Category Archives: New course/workshop

Join us in Warm Sun AND Accomplish a New Year’s Resolution

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  • Are you tired of the cold, the ice, and the snow? Is it all getting to be too much, and you’d like a break? Are you longing for some warmth, sunshine, the beach, and vibrant Latin music?
  • Have you promised yourself that in 2014 you will spend more time on yourself, invest in your professional development, network with like-minded professionals, or expand your training/facilitation/coaching repertoire?
  • Do you realize that global and multicultural competence are requisites in today’s world, and you want to improve these vital skills and learn to help develop them in others?

You can accomplish all these things by joining us in Mazatlán Mexico in February, or in Atlanta Georgia in March for our Cultural Detective Facilitator Certification Workshop! Early bird registration rates are available, so now is a good time to secure your seat in one of these workshops.

The Cultural Detective Facilitator Certification Workshop receives high accolades from the most experienced interculturalists as well as from those with significant life experience but who are new to the intercultural field. Clients rave about the Cultural Detective Method and use it worldwide. Facilitators love having Cultural Detective in their toolkit. It helps them truly make a difference and secure repeat business from clients—ongoing coaching, training and consulting revenue—as clients commit to the continuing practice that developing true intercultural competence requires.

Many people do not realize that Cultural Detective is flexible enough to integrate nicely with existing training programs—adding depth and practical skills that learners can use immediately and build upon in the future. Participants easily remember the Cultural Detective Method, and can put it into practice when encountering a challenging situation—solving misunderstandings before they become problems!

“It is difficult to exaggerate how fundamentally important Cultural Detective has become for us. The difference between courses we conduct with and without CD is astounding.”
– Chief Academic Officer

“We have achieved, for the first time in my five years working on the Learning and Development team, a 100% satisfaction rating from our learners. Thank you, Cultural Detective!”
– Chief Learning and Development Officer

“Our customer satisfaction rates have increased 30% thanks to Cultural Detective.”
– Customer Support Manager

Click here for details on dates, locations and pricing, and click here for a detailed agenda of the workshop. Sound tempting? Get out of the cold AND spend time developing your effectiveness and employability! We’d be delighted to have you join us! Of course, if you are living somewhere warm, we’d gladly welcome you, too!

Living Your Ideal Global Life Summit

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SummitCollage-Website-FixedHave you been wanting to launch your ideal global life, but you are unsure where to get started, how to make it happen, or how to figure out what your ideal global life even looks like? 

Cultural Detective colleagues, Cate Brubaker and Sabrina Zieglar, have put together a slate of 20 experts who will present and chat with you free-of-charge during the week of January 13-17, 2014. The five-day summit will be conducted virtually. The full schedule along with daily themes is now live, and registration is open. I am a speaker, several esteemed colleagues are also part of the summit, and there are quite a few others that I don’t know but I am also very excited to learn from. Do not miss this opportunity!

As a supplement to the Summit itself, or if you have to miss some of the sessions, I’m excited to let you know of a value-packed resource of inspiring videos from the 20 experts, including life-changing tools like the Destination: Nomadtopia ebook, the Build Your Online Business ebook, a workbook on relaunching yourself after being abroad, and more. Click here for more information or to purchase the bundle.

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Who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing can’t hold you back from living the rewarding global life you desire. Whether you’re a digital nomad, expat, work-at-home mom, or travel newbie, 2014 is the year to launch your ideal global life. And this is the only comprehensive resource available that covers everything for the newly global to the experienced digital nomad.

The bundle is only available for a limited time, so don’t miss out on this chance to launch your ideal global life with 20 experts and their communities supporting you. Through January 13th the bundle will be discounted at US$47; after that date it is forecast to sell for US$97.

I hope to see you at the Summit!

Little Church on the Prairie: Using Cultural Detective® Tools to Train International Priests

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Guest post by Tatyana Fertelmeyster

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Dr. William (Bill) Dant of WPD Global Solutions and Tatyana Fertelmeyster of Connecting Differences Consulting will present a session titled Little Church on the Prairie: The Training of International Priests Serving in Roman Catholic Parishes in the Rural U.S.A. at the SIETAR-USA conference in Arlington, VA on Thursday, November 7th, 3:45-5:00 pm.

In 2012 almost one out of every five priests serving as parish clergy in the USA came from abroad. The majority of these priests are from developing countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Despite the acknowledged universality of the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgy around the world, the cultural and interpersonal contexts of these priests back home are often drastically different from those of a US-born priest practicing in parish service in his own culture.

