Cultural Diversity Training

Why Cultural Diversity Training?  Have you ever been frustrated, when working with colleagues from other countries and cultures, by the fact that they do things in ways that are fundamentally different to your own? That their priorities in the workplace differ to yours? That they seem to send you mixed messages—and that their body language is often confusing?

The role of Cultural Diversity Training: These different attitudes and behaviours are more often than not conditioned by culture—values, assumptions and perceptions that are instilled early on in life and are expressed in the way we behave and interact. These cultural influences are so deep that we act upon them instinctively—in everything we do, from the way we stand and talk, to the way we deal with superiors, conflict management and decision-making. Since these differences are so deep and intuitive, they can often lead to substantial misunderstanding and miscommunication. Nowhere is this more detrimental than in an international workplace, where misunderstandings based on culture can make or break lucrative business deals, international mergers and any other type of cross-cultural working.

Communicaid’s Cultural Diversity Training courses will raise your cultural diversity awareness and enable you to communicate effectively across cultures. Designed in close collaboration with you and your organisation, our Cultural Diversity Training courses will develop your own cultural awareness and enable you to work more effectively with counterparts from other cultures.

More about Cultural Diversity Training

A recently released report entitled “Harnessing Workforce Diversity to Raise the Bottom Line*” has highlighted the shifting focus for diversity initiatives in the modern workplace. The report shows that businesses “instead of thinking of diversity as about equality, that is, in terms of the law or compliance, companies are now seeing it as an issue of merit and merit alone.”*

There are two overriding arguments to explain this shift in approach:

1) Customers prefer to be served by a company and workforce with which they can identify.
2) Teams comprising mixed ethnicities, backgrounds and gender are likely to be more creative than homogenised ones.

Benefits

A Communicaid’s Cultural Diversity Training course will provide you with:

- In-depth cultural awareness and understanding of the impact of cultural differences

- The necessary foundation and tools to become culturally competent

- A better understanding of the cultural challenges facing multicultural workplaces

- The opportunity to enhance cultural sensitivity and competence

- Practical tools to reduce cross-cultural misunderstanding and encourage positive cross-cultural

  working relationships

Who should attend

A Communicaid Cultural Diversity Training course will be of benefit to you if:

- Your organisation is growing its business beyond national borders

- You and your staff are increasingly working with colleagues in other countries

- Your staff is becoming more culturally diverse

- You are involved in multinational projects and programmes

Course overview

All our Cultural Diversity Training courses are designed to meet the specific needs of our clients depending on their specific requirements and existing skills set.   A Cultural Diversity Training course typically includes:

- What is cultural awareness?

- Cultural values and attitudes (time, space, group dynamics, authority, tasks, relationships)

- Communication styles

- Cross-cultural management skills

- Working together across cultures

- Developing cultural awareness

- Language issues

- Tips and strategies for specific countries

Approach

Cultural Diversity Training courses are available seven days a week, 365 days a year, either at one of our training centres in London, Paris, Frankfurt and New York or at your offices in any location worldwide.  We usually recommend a one or two day course but can also offer a more flexible format to suit your schedule.

Suitably tailored cultural awareness materials will be used throughout your Cultural Diversity Training course and your trainer will provide a balance of structured input and discussion of case studies and scenarios relevant to your own particular context.

The most appropriate training format, content and approach for your Cultural Diversity Training course will be discussed during your diagnostic consultancy (please click here to read more about our approach).

Cultural Diversity Training course trainer

Your Cultural Diversity Training course trainer will be assigned to you following the results of your diagnostic consultancy according to your objectives and areas of focus.  Detailed below is a sample profile.

AMB

AMB combines her own first-hand experience of living and working in numerous different cultures with academic studies and extensive work experience in the field of cultural awareness. She has personally relocated across cultures several times since childhood and has an empathetic appreciation for those living and working across cultures.

German by birth, AMB completed her secondary education in London and Brussels, and then returned to the UK to undertake her first degree.  After graduating, she worked at the European Commission in Brussels, then spent seven years in Washington, DC, editing the European Commission’s EUROPE magazine.  On her return to the UK, AMB worked as a freelance consultant, maintaining her links with the European Commission providing liaison, translation and cultural awareness services.   More recently, AMB worked as European Officer for Brighton and Hove City Council for two years, before returning to full-time education to pursue her Masters.  She graduated from the University of Luton at the end of 2003 completing her dissertation on the role of culture in international mergers.

AMB has delivered a substantial amount of Cultural Diversity Training since joining Communicaid at the beginning of 2004 working with a number of key clients including Gillette, Adidas, Colt Telecom and GSK.  She has recently relocated to France and delivers training in both the UK and France.

**Professor Amin Rajah, Chief Executive of CREATE (Centre for Research in Employment and Technology in Europe)