Argonaut – Argonaut

An intercultural look at central Africa’s largest country

Richard Farkas — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 17:16:14 +0000

We’re glad to share the the expertise of some outstanding intercultural consultants in CultureConnector and it’s a privilege to introduce a new voice in our community, someone with intercultural experience both deep and wide, driving success in projects requiring results across some of the world’s most challenging cultural gaps.

Chloé Maurice, intercultural expert and operational leader across multiple continents

CultureConnector’s material on the Democratic Republic of Congo, is now available to all learners, thanks to the extensive insights and analysis of Chloé Maurice, Cultural Correspondent and consultant at Mosaic Haven (check back soon for activity at this new venture).

The new material attempts to give a brief introduction to the cultures inside the DRC. With its population of more than 100 million including a diversity of ethnic and social groups, this country significantly extends our coverage of Central Africa. Look out for more cultures of this fast-growing continent, coming to CultureConnector soon. Current coverage is always up to date in the CultureConnector cultures page.

Three new routes into the cultures of Africa

Richard Farkas — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 19:07:36 +0000

Three outstanding intercultural consultants have produced a remarkable set of learning material on Algeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, now newly available in CultureConnector.

Abayneh Haile, educator in international communication

Advising on the development of CultureConnector’s material on Ethiopia, Abayneh Haile is an entrepreneur based in Addis Ababa, founder of a Bridge Centre for Professional Development. Bridge CPD serves international organisations operating out of Ethiopia’s capital, a city home to many institutions which consider Addis Ababa to be the head quarters for operations across the entire continent of Africa. Now in CultureConnector, you can discover the uniting characteristics of members of Ethiopian culture as well as the complexities of the diverse peoples who live there, not least the Oromo, the Amhara, the Tigrayans, Somalis, Guragi and even the influence of the Ethiopian diaspora elsewhere in the world. Create your CultureConnector account to start learning about Ethiopian culture.

Anissa Lamrani, intercultural trainer

Switching smoothly between Algerian, French, British and international perspectives, Anissa Lamrani was the cultural intelligence driving CultureConnector’s new material on Algeria. She has long experience developing intercultural training programmes in the corporate world and now works on a wide range of projects for higher education institutions, while also finding time to volunteer in the third sector. CultureConnector’s profile of Algeria weaves together the major influences shaping Algerian culture, including Islam and the cultures of the Middle East, the French colonial era and the struggle for independence, the indigenous Berber traditions as well as more recent trends in the young generation and expatriate Algerians. Create your CultureConnector account to start learning about Algerian culture.

Tamara Makoni, interculturalist and entrepreneur

Combining a talent for communication and culture, Tamara Makoni is the originator of the sensitive and qualitative portrayal of Zimbabwean culture in CultureConnector. A rich blend of modern urban institutions in a high-functioning business sector alongside excluded yet resourceful people engaged in the daily struggle for survival in the informal economy, Zimbabwe is a microcosm of the global race for development and the diverse speeds at which that is happening. In CultureConnector’s new material on Zimbabwe, you can discover the (to newcomers) hidden hierarchies of traditional cultures which run parallel to formal, above-the-surface hierarchies in Zimbabwean institutions, tips on how some foreigners have succeeded in bridging the social distance with new contacts in Zimbabwe, and much more practical and analytical information on the culture. Create your CultureConnector account to start learning about Zimbabwean culture.

The new profiles cover a total population of 175 million including a diversity of ethnic and social groups within these nations and relationships with other cultures, near and far. We’re extending our coverage of Africa fast. Look out for more cultures of this fast-growing continent, coming to CultureConnector soon. Current coverage is always up to date in the CultureConnector cultures page.

Three new routes into the cultures of Africa

Richard Farkas — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 19:59:32 +0000

Three outstanding intercultural consultants have produced a remarkable set of learning material on Algeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, now newly available in CultureConnector.

Abayneh Haile, educator in international communication

Anissa Lamrani, intercultural trainer

Tamara Makoni, interculturalist and entrepreneur

The flexible French

Richard Farkas — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 11:59:00 +0000

A generation has passed since Kathryn Libioulle-Clutz arrived in France as a young American business consultant. We asked for her perspective on what’s changed in French culture.

More entrepreneurs

“France has become really supportive of entrepreneurial culture. They are really trying to foster small businesses and help startups to flourish. The French State has simplified accounting rules. It has been pushing lots of different kinds of funds and pépinières, the little groups and incubators helping new businesses to get started administratively, get funding, find mentors et cetera.”

Télétravail gradually replacing presence in some workplaces

By comparison with other European countries, employers in France traditionally seemed reticent about allowing employees to work from home. Presence at work is important here. But even before the coronavirus hit France, télétravail was increasing and France was catching up fast. “This is not just because of covid. The change was in the air already before that.”

