Over 25 years ago, a small group of interculturalists and I got together to offer to businesses working internationally what at the time was a novel idea: to provide intercultural information and training in order to accelerate success when working in and with other cultures. It seemed so obvious to us, all wide-eyed and fresh with our anthropology and international business degrees and overseas experience: business is done differently in different cultures, therefore, until you learn what those differences are and how to best manage them, you are at a distinct disadvantage working internationally, especially when your competition might know what you don’t.
Juiced with an exciting idea, and more energy than experience, we were, of course, immediately challenged by skepticism and general resistance to a new and unproven idea from clients who did not see the need to spend money on something they were currently doing well enough without, thank you very much. Talk about bursting balloons.
Fast forward a quarter century. After much “education” (going two ways: we interculturalists explained the value of cultural training, and clients explained to us their questions), and after many expensive and calamitous client experiences of missed opportunities, blown deals, and wasted human resources, most organizations have come to view intercultural training not as an expense, but as a necessary investment that insures the success of the international project, whether that project is nurturing and developing an international transferee and family in Brazil, landing a business deal in China, retaining repatriates when they “come home”, or managing the organization’s greatest 21st century resource: its global talent. Along the way, many new fields were born: international mobility, global talent management, intercultural training and consulting, and others. And new needs have emerged: short-term assignees, perpetual expats, technology-driven solutions, etc. And, as might be expected in the course of 25+ years, myths and “urban legends” have also developed around cultural training.
So, in the hope of dispelling said myths and legends, here’s a short-list of what I regard as the top ten, gleaned from the experiences of over a quarter century of providing intercultural training support, and offered in the hope that if we can dispel these now, once and for all, organizations can get on with becoming interculturally competent, as they must, and interculturalists can get on with helping them to do so.
10. CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING DOESN’T WORK.
A good cross-cultural training program works; a bad one, doesn’t. …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Dean Foster Global Cultures to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.