Our presentation shares and engages with participants on a work in progress: in 2012 the Lilly Endowment provided a grant to the Seminary of St. Meinrad in Indiana to develop intercultural and linguistic training materials for Roman Catholic priests, and to pilot them in five different rural areas across the United States. As consultants to this project — as the principal curriculum developer (Tatyana Fertelmeyster) and training facilitator (Bill Dant) — we wanted to share with our colleagues the experiences and challenges we faced in working with this “niche” population and set of intercultural challenges.

Several of the Cultural Detective packages (CD: Self-Discovery and CD-USA as core design elements, as well as CD packages for specific countries/regions represented by the priests: India, Philippines, Poland, West Africa, etc.) have been used in the program design, and Cultural Detective Online is employed as a way to engage diverse participants in building bridges between their own cultural perspectives and those they experience in the US-American culture.

Building Leadership Resilience with Cultural Detective

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Cultural Detective® will be featured in a workshop at the 15th Annual International Leadership Association Conference in Montreal, Canada, Oct 30 – Nov 2, 2013.  Dr. Karen Lokkesmoe, Leadership Across Meridians, and Tatyana Fertelmeyster, Connecting Differences Consulting, co-author of the Cultural Detective® Russia, will lead a workshop demonstrating how CD can be used to build global leadership competencies.

Session Description:
Building Leadership Resilience with Cultural Detective
Saturday, Nov 2  10:15 -11:15   Room: Gatineau
At the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal

There are many facets of global leadership, and any number of skills that are required of today’s leaders, but one of the core skill sets is intercultural competency (Moodian, 2010; Lokkesmoe, 2009; Mendenhall, 2008). It has become clear that good intentions, awareness-raising, and exposure to other cultures are not sufficient, in and of themselves, to build global leadership and intercultural capacity (Mendenhall et al., 2008; Vande Berg & Paige, 2009). The focus must be on intentional capacity building. Cultural Detective® is an innovative and engaging methodology that allows for building concrete skills and developing sustainable ability to understand, engage, and lead others in intercultural situations more effectively.

This interactive workshop demonstrates how to use the Cultural Detective framework to build and develop intercultural leadership skills. Participants can expect to learn how to use specific elements of the Cultural Detective (culture-specific Value Lens, Worksheet, and Cultural Detective Online) as practical tools in situational analysis and decision making. Using Cultural Detective as part of your global leadership development strategy will help you increase performance, productivity and profits through loyalty, teamwork, and return on investment. It is a tool you and your employees can use immediately to achieve the bottom-line results that intercultural competence can bring to your organization.

Come put on your detective hat and learn how you can use this fun and engaging tool to enhance your (and your organization’s) global leadership competence! While our world may be shifting rapidly, developing skills to identify cultural similarities and differences, accurately interpreting real life situations from multiple perspectives, and designing creative, interculturally sound solutions help foster the resilience we need to be effective leaders today. We hope to have you join us.

 

Firearms Policy—Role of Interculturalists?

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Guest blog post by Jeffrey Cookson, Global Diversity Inclusion Specialist, Organizational Effectiveness Consultant

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U.S. firearms policy… a very heated national debate, and a frequent topic of discussion worldwide. You might already have a sense of the role you play personally, among friends and family, or politically. To move towards a society less polarized by the ownership/control debate, we ask you this — what role in this effort might you play as an interculturalist?

With similar and different values held by firearms and control enthusiasts, how can we bridge the gap? We’ve been exploring just that and invite you to join us at the upcoming SIETAR-USA (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) conference in Arlington, VA, November 6-9, 2013.

Cultural Detective will be used in several concurrent sessions during the conference, including in Dianne Hofner Saphiere’s and my session: Gun Violence, Gun Rights and Gun Control: Do Interculturalists Have a Role in Firearm Policy? That session will be held Friday afternoon, November 8, from 3:45-5:00. We hope to see you there!

We believe interculturalists are uniquely positioned to build constructive dialogue around this important national concern and using the Cultural Detective Model, we would like to share our work with you.

Inteligencia Cultural para América Latina—Ciclo de webinars interculturales

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BlogLa globalización y la tecnología han incrementado el comercio, los negocios internacionales y el número de empresas que se expanden alrededor del mundo, dinámica que ha provocado que sean cada vez más los profesionales y ejecutivos que interactúan con otros países y los equipos de trabajo que se forman con personas de diferentes culturas.

