Polly Collingridge heads up business development at the Cultural Intelligence Centre UK. She has extensive knowledge of the variety of challenges experienced by our UK clients across all sectors and a deep understanding of customised CQ training as a solution.

In the NHS, for example, this could mean using CQ to drive inclusive leadership, or to improve employee (and patient) relations, EDI goals and conflict resolution.

In the education sector, this could be using CQ to enable faculty and staff to communicate better with an increasingly diverse student body, or it could be a means to instil (and measure the development of) attributes that prepare their graduates for success in a globalised world.

With our corporate clients the focus is often on ensuring that leaders and team members working across cultures and time zones don’t fall prey to misunderstandings that render them less effective.

In order to support her clients, Polly draws on her previous professional experience working in global mobility, employee wellbeing and as an ex board member and department head at the independent publisher Canongate Books.

Although Polly was born and (mostly) raised in London, she knows what it is to cross national cultures herself, having lived in Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ireland and the USA. This may be why she is so passionate about all things intercultural, and the role of CQ in helping us work towards a more inclusive society in which we all understand ourselves, and each other, a little better.

As well as being a CQ Certified Facilitator, Polly holds degrees in Cross-Cultural Psychology and Italian/Spanish.