Functional Seminars

Functional seminars can cover many different areas. Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

Some examples of functional seminars are:

Leading and/or working in diverse teams

This is a crucial skill as organisations become increasingly interdependent across borders. We can deliver workshops that either develop the skills in general, or design coaching programmes for intact teams. With intact teams, the team coaching is based largely around the personal cultural profiles of the members from their CultureActive assessments. Follow-up is crucial and we have a variety of simple tools that can help the team map its own cultural dynamic, bridge the gaps and achieve success through integrating diverse approaches. Take a look at the ‘Meet our Team’ section on our website to see the sort of data we can use to work with you.

Negotiating across cultures

Negotiation is culturally-bound. This seminar looks at some negotiation theory in general, then how the Lewis Model can be used to predict how different cultural types deal with time and money in negotiation. We explore how persuasion is affected by cultural type, and link the Lewis Model to Aristotle’s persuasion clusters. We learn from other cultures’ negotiation styles, involve participants in a negotiation role play to help you put yourself in the shoes of the three main cultural types, and feel the pressures they may be under. We also consider the different communication patterns your target cultures tend to use in negotiation, and at the differing decision-making processes used in countries of importance to the group. We finish with a case-study that shows how one multinational used cultural knowledge to break a 15 year deadlock in a multi-billion USD negotiation.

Leading across cultures

Leadership does not occur in a cultural vacuum. The training deals first with the broad differences in leadership styles across our three main cultural types, then more specifically with leadership styles in countries of your choice. This includes how to communicate situationally to the target cultures you need to lead, how to make them listen, and how to motivate people with different cultural backgrounds. We touch on the leadership strengths and weakness of linear-, multi- and reactive leaders using great leaders from the past as examples. We also look at leadership at a macro, global level, using the model as an innovative way of exploring trends and how the vision of what a leader should be like is evolving in the 21st century. Finally, we leave you with some practical approaches for adapting your own style for success in a multicultural environment.

Tailor-made functional programmes

Here, we work with you to come up with training that fits your precise organisational needs, and links the programme directly to authentic situations within your organisation. Course design can include the creation of a Dialogue Mat aimed specifically at your needs, and role-plays/simulations that get participants to practise cross-cultural skills in pressurised situations that are important for them – for instance customer service, safety in the cockpit or in a control room, challenging upwards, breaking bad news diplomatically etc. There are no limits to what can be done once we have a deep understanding of your needs and can collaborate with you on programme design.