William Birdwell, intercultural expert, as well as founder and director of Birdwell Institute shares his views and opinions about the evolution in intercultural training in the past decade.

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Evolutions inInterculturalTraining

2. The Evolution of Intercultural Training
 Over the last 15 years,
intercultural training has
evolved considerably
throughout the world.
Intercultural communication has tended to take on
different meanings from one country to another or one
company to the next.
Intercultural communication now takes on different
meanings in order to respond to different realities in our
changing world.

3. Cultural Competency as a Core Skill forManagers
 Today in France, as in many
other countries, a manager’s
ability to understand and work
efficiently across cultures is
finally being recognized as an
important skill.
 Cultural training programs in corporate universities in
many multi-national companies have sprung up in an
effort to develop this skill in their managers.

4. Cultural Competency as a Core Skill forManagers
 More companies are asking for
assessments of their high
potential manager pool in the
area of cultural intelligence.
 Today, the ability to work efficiently across cultures
is not a luxury, but a necessity.

5. Changes in Focus Audiences forCultural Training
 Usually, most cultural training
was organized as preparation for
managers with assignments
abroad. Today, most of the
programs I organize are for
companies that have expanded
internationally.
 Teams in marketing, research and development,
finance, and supply chain find themselves working
with teams in other parts of the world.

6. Changes in Focus Audiences for Cultural Training
 Global multicultural virtual teams
have become a norm, but these
teams are more likely to be
victims of misunderstandings,
friction, and damaged
relationships that lead to
disengagement and lower
productivity.
 Cultural training today must address the issues of the
virtual world, as our culture can be observed as much
in our emails, telephone calls, and web conferences
as in our face-to-face interactions.

7. Practical and Strategic
 Cultural training has become
more practical and strategic that
it was a decade ago. It is still
important for participants to be
exposed to history, cultural
theory, and “do’s and taboos”
concerning a country or culture.
 It is equally important to help participants develop
skills for overcoming difficulties in a multicultural
work context and develop best practices for
workplace application.

8. Practical and Strategic
 For example: stating with an
agenda for my American
manager in a meeting, taking a
few minutes to have a personal
conversation with my Brazilian
colleagues before moving into
business, or helping
multicultural teams to come to
an agreement on issues of
quality and risk.

9. Practical and Strategic
 Cultural training should enable
people and teams to work more
smoothly and efficiently
together, reaching company
business goals in a timely
manner.
 Many other changes have taken place in this field,
and many more are surely on the way as our world
become smaller and faster paced.

10. For More!
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http://www.birdwell.fr
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well.Institute
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