Este creciente contexto multicultural, relativamente nuevo para América Latina gracias al papel protagónico que ha venido jugando en los últimos años a nivel internacional, plantea grandes desafíos tanto para las empresas como para cada uno de los individuos que conforman su fuerza laboral. Cada vez son más las multinacionales y empresas latinoamericanas que deciden trasladar sus operaciones globales o regionales a distintos países latinoamericanos y que requieren que sus equipos colaboren y trabajen efectivamente a nivel global, y sobretodo que sean capaces de aprovechar las oportunidades que ofrece este contexto global y multicultural.

Con el objetivo de comenzar a desarrollar las competencias interculturales necesarias en los profesionales globales de América Latina, desde ICEBERG Inteligencia Cultural hemos creado un ciclo abierto y gratuito de webinars interculturales. Este ciclo ha sido diseñado para:
  1. Profesionales y ejecutivos trabajando con personas de otros países, ya sea de manera presencial o virtual
  2. Profesionales del área de RRHH, Capacitación y Desarrollo, Gestión del talento.
  3. Empresarios globales, expatriados e interesados en cuestiones interculturales

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La diversidad cultural no es un eslogan, sino un hecho empresarial y laboral diario. Tus colegas, clientes y proveedores probablemente son de culturas diferentes, por lo que necesitas comprender sus valores y comportamientos para gestionarlos y satisfacer sus necesidades. La habilidad para trabajar, comunicar y negociar interculturalmente, constituye una competencia fundamental. En este webinar exploraremos los 7 errores culturales más comunes que les impiden a los profesionales con algún grado de exposición internacional, ser efectivos a nivel intercultural. Mientras más consciente seas de ellos, más fácil te será evitarlos, y entonces, estarás dando el primer paso fundamental hacia el desarrollo de inteligencia cultural.

Fecha: Jueves 10 de octubre de 2013
Argentina: 12 pm • Colombia: 10 am • México: 10 am

Facilitador: Marcelo Baudino
Marcelo es el fundador y director de ICEBERG Inteligencia Cultural, la primera firma argentina especializada en el desarrollo de habilidades interculturales, un servicio de consultoría intercultural innovador para la región. Marcelo es un experto en el diseño y la facilitación de talleres y programas de entrenamiento intercultural para multinacionales y está especializado en América Latina, Estados Unidos y los países del BRICS. Ha impartido cursos para empresas como Deloitte, Cargill, ExxonMobil, Banco Itaú, SC Johnson, Chevron, Tarjeta Naranja, entre otras. Ver perfil de LinkedIn.

Regístrate aquí

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Este contexto global e interconectado en el que trabajamos actualmente, nos trae un sinnúmero de oportunidades que claramente queremos aprovechar:
  • La tecnología nos permite desarrollar proyectos y crear equipos con expertos de todo el mundo. Sin embargo, lo que lleva a un equipo multicultural y geográficamente disperso a ser efectivo, son las habilidades interculturales, algo nuevo para muchos de nosotros.
  • Clientes internacionales expresan su interés en nuestros productos y servicios. Sin embargo, ¿Cómo construir relaciones de confianza y entrar en nuevos mercados de manera rentable y sostenible?
  • Queremos ser lo más competitivos posible a nivel global, pero ¿qué significa esto?

Los participantes en este seminario adquirirán herramientas para mejorar sus habilidades a la hora de trabajar en equipos multiculturales, liderar proyectos regionales e internacionales y gestionar una fuerza laboral culturalmente diversa. También recibirán acceso a recursos interculturales y un plan para el desarrollo de competencias interculturales.

Fecha: Jueves 24 de octubre de 2013
Argentina: 2 pm • Colombia: 12 pm • México: 12 pm

Facilitador: Dianne Hofner Saphiere, M.S.

Bio: Dianne ha trabajado activamente en el ámbito de la formación y consultoría intercultural desde 1979, en colaboración con personas de más de 130 países y tres continentes. Su lista de clientes incluye ABB, Hyundai-Kia, Microsoft, Mitsui, Royal Dutch Shell, Schneider Electric, Telecom New Zealand, y Texas Instruments, organizaciones de intercambio internacional como AFS y CIEE, y universidades de todo el mundo. Dianne es la creadora del Cultural Detective®, un sistema dinámico de herramientas para alcanzar la efectividad intercultural y co-autora del libro Communication Highwire: Leveraging the Power of Diverse Communication Styles, publicado por Intercultural Press. Ver perfil de LinkedIn.

