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A. This Workshop and your Business Success
All the latest research on joint ventures show that by far the biggest cause of failure is a lack of “chemistry” between partners, i.e. failure to understand and accept each other’s “style”, “way of doing things” or “culture”. Two major MNC’s recently lost US $13 billion from its value when their potential joint venture was called off due to what analysts called a “clash of cultures and personalities”. Cultural understanding is a “soft” issue which directly impacts “hard” commercial issues.
Most Joint Ventures and teams in today’s business world are made up of people from different cultures, styles and backgrounds who see the world in very different ways, yet very little attention is given to develop skills in working with multi-cultural teams, despite the fact that research shows that it is the ability to pay attention to the people factor and understand other cultures that is the competitive advantage in today's global market place – culture is no longer a "side dish".
As MNC's continue to expand globally and see their economic future linked with partners or colleagues from other countries - communicating effectively with people who see the world in a different way from yourself is vital. Successful organisations and Joint Ventures are those which encourage and practice effective teamwork and co-operation at the top of and throughout the whole organisation. This is important in any culture, but when teams are made up of members from different cultures the need for understanding of the impact of personality and cultural differences on their daily work and its impact on their business success is vital. Many teams ignore this factor and end up paying dearly in terms of business success. For 17 years Philip Merry has been specialising in enabling multi-cultural teams and organisations to be successful, and his company is now one of the world’s leading multi-cultural teamwork specialists providing services to some of the world’s leading MNC’s. This workshop will enable participants to develop skills in this important issue.
B. Objectives
The workshop will enable participants to:
- Build understanding between the different cultures in their organisation
- Build partnership between the different cultures in their organisation
- Understand the key success factors for multi-cultural organisations
- Clarify the contribution of team style to business success
- Clarify the contribution of cultural style to business success
- Understand each other’s team style
- Enhance communication and understanding between each other
- Map out an individual and organisation plan for improved team partnership
C. Content
1. Multi-Cultural Teamwork
- What is Multi-Cultural Teamwork - MCT
- Culture and profitability
- Cross Cultural competence - the key leadership skill for today's international
managers
- Selecting and developing leaders for cross cultural competence
- Effective teamwork and business success
- Effective MCT and its impact on partnership
- Examples of success and failure in multi-cultural joint ventures
- Understand the importance of senior managers setting a positive personal example
- The stages of development of effective teams
2. Understanding Team Style
- MCT and differences in team style
- Styles in teams – understanding the contribution of different styles
- How different team styles affect team behaviour
- Clarifying your own major strengths – each member will receive a 9 page team profile hi-lighting their own dominant and non-dominant styles
- Managing differences/conflict between in teams
- Dominant team styles in Asia
- Dominant team styles in the West
3. Developing Cultural Intelligence
- What is culture
- Major Differences between cultures and their impact on teamwork and partnership:-
1. Rules - one universal rule or special circumstances?
2. Work Behaviour - individualistic or group harmony?
3. Emotions - reserved or more freely expressed?
4. Level of Involvement – partial or whole?
5. Status - what you are or what you do?
6. Control - Internal or External?
7. Time - Synchronic or sequential?
- 3 Step Model for business success across cultures : -
Step 1. Be aware of your own cultural conditioning
Step 2. Understand and Respect the differences in the other culture
Step 3. Reconcile the differences
- Cultural Audit – how to identify important issues
- Empowerment Asian and Western styles
4. Application
- Unlock creative talents by identifying each person’s unique skills
- Know how to get the whole team moving together
- Develop norms of desirable behaviour in their partnership/team
- Develop norms of undesirable behaviour in their partnership/team
- Understand what builds co-operation across departments - and what destroys it
- Clarify partnership/team vision
- Enhance team co-operation and partnership
- Maximise everybody’s contribution to the team
- Enhance the productivity of team meetings
- Enhance communication between team members
- Develop an action plan to enhance each person’s contribution to team success
- Develop an action plan to enhance each whole team’s success
D. Method
The workshop will be highly practical with a mixture of short lectures and interactive/experiential exercises. Individual and group exercises will enable participants to gain a real appreciation of culture's influence on behaviour and communication. Numerous business case studies and dilemmas drawn from Philip Merry's 31 years consulting experience in 33 countries will form the basis of the practical work.
- role plays
- group exercises and discussions
- individual and team feedback
- self assessment and reflection
- video
- short theory inputs
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