Category Archives: Press Release

Have You Taken Advantage of Our Free Webinars?

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Night work

  • “Really? You are logging into this webinar, willingly and of your own accord, at midnight? No joke? And for you it’s 3 am?”
  • “Yes! I am so very excited to be here! Thank you for offering this learning opportunity!”

The response to the free “Cross-Cultural Effectiveness” webinars we have been conducting since February of this year has truly overwhelmed me. We’ve already welcomed hundreds of participants from six of the seven continents, including a broad diversity of professions and experiences—from hospitals to schools, disaster relief to hospitality. I’ve had the pleasure to meet incredible people who are building cross-cultural competence and using or hoping to use Cultural Detective in the most creative and needed ways! It has been such a joy and learning experience. Thank you all!

People don’t need to be inconvenienced by the time difference to participate in these webinars. We offer them twice a month, once at times convenient to the Americas, Europe, and Africa, and another more convenient to Asia and Oceania.

Would you like even better news? Those who participate receive a COMPLIMENTARY 3-day pass to Cultural Detective Online!

I’ve promised myself to use a different critical incident each and every webinar, and it’s amazed me the richness of the discussion this has generated, the powerful ways in which we can overcome stereotypes, the innovative ways the groups have generated to harness the power of diversity.

We also are committed to conducting special-interest webinars for you, to aid in ongoing cross-cultural competence development. Thus far we have held two, both in partnership with customers and colleagues: one on virtual teaming, and another on coaching across cultures. Stay tuned for future additions to the schedule!

If you would like to participate in a webinar, or get more of your colleagues and friends excited about intercultural competence, please register now. We have just updated the calendar through the end of December 2013.

If you use Cultural Detective in your work, and you would like to share what you do and how you do it in hopes of helping others succeed, please contact us. We may be able to partner on an upcoming webinar, or share your story in a future blog post! We also welcome your topic ideas. Keep ’em coming!

Need help figuring out 50 million Latinos?

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coverLatino—Guest blog post by Brenda Machado-Koller

Yes, I know, it’s a loaded question. But it’s worthwhile taking a look at possible answers.

Latinos or Hispanics are the largest, fastest-growing, and one of the most influential socio-economic ethnic groups in the USA. More than 50 million Latinos reside in the USA today. By 2050, one-in-four US Americans are projected to be of Hispanic descent.

We encounter Latinos in virtually every setting, including business, education, healthcare, politics and in our communities-at-large. It’s time to gain an even deeper understanding of Latinos and to continue building more successful organizations and communities.

You’ll find some of the answers to the fundamental changes in US society in the Cultural Detective® Latino/Hispanic. Interculturalist Dianne Hofner Saphiere and I developed this latest installment of the Cultural Detective Series, and many experts contributed their thoughts to the training materials (my heartfelt thanks to all!). The Cultural Detective Series now includes more than 65 culture- and topic-specific educational guides that have been published over the past decade and frequently updated.

Cultural Detective Latino/Hispanic is available as part of a Cultural Detective Online subscription, or via license as a printable PDF. The participant materials are a 26-page educational guide that introduces an insightful Cultural Lens of overarching Latino values that drive beliefs and behavior. In addition, the package features real life scenarios, best practices and a broad selection of reference materials for further study. Cultural Detective Latino/Hispanic is a powerful tool for human resources professionals, training experts, line managers, team leads or interculturalists who are dedicated to improving organizational effectiveness in a broad variety of settings.

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Brenda Machado-Koller is President of Intercultural Business Services LLC. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico by a US American mother and a Puerto Rican father. Brenda holds an M.A. in Intercultural Relations.

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

Cross-cultural Competence Enhances Productivity AND Satisfaction

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Last week a new brochure, this week a new introductory presentation! Thank you all for the incredible work you do with this process and these materials, to build cross-cultural respect, teamwork, productivity and equity!!!!

Use it, pass it around, and do the good work! Thank you, everyone!

Help us Build Respect and Collaboration

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brochure

CulturalDetectiveBrochure

We have an updated brochure that we are debuting. Please click on the link above to view it.

We are hoping that all of you will please pass it around, use it in your spheres of influence, and put the Cultural Detective Method to good use, building a more cross-culturally respectful, inclusive, collaborative and equitable world, in which our diverse experiences generate innovative solutions to our shared problems.

You can also find the brochure on our website:

Please let us know what you think!

Ask Cultural Detective Your Questions!

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ask.fmHi everyone! We have added a new service for our community members, and trust you will join us in putting it to good use to build equitable and sustainable partnerships across cultures.

Cultural Detective now has a page where you can ask us a question, and we will text or videotape an answer to you. We just launched late last night, and this morning we woke up to two interesting questions. Below is our answer to the first. Click on the link above to view both sets of questions and answers, or share your question with us. We look forward to the dialogue!

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.

Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion

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Do One Thing logoIn 2001, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and in December 2002, the UN General Assembly, in its resolution 57/249, declared May 21 to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The day provides us with an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the values of cultural diversity and to learn to live together better. In 2011, a grassroots campaign ‘Do One Thing For Diversity and Inclusion’, celebrating the annual World Day for Cultural Diversity was launched by UNESCO and the UN Alliance of Civilizations.

Cultural Detective is proud to announce that we have been selected as an ambassador of this global campaign. Goals of the campaign include:

  • Raise awareness worldwide about the importance of intercultural dialogue, diversity and inclusion.
  • Build a world community of individuals committed to support diversity with real and every day-life gestures.
  • Combat polarization and stereotypes to improve understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures.

Won’t you please join us in celebrating diversity and inclusion tomorrow, May 21, 2013? Below we share with you ten ideas from the event’s organizers, and we’re pretty sure that readers of this blog will have more savvy ways to celebrate global diversity and inclusion. We look forward to seeing and hearing what you do!

  1. Visit an art exhibit or a museum dedicated to other cultures.
  2. Invite a family or people in the neighborhood from another culture or religion to share a meal with you and exchange views on life.
  3. Rent a movie or read a book from another country or religion than your own.
  4. Invite people from a different culture to share your customs
  5. Read about the great thinkers of other cultures than yours (e.g. Confucius, Socrates, Avicenna, Ibn Khaldun, Aristotle, Ganesh, Rumi)
  6. Go next week-end to visit a place of worship different than yours and participate in the celebration.
  7. Play the “stereotypes game.” Stick a post-it on your forehead with the name of a country. Ask people to tell you stereotypes associated with people from that country. You win if you find out where you are from.
  8. Learn about traditional celebrations from other cultures; learn more about Hanukkah or Ramadan or about amazing celebrations of New Year’s Eve in Spain or Qingming festival in China.
  9. Spread your own culture around the world through our Facebook page and learn about other cultures
  10. Explore music of a different culture.

The campaign works through a dedicated Facebook page, serving as a platform for people around the world to share their experiences through posts and videos. Following this event, on May 29, 2013, in Baku, Azerbaijan, will be the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

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.