Crossing Cultures: Effective Communication in a Diverse Environment

Whether you are communicating with someone in your office who comes from a different culture or you are travelling to another country, there are myriad, often unrecognized differences in communication styles, behaviour and approach. For successful communication to take place, these differences must first be recognized and then addressed in a methodical and constructive manner. 

Crossing Cultures aims to reduce communication frustration and misunderstandings by discovering how to close the gap between your own cultural drivers and those of your diverse customer base and workforce. This program is based on extensive academic research and international managerial experience. It incorporates proven facilitation strategies and cross cultural communication models, provides participants with an individual assessment to measure individual values, identify personal cultural preferences and uncover potential areas of conflict with other cultures.

Workshop Objectives

 Understand your own cultural values 

• Identify behavioural barriers to cross cultural communication
• Address value differences between cultural backgrounds
• Learn culturally sensitive communication skills to function effectively in a multi-cultural team
• Apply appropriate strategies to achieve effective two-way communication in a variety of different cultural settings
• Develop invaluable communication skills for working in a global environment

Target Audience

Front line staff, supervisors and managers in organizations engaging in international business, serving a diverse clientele at home or peopled by a culturally diverse workforce

Content & Methodology

In this one-day customized workshop participants experience and come to understand the challenges of communicating across cultures as well as how to strategize to address the challenges they will face. Exercises will be used to demonstrate a variety of cultural scenarios, understand the attitudinal barriers that might be faced as well as how to develop new strategies for responding.

Course Materials

Participants receive a customized workbook that includes workshop content and exercises, a comprehensive tool box, cultural profile of up to five different cultural groups. In addition, participants will complete the Individual Cultural Evaluator (ICE)©  questionnaire and receive a personalized cultural profile that defines their own value system across six dimensions.

Cultural Toolbox

A series of planning tools will be provided to aid in some common cross cultural communication situations such as:

• Planning a meeting
• Running a meeting
• Handling conflict
• Asking for/offering feedback
• Delegating
• Managing a team project
• Developing/delivering a presentation