Struggling to find a definition of ‘intercultural communication competence’?

Well, you are not alone.

'Culturally aware' professionals have a distinct advantage over their peers.

International businesses increasingly cite Cultural Competence as a core requirement during the recruitment process.

Communicating clearly is crucial if you want to hit your targets on the global stage.

Learning how to shape your message and adapt your delivery to the audience, makes you more effective.

Cross-cultural, intercultural and multicultural don’t mean the same thing.

Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they do, in fact, have very different meanings.

What impact do you think cultural differences have on a business relationship and trust-building?

Well, researchers have taken the time to try and find out!

Depending on your own culture, working with Americans can be challenging.

When delivering cross-cultural training we get to hear many of the challenges facing professionals when working with Americans.

‘Intercultural Competence’ is a term often used within the diversity, inclusion and cultural training fields.

What does it actually mean? Is there is an agreed definition?

Do you work with or do business with Indians? Do you sometimes find it confusing?

Well, believe us you're not the first or the last.

Being able to communicate and collaborate across cultures is crucial for many of today’s professions; engineers included.

However, a Japanese-led research team suggests that the intercultural communication skills being taught to today’s engineers are not fit for purpose.

Essential to any sort of cultural awareness training are the two key concepts of stereotypes and bias.

As we touched on in an earlier blog, a common trap many of us naturally fall into when we are working in a cross-cultural situation is to let our own cultural lens get in the way.

As cross-cultural training specialists, we sometimes come across resistance from delegates who have been obligated to attend a cultural awareness session by their boss, HR or the Learning and Development department.

Resistance may stem from many factors, not least of which may be that the benefits and background to the training course have not been fully communicated.

Following on from our blog on becoming a trainer, we are very lucky to be able to pick the brains of an experienced cross-cultural trainer with solid experience in the intercultural field.

Joyce Jenkins, President of SIETAR UK, offers her insights and advice to three questions about getting started as a trainer or a professional in the cross-cultural training field.

Working internationally comes with certain challenges - navigating cultural differences is just one.

Being able to work, communicate, sell to or buy from people in different countries, working in different times zones, with different ways of doing things is essential.

Intercultural training has become of increasing importance in the past 10 years.

Companies and organizations that are working on the international stage are starting to realise that working in or with foreign countries is not like working at home.