Cross-cultural Communication

Many companies increasingly develop cross-border activities and work with people from all over the world, representing many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Employees work in multicultural teams on location as well as long distance and consequently, need to adapt to many different communication and management styles of colleagues, partners and clients.

SpotonLearning and Culture-Inc. have jointly developed a unique blended learning program to raise employees’ awareness of different communication styles and preferences and to enhance their competence in working across cultures.

Goal

To enhance cross-cultural competence of employees and increase team performance in working across cultures.

Results

• Stronger awareness of the impact of culture in international business
• Deeper insights into cultural differences and backgrounds
• Insights into one’s own interaction with others on several cross-cultural dimensions
• Practical directions and tools for successfully communicating and connecting with other cultures
• Strengthen cross-cultural competence of individual participants as well as the overall team performance in working with other cultures

The blended cross-cultural communication program consists of 5 steps:

1. Intake Client Needs
In a meeting with the client we will discuss possible training goals, specific cultural issues and challenges, total number of participants and final scope of the program. Based on this input, we will send a tailored training proposal including a cost overview.

2. Online Cross-cultural Competence Scan (30”)
Selected participants will receive an online cross-cultural competence scan one week prior to the first workshop. The scan will provide insights into how participants score on experience, knowledge, skill sets and attitude. It activates them in thinking about how they personally deal with cultural aspects and provides a starting point to further develop their cross-cultural competence.

3. Cross-cultural workshops (two half days)
During two highly interactive workshops the participants will gain insights into cross-cultural theory and how to apply these in daily business interactions at the work floor. They will come to understand different communication and management styles across cultures and improve their (verbal and virtual) skills sets in communicating and collaborating in an international setting. In between the workshops they will be able to identify their personal preferences by taking the online Cultural Colours test. We recommend a one- or two-week interval between the workshops. The workshops can be provided offline as well as online, depending on the circumstances and availability of the participants.

4. Online learning path (4 cases of 30-45”)
In the online learning path participants can apply their new founded insights and skills in several cross-cultural communication cases. These cases are common situations that many people come across in international interactions, but they can be also be tailored to the specific business cases of the client. The learning path includes a maximum of four cases, depending on the client’s needs. Each case takes 30 -45 minutes. We recommend providing the participants with one case per two weeks with a total duration of two months.

5. Online evaluation, final test score, and results learning program
The participants will be able to take the online scan again and see how they have improved their level of cross-cultural competence. In addition, we request them to fill in an online evaluation form. We will share the feedback and anonymized outcome of the scans and cases with the client in an evaluation meeting.