Working Across Cultures

Focus

This is an essential course for employees and teams in a multicultural work environment, to learn how to work harmoniously together to be more productive. Participants identify their own cultural values and those of their co-workers or teammates in reciprocal learning. This process begins with a self-assessment to understand their own cultural preferences in how they think, communicate and work, using an online tool. They learn to recognize the “unspoken rules of culture” which impact business practices in their organization, including: communication styles, sharing information, building relationships with the boss and co-workers, conflict resolution, feedback on performance, and accountability.

As participants identify what leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding, they are ready to practice effective cross-cultural communication strategies for mutual understanding, problem solving and increasing trust. Content is tailored to each organization by means of a needs assessment and is customized for four cultures in the workplace. Using our action-learning approach, on-the-job assignments are given in between training sessions.

Who Should Participate

Individual contributors, teams

Program Length

Training: Nine hours in 3-hour modules, usually scheduled one week apart

Coaching: Three one-hour group coaching sessions following each training session. Coaching is essential to ensure communication skills practice and transfer of learning and increased effectiveness on the job.

Results

Develop greater awareness and appreciation of specific cultures of co-workers/team.
Use intercultural communication strategies for mutual understanding and conflict resolution.
Increase team performance in accuracy, meeting deadlines, achieving goals.