Regístrate aquí

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La creciente exposición a culturas de todas partes del mundo deja en evidencia la necesidad de prepararse no sólo como individuo, sino también como organización. Ya sea a través de una estructura de organización regional, de un programa de asignaciones internacionales, de un centro global de servicios compartidos o de un joint venture con una empresa extranjera, hoy en día las empresas necesitan desarrollar los procesos y estructuras internas que faciliten la incorporación y el desarrollo de profesionales con aptitud global. En este webinar los participantes conocerán herramientas y técnicas para fomentar el desarrollo de Inteligencia Cultural.  Examinaremos como a través de los procesos de reclutamiento, programas de formación, asignaciones internacionales y el diseño de valores organizacionales, se puede transformar la diversidad cultural de la compañía en una ventaja competitiva.

Fecha: Jueves 7 de noviembre de 2013
Argentina: 2 pm • Colombia: 12 pm • México: 12 pm

Facilitador: Shirley Saenz

Bio: Shirley Saenz es formadora y consultora intercultural en ICEBERG Inteligencia Cultural, firma líder de consultoría intercultural en América Latina y miembro de la junta directiva de SIETAR Argentina (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research). Ha investigado sobre las diferencias culturales entre los países de América Latina, la comunicación intercultural y la efectividad de equipos multiculturales. Durante los últimos años, Shirley ha estado viviendo y trabajando en países como Colombia, Francia, China, Brasil, Argentina y los Estados Unidos, lo cual le ha permitido adquirir un profundo conocimiento de estas culturas, y también fluidez en inglés, francés, portugués y español. Shirley se ha certificado en el Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication en Portland, Oregon, en “Métodos para la formación intercultural”, “Liderazgo personal: Trabajo en equipos interculturales efectivos” y “Cultura, comunicación y colaboración en equipos virtuales”. Ver perfil de LinkedIn.

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A Question of Trust

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Doi Suthep Temple, Horizontal Image (500x332)A small US American software company has been contracted to design some specialized broadcast technology software for a radio station in Thailand. This is the first time the company has received a contract in Southeast Asia and their company executive, Tom Bennett, is looking forward to doing business in the region.

The initial meetings and negotiations with the radio station management have been successful, and Tom Bennett senses that he has built up a good rapport with Khun Chai, the radio station manager. Khun Chai himself is delighted with Tom Bennett’s interest in Thailand and the local Thai community, and he is particularly impressed with Tom’s liking for spicy Thai food. Khun Chai is already contemplating the possibility of doing business with the American company again in the future.

The price is settled, the contract is signed and a deposit is paid…

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Are you are a business leader, coach, consultant, speaker or teacher?  Do you want to become culturally competent and self-confident in the global arena?  Does the above story sound similar to projects in which you, your colleagues or clients engage? Despite this auspicious start, all does not end well, as you’ll discover in our upcoming webinar: Cross-cultural Coaching: A Creative and Transformative Process. In that webinar we will introduce you to a powerful and transformative coaching process with Cultural Detective Online!

The coaching process combined with Cultural Detective Online provides you with a comprehensive learning experience that is stimulating, supportive and transformative! In addition to exploring key cultural concepts and culture-specific information, the collaborative and creative coaching environment helps you develop new perspectives and skills for bridging the gap between your personal cultural “sense” and the cultural “sense” of your colleagues and clients.

Our facilitator will be Jan O’Brien, IAC-MCC, who will show us how she coaches expatriate executives towards cross-cultural success. Jan is President of Culture-Conscious International, a coaching and consulting company based in Houston, Texas. She is a US/UK dual national and has lived and worked extensively overseas, in particular in the US and the South East Asia region. Jan is a Certified Cultural Detective facilitator and a Master Certified Coach with the International Association of Coaching (IAC). She has worked with clients from many language and cultural backgrounds and has personally experienced the benefits and challenges of living and working in the global arena.

Register now, as only a few seats remain.

Meeting time is Tuesday 23 July, 2013 at 10 am Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México time. Meeting place is online. Please consult a world clock to verify your local time. 
  • Los Angeles: 8 am
  • Houston: 11 am
  • New York & Santiago de Chile: 12 noon
  • Buenos Aires or Rio: 1 pm
  • Brussels, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg: 6 pm
  • Abu Dhabi & St. Petersburg: 8 pm
  • Delhi: 9:30 pm

Six Powerful Ways to Build Cross-cultural Effectiveness

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numeral button-sixWe have some very exciting news for you! Cultural Detective has teamed up with several of our partners to offer you SIX innovative ways to harness the innovation and power of diversity!

