you had to find the best way to get your message across or the whole company would likely suffer the consequences of missing opportunities and/or vital signs of failure.
This experience was a major turning point. The following year, I returned to Dubai better prepared, mapping out each participant’s cultural background using The Lewis Model. This simple visual tool allowed the participants to immediately understand and adjust their perspectives almost before I pointed to the chart.
From 2016 to 2019, I was based in England. We arrived back in Chile just in time for the Social Uprising… followed by the Pandemic. The bottom fell out of the training business, so I decided it was time to see what semi-retirement felt like.
Whilst working as Vice-Chair for English-Speaking Union Chile (a British-based ONG that I had helped launch in Chile in 2005), I became acutely aware that in Public-Speaking and Debating an excellent command of English is no longer sufficient. Awareness and sensitivity to Cross Culture is vital. I therefore began expanding my network in the field via Linked-In.
My friendship with Michael Gates led me to read a post by dear Irina Yashkova about her work with NASA as interpreter and Cross-Cultural Advisor for the International Space Station for the last 25 years. I woke up at 2 am with the idea of bringing her to the Valley of the Moon in the Atacama Desert to raise the awareness of the importance of Cultural Intelligence in Latin America as it engages with the rest of the world.
For the last 18 months, we have been discussing with Irina, Richard and Caroline Lewis, Christine Mullaney, Mona Lou Cherkaoui, Frank Larkey and several other prestigious specialists, and have come up with the concept of Cross-Cultural Ambassadors whose website we have recently inaugurated in Beta Mode to explore the opportunities. Richard D. Lewis has kindly agreed to be our Honorary Chairman.
We look forward to hearing from all who are interested in contributing to the website and perhaps participating in the CROSS-CULTURAL AMBASSADORS’ SUMMIT we are planning for 2026/7 in the Atacama Desert´s “Valley of the Moon”.
Philip Ray
September 2025