Cross-Cultural Training: Why it is Vital to Success - Creative Word

Context is vital in enabling understanding. Cultural norms, values and traditions impact upon our relationships, both personal and business; they influence the way we make decisions, affect our behaviour and our etiquettes, and are fundamental in making us a part of the community to which we belong.

With the rise of our global marketplace, cultural awareness has become crucial to success. Today’s workforce are frequently expected to travel to other countries for seminars, entertain overseas work guests, or communicate with colleagues from offices abroad.

These interactions can often be fraught with problems such as, language barriers, uncertainty surrounding appropriate behaviour and proper conduct, and also, understanding another’s needs.

Cross-cultural training for your key personnel, is an ideal way to encourage a deeper understanding of cultural diversity, accepted norms, and improve inter-culture business transactions.

The following guidelines offer advice on why, when, and how you might want to use cross-cultural training for your team.

 

• Cross-cultural Knowledge is Power

Within the realms of overseas business, understanding and comprehending your business associates, and competitors, can give you the edge when it comes to closing deals, forming lasting partnerships, and being successful.

Gaining experience of different cultures once meant interacting with native people, travelling extensively and living abroad. However, with professional cross-cultural training you can now enjoy this same knowledge in a fraction of the time and cost.

The knowledge that is gained from cross-culture training can be applied to help you, and your team, make informed decisions, gain insight into different cultures and work ethics, improve cross-border communication and negotiation, and increase customer service and satisfaction.

If you feel that you are unlikely to benefit from cross-culture training, as you are naturally an easy going, communicative person, it is worth considering the following; while it is true that some people seem to be able to interact easily with others, when it comes to intercultural exchanges, it is often necessary to modify your behaviour to be more in alignment with another. If you are unaware of etiquette, accepted norms, or cultural expectations, you risk coming across as incompetent, causing offence, alienating colleagues, and losing business.

A demonstrable cultural knowledge shows you have invested time and effort in the relationship, are keen to continue the connection, and that you have the power to build a lasting rapport.

• Language Knowledge is Different to Cultural Understanding

While languages, the words we use and how we use them, reflect our culture and the context of our upbringings, they are not the same thing as having an understanding of a country’s culture.

If you have an employee who is fluent in a particular language, and they consider they’ll be competent at coping with an international assignment based in that country, it is vital you secure them relevant culture training before the assignment.

This is because we often become too comfortable when we are familiar with a language and can converse at ease – so much so, that it can often be detrimental to the exchange taking place. For instance, when meeting an Arabic client in Dubai, speaking their language would give you no assistance with the protocol involved in business dealings in the Arab world. For first time business meetings it is essential that certain formalities are observed such as, addressing peers by their title (heads of companies are often referred to as ‘Sheikh’), presenting Arabic business cards, and dressing with respect for the religious and societal norms.

If these differences are not observed it is possible to cause distress, embarrassment and ultimately, failure within the business dealings. Cross-cultural training can teach you about these nuances, ensuring you and your workforce are well-prepared, knowledgeable, and educated before each and every cultural interaction.

Building a rapport with business colleagues from other countries can take a prolonged effort, but finding out what engages and inspires them, how they deal with information and manage work and home life, can lead to a good long-term working relationship and prosperous business dealings in the future.

 

• Assumption and Cultural Norms

In the UK we are often told to treat others as you wish to be treated. However, this isn’t always the case when dealing with people from other cultures.

What is acceptable in one country may not be appropriate in another. For instance, when meeting people for the first time it is appropriate to kiss on both cheeks if you are in France. If you did this in an Arabic country it would be considered grossly unfitting.

Cross-cultural training will give you an understanding of the assumptions, behaviours, and cultural norms in the country of your choice, thus ensuring you stay within the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. You can then communicate confidently, and manage your business interactions with ease and skill.

Ensuring your workforce are culturally competent is easy to achieve with professional cross-culture training providers. It will give you peace of mind in all cross-border business dealings, ensures your staff are confident and experienced, and can lead to enhanced success.

Cross-cultural training can be delivered through workshops, one-to-one teaching sessions, online, or remotely, and finding a competent, professional training provider will produce guaranteed skills.

Cross-cultural training can also help employees and their families with relocation and integration into new environments, promote team building, encourage management and leadership, and improve customer relations.