Yes, six upcoming events, several of which are free of charge.

Please take the time to sign up now to secure your seats, as these events will sell out quickly.

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Tatyana Webinar FINAL#1: JUNE 3, Online
The Art of Facilitation for a Global World

This free-of-charge webinar will be conducted by Tatyana Fertelmeyster, and will preview three of the many dynamite learning opportunities that will be offered at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in July, each of which will include Cultural Detective. Her unique technique of Spontaneous Facilitation allows her to work with individuals and groups with maximum concentration on the reality of the present moment. Click here to learn more or register.

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IMG_9443#2: JUNE 5 & 20, JULY 10 & 18, AUGUST 7 & 22, Online
Enhancing Cross-Cultural Collaboration:
Demonstration of Cultural Detective Online

These events are free-of-charge. Participants learn to leverage similarities and diversity as assets, rather than minimizing or managing around difference. You will experience some of the wealth of content and process available in the Cultural Detective Online system, and see how easily the system can be incorporated into existing courseware. Participants in the webinar receive a free three-day pass to Cultural Detective Online.

Click here to view client testimonials and videos on the Cultural Detective Online system. From that page, click on “Learn More/Subscribe” for details and pricing information. To learn more about this event or sign up click here.

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#3: JUNE 6, Bogotá COLOMBIA
Negociando A Través de las Culturas

Cultural Detective is proud to sponsor this event conducted by Global Minds. Facilitated by Fernando Parrado, it will be held in the Salón Fundadores at the beautiful Uniandinos. The event will focus on joint ventures between Colombia and India.

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60772_497965080240721_1862908967_n#4: JUNE 25, Online
Coaching and the Cultural Detective: A Creative and Transformative Process

This is a brand-new, first-time-ever offering! Are you are a business leader, coach, consultant, speaker or teacher? Do you want to become culturally competent and self-confident in the global arena? In our webinar we will introduce you to a powerful and transformative coaching process for cross-cultural competence!

The coaching process leverages the core process and wealth of content in the Cultural Detective Online to provide you with a comprehensive learning experience that is stimulating, supportive and transformative! In addition to exploring key cultural concepts and culture-specific information, the collaborative and creative coaching environment helps you develop new perspectives and skills for bridging the gap between your personal cultural “sense” and the cultural “sense” of your colleagues and clients.

The webinar will be facilitated by Jan O’Brien, IAC-MCC, President of Culture-Conscious International, a coaching and consulting company based in Houston, Texas. Jan is a US/UK dual national and has lived and worked extensively overseas, in particular in the US and the South East Asia region. She is a Certified Cultural Detective® facilitator and a Master Certified Coach with the International Association of Coaching (IAC). Jan has worked with clients from many language and cultural backgrounds and has personally experienced the benefits and challenges of living and working in the global arena. To learn more or register click here.

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ici#5: JULY 20-21, Portland Oregon USA
Cultural Detective Facilitator Certification

Live and in person, this two-day facilitator certification program is the ONLY PUBLIC CERTIFICATION we have scheduled this year.

This workshop will be held between Sessions 2 and 3 of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, to make it convenient for you to attend and take advantage of other professional development opportunities in the same trip. Facilitated by Tatyana Fertelmeyster. This workshop will include a one-month subscription to Cultural Detective Online.

Click here to register. Click here for more information.

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highroaders_logo#6: SEPTEMBER 24, Online
High-Performing Global Teams: How to Combine Virtual Training and
Cultural Detective for Incredible Results

This event sold out within 26 hours the first time we held it. This will be the second time it’s offered. Global teams have become the norm in most business environments today, but many teams never achieve “high-performance.” Why? Because team members from around the world are expected to achieve consistent results across languages, time zones, cultural values, and more but they are not given all of the skills they need to match this expectation.

Join us for an interactive webinar and learn the latest creative techniques for preparing today’s global teams to excel. Explore how global teams can come together via virtual training platforms and use Cultural Detective to work through scenarios relevant to their business challenges.

In this webinar, Vicki Flier Hudson, Chief Collaboration Officer for Highroad Global Services will walk you through a demonstration of a global team training designed for a large company using a variety of tools including Cultural Detective Online. You will gain ideas, tips, and strategies to help bring your global team together, build solid relationships, and achieve high-performance. To learn more or register click here.

