To succeed in the highly competitive global market, business leaders must find ways to get the highest level of contribution from the workforce. How well, or how poorly employees contribute, directly relates to the business leader’s ability to manage diversity and build an organization that leverages employee cross-cultural competence and builds a culture of inclusion where people are counted as the most important asset.
Cross-Cultural Diversity and Inclusion to Enable Success
Top 5 Things Heard in Workplaces that Need Cross-Cultural Training
- “Why can’t they just say what they mean? We can’t be expected to read minds!” Symptoms include: hearing a lot of “us” vs. “them” polarizing discussions or comments; employees encamp themselves with one group or another, without much effort to learn where “they” are coming from.
- “I give up. They are completely useless!” Symptoms include: outbursts of frustration showing loss of motivation and/or a resigned attitude; employees vocalizing discontent with another group, and/or a loss of willingness to work with the other group.
- “I don’t understand. This process worked just fine at the home office.” Symptoms include: expectations about how processes are followed for problem-solving, decision making, and communication – all of which vary widely between cultures, sub-cultures and different corporate cultures.
- “You don’t understand how things work here.” Symptoms include: employees feel the differences between their location and headquarters are not effectively dealt with, glossed over, or not recognized at all. Although declaring and communicating organizational values is useful in providing direction and common ground, values are best expressed with actions and words.
- “How hard can it be? People are basically the same everywhere.” Symptoms include: assuming that you can navigate a few legal loopholes by talking to the right people – only to realize that “American-style” business can have its limitations.
In this workshop, participants will:
- learn how globalization and technology are impacting economic trends
- define cross-cultural diversity and inclusion as it relates to team and organizational performance
- explore the correlation between diversity/inclusion and performance, financial trends, creative and innovative practices, and talent attraction and retention
- learn skills to bridge and leverage cross-cultural differences
- determine an action plan for the answer to the question: “What must we do to successfully navigate the cultures having the most impact on our business or mission?”