When working in a new culture or with a new set of people who come from different backgrounds, it is nothing short of a series of challenges. A lack of cultural understanding can lead to a lot of issues, be it personal or organizational.
Cross culture becomes even more important when it comes to working outside your own country.
The world is smaller than ever before, and most employees are likely to be working with someone from some other part of the world, or with colleagues born and raised in a similar manner.
We can tell you a few reasons why your team needs a good cross culture training –
- To gain confidence in interacting with different people.
Cross-cultural trainings generally offer a context to another view of life. These interactive sessions, prepare the participants for building relationships with others through learning the cultural rules in professional environments for small talk, business conversation, corporate etiquette and other related topics.
- To improve communication skills.
This one prepares the participants to communicate casually and professionally. Such programs offer a glimpse into the do’s and don’ts of small talk, where and how to use small talk, and how to effectively communicate business concepts in a convincing and culturally appropriate way.
- It helps us acquire common ground, while appreciating diversity.
Culture strategy sessions not only expose to-be expats & onsite colleagues to learn the expected differences, it also exposes them to the similarities. Many breathe a sigh of relief when learning about things that are the same. So piecing together the differences and similarities helps. Mocks and role plays make the sessions much more interactive, problem solving and interesting in the training.
- To help us gain empathy and widen our thoughts.
It’s human nature to view the world through our own, most of the time narrow lens. However, in cross-cultural brainstorming sessions, we learn how to widen our view point and patiently try to understand situations from other people’s point of view. This brings empathy not only across cultures, but within dispersed teams and even within our own local team.
- Expose ourselves to different problem solving techniques.
These cross-cultural skills are an asset for sure. Dipping into our cross-cultural skills tool box at any given moment can actually allow us to take a step back, be objective, see things from other points of view and communicate about the problem and how to reach a solution in new and different ways. Also with continued exposure to diversity and training, interacting with people from different walks of life, we can take a step back and try to analyze problems and find solutions that are innovative and ‘out of the box’.