Una Jornada Intercultural con Dianne Hofner Saphiere

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Mil gracias a todos los docentes que asistieron, y también a SIETAR Argentina y AFS Argentina y Uruguay. Juntos podemos construir un mundo mejor!

 

Julia's avatarSIETAR Argentina

483621_450767178324906_1898862114_nEste Abril 2013, tuvimos el agrado de coordinar, presenciar y participar de un evento internacionalmente reconocido ya que Dianne Hofner Saphiere* estuvo visitando la Argentina.

AFS** y SIETAR Argentina coordinaron el evento, junto también a representantes del Ministerio de Educación de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires que promocionó la jornada entre sus docentes.

La jornada tuvo dos partes. Una, por la mañana, dedicada a los docentes de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y otra, por la tarde, para los profesionales interculturales.

Por la mañana, abrieron la jornada con palabras de bienvenida Juan Medici –Director Ejecutivo de AFS Argentina y Uruguay – y Ana María Ravaglia – subsecretaria de gestión educativa y coordinación  pedagógica del Ministerio de Educación del Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Acto seguido, Dianne comenzó su presentación refiriéndose a la importancia de la comunicación intercultural como una clave para construir puentes. Con videos y análisis…

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Global Teams in Theory and in Practice

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Global-TeamGuest post by Vicki Flier Hudson

I once heard a Zen Buddhist monk say that the definition of suffering is the gap between what is and what we think should be. The wider that gap, the more we experience stress. Today’s global virtual team, without the right tools, might end up spending a lot of time in that gap. Most teams want to becoming high-performing units with all individuals feeling valued, all cultures being respected, and all tasks getting completed on time. The reality can look quite different, however. In today’s taxing environment, many teams find themselves reacting to fires, completing their tasks but without the benefit of time for intentional reflection or action.

As an intercultural practitioner I’ve had the privilege of working with a variety of global teams in industries from manufacturing to finance. Many of them display similar characteristics. They are often comprised of talented individuals who appreciate cultural diversity and want to collaborate effectively. But why do few teams achieve that vision? What causes the gap between that desire to collaborate and the reality of division or confusion?

So many factors play into the health of a global team, some of which defy explanation — call it chemistry, dynamics, or magic. Some of the factors, however, are more visible. For example, I see many teams become misaligned because they do not have proper communication protocols in place. They make false assumptions about shared understanding of terms or processes which can delay projects. Cultural differences also play a significant role in the effectiveness of global teams. Team members might run into disparate cultural approaches to a project, and rather than observe the problem objectively they immediately begin jumping to conclusions and/or negative evaluations. This premature leap can cause them to chase down incorrect solutions and again delay the project. Also, the team may not take full advantage of the diverse perspectives and resources that the members provide.

How do we close this gap between the theory of a collaborative team and the practice of one? First, a global team must realize that intercultural competence is a learned skill, in some ways like welding or computer programming. Cross-cultural skills may be harder to acquire or measure, but they must be studied and practiced. Cultural Detective Online is an incredible tool for global teams to unite around and hone their intercultural proficiency.

CD Online makes it possible, for example, for teams represented in fifteen countries to come together in a virtual training room and explore several important aspects of collaboration. First, they learn to separate objective facts from their perceptions of situations. That skill alone can increase team trust dramatically. Then they learn through what lenses their colleagues might be looking, and how those values impact the outcome of a business problem. Imagine eighteen members of a global team, all online and on the phone, working through a CD Online scenario together that illuminates the values of cultures they work with every day. Everyone gets to contribute and they physically practice those vital cross-cultural skills right there in the training.

I feel a great sense of excitement about what Cultural Detective Online does to increase the effectiveness of global teams, and not just in theory. Join me and the Cultural Detective team as I walk through a case study of a virtual training designed for a global team using CD Online. This event is free and will take place April 9, 2013. To learn more about this event click here, or to register please click here.

Global teams have amazing potential. What tools have you used to get your global team to high-performance?

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Vicki Flier Hudson, speaker and Chief Collaboration Officer for Highroad Global Services, inspires people to live, work, and build teams across cultures. She has helped countless large-sized corporations establish successful operations between the United States and India or Europe. Vicki is a certified administrator of the Cultural Detective methodology and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). She has been featured on NBC News, and many of her articles have been published in a variety of magazines.