Global Services Blog

Global Ready in Just One Day

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Atul

By Rusty Weston

If you work in high-tech or pharma and collaborate with co-workers,
customers, suppliers or partners located in other countries, there's an
increasing likelihood that your company will offer you some form of
training to help you master cross-cultural or virtual work challenges.

Beyond those two fields, however, it's hit-and-miss, according to
top cultural trainers. Without the insights of cross-cultural training,
many American managers – who often lack international travel or global
business experience – face a heightened risk of project failure.

The return on investment in training global workers isn't always
evident to senior management, many of whom have never played a globally
collaborative role in the organization. "What I have learned is that
it's extremely difficult to [initiate] formal training," says Natasha
Crundwell, President of People Going Global, a Washington-D.C. cultural consulting firm. "In many cases executives may not see the need for structured training."

Yet, companies that hire third-party trainers typically approve
group classes that last just one half day up to two days at most. Is
some training better than none at all? Absolutely – I went through Berlitz
training shortly before assuming a cross-cultural editorial management
role in the fall of 2005. I came out of it with a better understanding
of Indian culture, which improved my ability to absorb other
information later. However, I felt eight hours was just scratching the
surface.

"I
would love two days of building and bonding and making it work but
we're not given that," concedes Lu Ellen Schafer, president of Global Savvy
in Palo Alto, Calif. She says the key takeaway, after eight hours, is
this: "Most important is to get over the hump of not being able to
communicate across cross-cultural or distance barriers. Once you get
over that barrier than you can figure things out with international
colleagues. "

The training sessions are typically jam-packed with interactive
discussions, study guides, videos, and thick training manuals. "We look
at whole thing from contrast and compare perspective," explains
Crundwell. "By the end of eight hours we come up with a global
communication protocol. It's just how to become a more aware
communicator in a global workplace."

Even if senior executives don't see the ROI, the executives engaged
in cross-culturally collaborative roles certainly value the
information, says Crundwell. "There's a lot of awareness that they need
this skill and there's an awareness that if they want to stay
competitive that they have to work with cross-cultural peers."

Considering what's at stake for workers engaged in
globally-collaborative roles, the wisest course of action is to start
with one of these courses and then dive into the additional reading
list to deepen your skills as needed.

Blog courtesy of My Global Career.