Cross Cultural

OVERVIEW AND PREPARATION:  A step-by-step guide for how to prepare for and promote this workshop to ensure success, including guides on delivering the training in various time frames. This section also includes a Cross Cultural Quiz to send to participants in advance to stir their interest or give it to them at the beginning of the session.

CULTURAL AWARENESS:  This section provides a complete Cross Cultural Skills Inventory participants can complete either in advance or in the session to get a picture of their level of cross cultural competency before the training. This part also covers what culture is, what is clear and what is hidden of it, and how it impacts values and behaviors.

EXPERIENCING CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:  Simulation and real-life case studies that help participants have an “experience” of cultural differences in the session, which may be for the first time for some of them.

DEVELOPING CROSS CULTURAL SKILLS: Participants will learn specific insights and skills for understanding and working effectively with cultural differences. This is done not with lengthy lectures but in an interactive manner that involves participants in discussions, role-plays, and exercises.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN AND TRADITIONAL CULTURES:  With this section you can provide a deeper insight into the American dominant culture, including its African-American and Hispanic sub-cultures. Americans need to understand their own culture before trying to understand a different one. Others will also benefit from understanding American culture in order to work effectively with Americans.

The workshop covers a number of methods to understand and contrast world cultures. It then provides an innovative simplified and unified method to understand three broad categories of world cultures and compare them to each other and to the American culture. This is the easiest and fastest way to develop broad cross cultural understanding without spending countless hours trying to understand the culture and habits of each country in the world.

CROSS CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS: The workshop includes applications on cross cultural negotiations that provide crucial insights and skills that help participants conduct successful negotiations across cultural differences.

See a Sample Before Ordering

Training managers and consultants can request a Sample Package of this workshop for evaluation by sending complete business contact information to service@humanext.com 

Order the complete Cultural Competency Program with Leader’s Guide, PP Slides and Reproducible Participant Workbook:

By Jonamay Lambert, Selma Myers, George Simons

An outstanding source for training activities relating to employee empowerment. Today most executives and managers need to have an international business and cross-cultural perspective. 50 Activities for Achieving Cultural Competence includes 50 training activities and self-development exercises to prepare your personnel for international assignments and develop better understanding of cross-cultural communication. Compiled by a team of experts from around the world, these ready-to-use activities have been tested and refined for a wide variety of international businesses and organizations. They are ideal for both preparing people to work, market, negotiate, and otherwise do business with people in Asia, Latin America, and Europe and for preparing foreign nationals to work in the United States.

328 pp / $149.95

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN CULTURE, BUSINESS, AND PEOPLE

A dynamic cross-cultural training workshop for those who want to understand the American way of life, values, culture, and business. It provides participants with deeper understanding of what made America what it is today, while giving them ways to apply that understanding in dealing with Americans in various encounters, from socializing, learning, and communicating, to doing business, negotiating and building relationships.

The American Way Workshop is a must for anyone seriously committed to interacting effectively with Americans in the US or abroad.

The workshop is presented by Francois Basili, who himself is considered the embodiment of cross cultural understanding. He has over twenty years of experience developing and delivering training programs for American and non-American audiences in the US and abroad.

Call us for more information: 973-427-3004

Dialogue! Now You're Talking Series consists of four video-based training programs:

Program 1. Communicating in a Diverse World.

• Overview. What is dialogue - contrasting debate and dialogue.
• Initiating Dialogue - how to do it, where to do it.
• The skills of Dialogue - Suspension (of judgment, decision making and status)
• Listening (with empathy, for understanding, showing you care)
• Discovery (uncovering and sharing hidden assumptions in yourself and others).
• Includes a dramatization of how Dialogue helps us communicate across job functions, helping improve relations between people at different levels within the organization as well as between different departments or areas of expertise.

Program 2. Dialogue for Cultural Understanding.

• We apply the skills of dialogue outlined in Program 1 to challenges faced in culturally diverse work environments.
• We see a dramatization that demonstrates how dialogue can be used to open communication, uncover hidden assumptions, break down stereotypes and facilitate more productive relationships.

Program 3. Dialogue between Genders.

• A dramatized dialogue shows us how the skills we learned in Program 1 can be used to overcome misunderstandings, break down gender stereotypes and improve communications between men and women at work.

Program 4. Dialogue among Generations.

• We demonstrate how the skills of dialogue can be used to bridge the personal and professional style differences that exist between employees of different ages.
• We uncover how divergent personal and world views common to people of different generations can lead to misunderstandings and distrust and how dialogue can help overcome age barriers and build more productive workplace relationships.

Purchase any one program of the above four $625.00

Purchase any 3 programs for $1462.50

Purchase any 2 programs for $1062.50

Support materials include a comprehensive facilitation guide, reproducible handouts, pre- and post-assessments, and PowerPoint slides for classroom presentation.

