Culturalist

Culture3Counsel believes that in all global organisations, there are cross-cultural issues, which are clearly visible, such as language and humour, or far subtler, such as coaching, individual work styles and group relationships.  To help companies succeed in a multi-cultural environment, they approach this cultural diversity by examining the similarities as well as the differences.  They work with teams and individuals on perceptions, misunderstandings, cultural systems, cultural experiences, and commonalties.  They raise awareness of human cultural unconscious bias and how it affects behaviour.  While some call this cultural competence, Culture3Counsel prefers to call it cultural sensitivity and understanding.

Misunderstanding, miscommunication and conflict frequently arise within cross-cultural and diverse teams.  The measurable negative results include slower progress towards desired outcomes and wasted resources (time, money, skills). The intangible results can include individual underperformance, job dissatisfaction, increased staff attrition and a lack of synergy amongst team members.

Cultural Diversity and Unconscious Bias training equips multi-cultural teams with awareness and skills to manage issues such as communication, differing norms and values, lack of collaboration and difficulties with decision making. Team based cultural diversity training and coaching can significantly reduce this lack of synergy. The process of articulating clear, shared norms and values and team cohesion and synergy can be more effective once unconscious bias issues are addressed.

Many cross-cultural and diverse teams operate with a policy of, at best, unconscious tolerance towards each other’s cultural and individual differences in style and communication. Culture3Counsel advocates a more positive approach. By developing self-awareness, and encouraging a conscious and open discussion of culture, it is possible for teams to engage with diversity. The team can then use the wide range

of perspectives to enrich debate, increase understanding and team cohesion and optimize the use of the team’s skills to feed growth and development.

International team dynamics and performance can be affected by personal, cultural and organizational factors.  The interplay of these factors can result in a range of possible outcomes: from a polite standoff and an unsatisfactory result, to achieving interactive synergy where both cultural perspectives are used to create something new and better.

Effective intercultural management skills start with a firm understanding of the term “culture” and how cultural norms shape behaviour and communication.  The most effective managers will recognize the importance of one’s culture on behaviour and communication.  They will develop a means to identify potential problems that have a cultural basis.

It is important for managers to be able to acknowledge diversity and build trust with their subordinates, whilst ensuring they communicate and implement policies from Head Office effectively.

The program will raise the awareness of participants that their behaviour towards gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation is hard wired into our brains and a part of human nature.  The workshop teaches employees how to be aware of their own unconscious bias so that they can make better decisions based on what they know, rather than what they feel.

Virtual teams present unique challenges that are culturally based and can be counterproductive unless managed effectively.  Since virtual teams are an ever‐growing component of global business, it is important for organizations ensure some global virtual team structure and training is in place to overcome these potential hazards.

Virtual teams face many of the same challenges that all teams face, but language difficulties, time‐and‐distance challenges, the absence of face‐to‐face contact, and above all, the barriers posed by cultural differences and personal communication styles make virtual work far more complex.  These challenges are not insurmountable though once a group is made aware of them.

Research has shown that the failure rate of expat assignments is quite high and that many repatriated employees are unsatisfied and choose to leave the company upon returning to their home country due to lack of recognition of their new skills.  Recognizing the fact that relocating personnel within a global company is a major expense Culture3Counsel believes that multi-national companies need to increase their return on investment by providing the expat with training to help the employee and his or her family make a smooth transition to the host country.

Culture3Counsel provides one to one or family training in either a one day or two day programme.

Research has shown that re-entry is as stressful as expatriation.  This training will prepare the client for what they can expect to feel.

People change both personally and professionally during an expatriation.  There may have been major life changes while they were on assignment (births/deaths in the family, career changes etc.)

The training explores what they have learned about their own nationality/culture while living in another country.    It is often the case that you are unaware of your own culture until you see the differences with another culture.  The goal of this part of the training is to make the client aware of things about their home country, which may cause stress for them upon their return.

This training gives practical exercises and goals to make repatriation a smoother transition.  The client creates “to do” lists – addressing both the personal and the professional – eg. set up a new home; re-establish contacts; start establishing a dialogue with new boss; find a mentor who has been through expatriation and repatriation etc.