Effective Intercultural Communication
Learn how to communicate effectively across cultures in the workplace.
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the fundamentals of cross-cultural communication and help them improve their own intercultural communication skills.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
At a time of globalization and increasing cross-cultural contacts, intercultural competence is a very useful skill to have for people in businesses and organizations. Why?
The answer is that, because of the Internet and the ease of traveling these days, the world has become a lot more interconnected than it was in the past.
Due to increasing cultural diversity in the workplace and in business relationships, training your staff on the principles of intercultural communication is more important than ever.
Benefits of intercultural competence in business include:
Increase in productivity (as people avoid miscommunicating and also get on better together)
More awareness of equality and diversity
Better staff retention as staff from all cultural backgrounds feel valued
Improved ability to avoid conflict and handle it when and if it takes place
Better teamwork and cooperation between teams
Ability to market your products and services effectively to different customers
Better and more targeted customer service
Being able to develop products/services that cater to different needs
Ability to communicate with a large variety of business partners and to screen them
Ability to negotiate with a wider range of people
Being able to structure international business ventures more efficiently.
What We Cover
Discussing what culture is and some definitions
Elements and characteristics of culture
The cultural iceberg
The meaning of intercultural competence how to improve at both individual and organisational levels
Benefits of improving cross-cultural communication in the workplace
The obstacles to intercultural communication such as culture shock, culture clash, stereotypes and prejudices
Non-verbal and verbal behaviours
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This workshop is for anybody who needs to interact with people from cultures different from their own.
For example, business people who attend meetings with international delegates or staff who work in an international environment.
We provide an introduction to intercultural communication, including some theories and some practical exercises that teach participants how to develop their intercultural competence.
This includes:
High-level managers who deal with clients and business partners from different countries.
Line managers with direct reports from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Team members who work in multicultural teams to work better together.
People who deal with customer service, if they deal with an international clientele.
Salespeople who sell their products internationally.
Marketing departments
HR departments to have a better idea of how to communicate with staff from different cultures and backgrounds.
Teachers and lecturers who deal with international students.
Anyone who needs to communicate with people from various cultural backgrounds.
DURATION
2-4 hour workshop.
We can easily adapt it to a 1-hour short talk or combine with some of our other packages to run a half, 1, or 2 day set of workshops.
We can run this session on the same day as other communication or equality and diversity sessions about topics such active listening, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership.
Outline and Objectives
The aim of the workshop is to introduce participants to the basic concepts of cultural difference and intercultural communication and help them improve their own intercultural communication skills.
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
Define intercultural communication and identify the benefits of intercultural communication skills.
Identify what can hinder intercultural communication.
Identify some cultural values and ways of communicating in different cultures.
Plan and implement strategies to improve their intercultural communication skills.