All four programs of this series are available for Streamed Learning.

For a Free Preview of this video program or to get information on streaming this video, email your request and information to service@humanext.com

What is courteous in one culture, may be disastrously discourteous in another!

Learn how to satisfy the different expectations of customers with this video designed to help employees provide effective customer service to all external multicultural customers --face-to-face and on the telephone.

This powerful training video offers over twenty strategies to help people adapt their traditional customer service skills to domestic and international customers of all cultures. In addition to some basic interpersonal skills, the video offers specific techniques to help talk to customers who have a heavy accent or who may not be fluent in their language.

20 min. Includes Leader's Guide. Purchase for $595.00  

For a Free Preview email your request and information to: service@humanext.com

What do you do if your clients are going global? How should your company respond to a market that is globalizing? Mary Cranston speaks of her experience in leading Pillsbury Winthrop through this process.

Pillsbury Winthrop was created in 2001 with the merger of two 125-year-old law firms that were historic market leaders in their respective birthplaces: San Francisco and New York. In response to new technology and a climate of deregulation, their corporate clients were going global-they had to do the same. The merger of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro with Winthrop Stimson Putnam & Roberts allowed them to become an international force in their industry virtually overnight.

Mary Cranston, along with Pillsbury's managing partner Marina Park, initiated the deal. Generating a sense of urgency, and convincing her partners that the status quo was a higher risk than moving forward, she orchestrated the buy-in of key players. This process turned out to be the best thing that could have happened, though the strategic choices and logistical pitfalls were a painful challenge at the time. Working with Winthrop's Chair, John Pritchard, Ms. Cranston expanded these firms into a national and international footprint in response to market changes.

Mary Cranston is currently the Chair of Pillsbury Winthrop, LLP. She received her JD from Stanford Law School, and holds an MA from the University of California at Los Angeles. Ms. Cranston has been named to the National Law Journal's list of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America."

Video type: VHS / Length: 46 mins. (2003)- $95.00

Are you about to work with the Arabs, or already working with them, in the US or in the Middle East, and need to understand their ways of thinking and working ?

Whether your relationship with the Arabs is commercial, cultural, educational, or political, better understanding leads to better results. Our "Understanding the Arabs" onsite workshop will give you deeper insight into the Arab mind, culture, religion and currents of thinking.

Covering all aspects of this unique culture, "Understanding the Arabs" unveils the mysteries of Arab history, language, value system, as well as the thinking of the new generation.

The workshop is presented by Arab natives from a number of Arab countries who hold at least a Masters degree and have published and taught about Arab culture for more than fifteen years.

"I want you to know that your 'Arab Culture' was the most popular class...and was completely filled one-half hour after registration began. At people's insistence, I have a very long waiting list..." - From a letter from the administrator of the Community Education Program, Jubail Project, Bechtel International.

Contact us for information: email info@communicationideas.com

We provide several on-site customized versions of our one day 'Diversity at Work training workshop, which is also delivered as a keynote address or a two-hour module. In addition, we have several video-based training programs you can purchase. Click on the Diversity page link at bottom of page.

More Resources:

For training videos on this and other topics Click here

For Online courses on this and other topics Click here

For Organizational / Employee Communication Click here

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat a greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

President Bush perceived the incident as an attempt at attention-grabbing and a way of free speech in a democracy, minimizing the significance of the issue. Most American media and commentators offered similar views. A shoe does not hold any particular place in the American culture, other than the direct, utilitarian function it has. Throwing a shoe, therefore, is not seen as a great insult, just as a strange act of protest.

The Arab world, on the other hand, has reacted in a huge and passionate way to the incident, elevating the shoe-thrower to the status of a national hero with this photo raised up everywhere. Thousands took to the streets in several Arab capitals supporting the journalist, and most Arab TV media discussed the implications of the incident at length for several days. The incident was generally viewed as a heroic act of defiance and resistance to the American occupation.

The big gap in understanding and reacting to this incident demonstrates the perils of ignoring cultural differences in high stake relations between countries, and in issues of war-and-peace, as it's the case with Iraq. The Iraq war from its inception has shown the wide gap between the American administration's expectations of the reaction of the Iraqi people and the reality. The Iraqis did not welcome the American troops with flowers, as the American Vice President, Dick Cheney, predicted, but on the contrary has put up a fierce, prolonged, armed resistance.

These cultural differences will continue to pose significant challenges to the various attempts to end the war and re-stabilize Iraq. Only when a higher level of cultural understanding prevails in the decision-making circles could we hope to have an effective strategy not only regarding the situation in Iraq but in the Middle East and the world in general.

(c) HumaNext LLC- TGIM Newsletter.

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