Intercultural contact

Skaidrīte Bulmeistere-Ikauniece

Aleksejs Romanovs

An everyday aspect of large organizations today is the development of relationships with colleagues, partners and customers who come from various cultures. This creates an opportunity for a new level synergy, but - if we're not prepared, or just do the best we can without taking into account cultural differences, there can be misunderstandings and even conflict.

We do not have and will not have enough time to investigate each culture when we take into account the fact that professionals from 30+ countries are sometimes working at organisations. Others might say that this is specifically why an organisation’s internal culture, to which employees must conform right from the first day, exists. But is it really like that? And what should we do with partners and customers? For one person, the most important thing may be to follow a strong hierarchy, for another - timelines, for another - their well-being and their family. We all have various values, but we cannot put these higher than the values of another culture. If we are to achieve a result, then specific instruments are required for communicating in a way that we can facilitate the realization of our ideas in a multicultural organization, taking into account what is common and not different for us, and how we can avoid ambiguities and misunderstandings. That is what this course is about.

Target audience: employees who work with colleagues or clients from various countries on an everyday basis.

Aim of the course: to create professional understanding and skills for intercultural contact, as well as to understand one's role for successful business collaboration.

Duration: 6 hours

Benefits:

• an understanding about cultural differences and effective communication strategies;
• an understanding about the importance of proactive behaviour;
• improved communication and contact skills;
• recognizing one's own resources, greater self-confidence and motivation.

Working format

An active and interactive working format so that the knowledge acquired can be used in practice. Theory, practical exercises, discussions and case studies. Prior to training, participants will complete a form about their individual desires and needs and cases of communications from their experience.

Structure for the day (example):

1. Proactive behaviour

• What is proactive behaviour?
• How does proactive behaviour influence the level of self-confidence and quality of life?
• Proactiveness – an instrument for managing and controlling intercultural contact.
• Covey’s Circle of Influence – we effectively use our energy by concentrating on the circle of influence.

Participants analyze their contact with customers and determine barriers which tend to influence their discussions with a customer. We analyze how a proactive focus helps in resolving and overcoming hurdles. Discussions and practical exercises.

2. Four stages of competence

• The kinds of stages that adults go through to develop and consolidate a new skill.

Discussions, examples and participants’ experience.

3. Effective intercultural contact

• Basic communication skills – listening (active listening), posing questions (types of questions and the utilization of these types to ensure effective communication) and empathy (the basic skill of accepting and adapting to various cultures).
• Diversity – identifying, reflecting and changing.
• Key indicators of the mutual interaction of cultures.

Role play to illustrate basic communication skills, an activity to “connect a culture and its features”. How diversity helps us avoid mistakes in communication. Group activity.

4. Types of communication

• Aggressive, submissive and convincing.
• A convincing type of communication leads to a WIN-WIN result.
• Components of communication which create different – body language, tone of the voice and words (in various types of communication – direct contact, e-mails, skype and telephone calls).

5. Diplomacy and emotional intelligence

• The use of diplomacy and emotional intelligence for effective communication.
• Diplomacy for satisfying emotional needs.