Our conceptual approach

What distinguishes our seminars, courses and consulting activities? Why are they so popular and successful? A long-term improvement of intercultural communication skills requires many things. We have summarised the most important aspects for you below. Intercultural Communication

• Our approach to teaching background knowledge and skills in intercultural communication
  • is based on over 10 years of professional and personal experience as an intercultural communication skills and language trainer, as well as an engineer and manager
    
  • balances cultural awareness with skills development and training, which enables participants to cope with cross-cultural communication conflicts independently and self-confidently in the long run
    
  • puts the role and potential of English language skills in perspective as an indispensable intercultural communication tool
    
  • draws on the main concepts researched in the body of international literature on this subject area
    
  • is uniquely characterised by our own multicultural backgrounds.
  
  
• Our aim is to
  
  • provide a knowledge base of intercultural communication issues and show their impact on typical international business communication behaviour (transparency)
    
  • guide participants in transferring a conceptual understanding of cultural differences into effective intercultural communication skills (applications training)
    
  • provide participants with functional tools in the long term for identifying and solving cross-cultural communication problems independent of trainers (workable solutions)

  
  
• The nature and importance of the relationship between language, communication and culture is, unfortunately, too often misunderstood or underestimated. All too often it is presumed that simply speaking a foreign language well communicates a message successfully across cultures. However, the individual who is aware of how profoundly culture "colours" not only how we say something, but more importantly what we choose to say and not say, will be the one who can successfully bridge cross-cultural communication barriers.
  
• Cross-cultural dialogue is a two-step process. Just as we are normally unaware of the grammatical rules of our native language, we are equally incapable of explaining the logic behind our own "cultural rules". Therefore, developing cross-cultural communication awareness begins with first understanding the assumptions and expectations embedded in our own culturally conditioned communication behaviour.

  This is the reference point for our experiences with other cultures, and this approach invariably reveals to participants completely new and unexpected perspectives. Only when we understand why we act or react the way we do, can we then begin to understand how that may clash with other cultural behaviour.
  

• Our introductory seminars do not first aim to be country-specific (unless otherwise requested). A much more accessible approach is to focus on a very few key cultural concepts (e.g. the role of hierarchy, fact-based vs. relationship-oriented interpersonal interaction, individual or group orientation, to name a few), and how these in their various constellations impact the communication behaviour of different cultures.

  This impacts, for instance, every-day problem-solving, decision-making, project-planning, workplace interaction, etc. This basic framework uses global scales to approximate where cultural "clusters" are relative to each other in terms of these core values orientations. For participants of our seminars, this means not only a very transparent and structured presentation of background knowledge and skills, but also a substantially larger horizon without being overwhelmed by too many details at once. A solid basis such as this can then be extended with country-specific training modules.
  

• Our solutions have been developed over more than a decade, uniquely combining experience and insights in the fields of intercultural communication and adult language education, with the practical applications in the work of an engineer and manager at an international level. We integrate real-life case studies, practice-oriented activities and exercises into a conceptual framework, providing workable solutions to problems typically encountered in international business situations.

  These include making first contact and relationship-building, meeting and negotiating, decision-making, communicating about problems, giving and receiving critical feedback, making and critiquing presentations, project planning and implementation, etc. Effective problem-solving skills in intercultural communication is just as much about recognising which options would be viable solutions in the other culture's eyes.
  

• To facilitate skills development, our seminars are designed to be very interactive and practice-oriented, drawing too on the experience of the participants themselves. Case studies and examples provided by the trainer functioned as "springboards" for group-specific applications and problem-solving. Even in the shorter one-day format, the seminar is structured to progress from guided discovery to independent analysis and problem-resolution by the participants.
  
• While seminar participants may find comfort in receiving many detailed checklists and guidelines, the risk is that such simplified checklists prescribe formulaic "solutions" to situations where flexibility and judgement may be essential. We will provide the participants with the skills and tools to create their own checklists and guidelines in preparation for your future cross-cultural encounters. A further strength of this approach is that it aims at something far more realistic than "the one correct" answer to cross-cultural communication problems: it provides the tools to make the most reasonably accurate assessment.
  
• If our native cultural values colour the shape and form of our language and communication style, then inevitably we transfer these patterns to a foreign language, unless we learn to do otherwise. Therefore, not only will "German-English" or "Japanese-English" sound quite different from each other, they'll sound different from native "English-English". How we construct our arguments, organise persuasive messages, use tone and word choice when communicating in tricky or critical situations can be a source of considerable miscommunication despite two people sharing a common language. One unique component of our longer seminars guides participants in identifying hidden problems in a supposedly "neutral" English. We highlight the distinct communication patterns behind the tone and texture of "native" English and reveal its true potential as the "perfect" intermediary language. This is the key to acquiring effective language skills in English for professional use.

Following these principles, our seminars, workshops, and consulting work have been consistently convincing and successful, as documented by the excellent feedback we have received from seminar participants and organisers, as well as from the clients of our consulting services.

Last changes to this page: 2005/11/04

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