“It’s becoming a much more flexible work environment,” says Kathryn. “There are large numbers of places where entrepreneurs can go, have working spaces, where they can exchange with each other, have mentoring networks. These are mini-communities for entrepreneurs. It’s happening. It’s a very dynamic environment.”

What young people want

“In France, young people want to do their own thing, not get stuck in a big corporate structure. They have very strong ideals. A lot of business schools run courses to help young people set themselves up as entrepreneurs.”

In 2017 Emmanuel Macron campaigned for the presidency with the slogan ‘La France doit être une chance pour tous’ (everyone in France deserves a chance). Young people in particular felt blocked by a bureaucratic system designed to regulate big business but the same regulation was falling heavily on the grassroots startup community. “Macron campaigned on a ‘startup nation’ platform, in response to young people. The regulations on business life are hard to change in France, but he has invested in the business side of things”.

More myths to bust

“Today, France is much more open to foreigners,” continues Kathryn. “The French now understand that, in terms of business, France must think more internationally. There is still a ‘stay-in-France, buy-local’ mentality, but at the same time, young people are going and doing internships in the UK or China, for example. Everyone wants international experience.”

“French people are more used to having foreigners in their workplaces and are becoming more receptive to their foreign colleagues’ perspective. When I arrived in France, 20 years ago, the attitude was very much ‘when in France, do as the French do’. That’s still true, but it is shifting. Everyone’s slowly adapting to the wider world.”

The keys to French culture

Kathryn has advice for a newcomer into French culture.

Recognise common values and different styles

“Observe. Understand what your own cultural perspective is. Recognise that while you share the deeper values with your French colleagues such as fairness and honesty and so on, the way those values are expressed in France may be very different from the way you would express them.”

Go for lunch

One stable part of French culture which Kathryn reports is well preserved in today’s workplace is the lunch break.

“Nowadays it is not the end of the world if you take a rushed 15-minute lunch break in France. Lunch is less of a big deal than it used to be. But a good lunch is still something that everyone feels entitled to. It’s a good way to get to know your co-workers and to build informal relationships. Lunch can be the crucial time-out which unblocks difficult negotiations. No-one is going to want to work with you until they really get to know you. Lunch helps to build some of that trust.”

Learn French

“And yet your most important key for unlocking French culture is this: learn French. Even if your French colleagues are fluent in English, learn French.

But here is something that has also changed a lot. When I came to France, I met the attitude ‘nice try with your French’ when foreigners fumbled with less-than-perfect French language skills. But now the French are trying to learn English and they are sensitive about how bad their English is, so they are much more sympathetic when foreigners try to speak French.”

A little less conservative at work

Kathryn led the review and updating of CultureConnector’s profile of France in 2020 and her re-write included a newer perspective on risk-taking in French culture.

“There is a little bit more taste for risk-taking these days, especially among young people, but in general French employees are still conservative in comparison to many countries outside Europe. They want steady employment with good retirement benefits.”

Hearing Kathryn’s insights as a professionally-objective observer of French culture, it quickly becomes clear that she’s also very much a participant who identifies ever more closely with her adopted nation.

“Moving to Nantes in the West of France put me in a situation where everyone around me is French – and traditional French. It has given me a deeper appreciation of the aspects of French culture which I thought were not so great: the sense of entitlement to State benefits, the willingness to go on strike, the education system. Now I understand the logic behind these cultural phenomena.”

“The French don’t care what others think of them.” Not true!

“The French are more curious than they used to be about what foreigners think of them. The emergence of low-cost airlines and globalisation of business have led to French people having more experience of being in other cultures, of leaving France. The desire to connect and compare is stronger in Paris and in the French border- and port-cities.”

“Meanwhile, like many countries, France also has a strong geographic centre where people are more satisfied to continue doing things the local way, without much interest in ideas from outside.” Vive la différence!

Walking the talk as an interculturalist

Executive coaching and team development programmes fill Kathryn’s calendar for most of her work week, as well as leadership development for high potentials which are becoming more common in French corporations. Writing pieces on French culture was a step outside her normal work in 2020.

As well as updating and expanding CultureConnector’s resources on France, Kathryn is continually enhancing her own skills as coach, and applying intercultural techniques in new scenarios.

“Culture is often a good starting point with international clients when I am trying to create team cohesion or even when I get called in to resolve a tension between co-workers or with a boss – tensions that are often labelled as a cultural difference.”

“You can start out with culture and then other factors come into play. Understanding international differences has been very important.”

“When I am coaching, I need to use intercultural techniques myself.” Kathryn lists a few items in her approach:

understand how direct the culture is, how they express their thoughts, how comfortable they are disagreeing
recognise how they deal with hierarchy: in some cases initially they will see you, the coach, as a “higher-up”
know how to build trust: should you achieve that in the professional context of the coaching session? or should you go to lunch with them?
read everything you can find about the culture, talk with people who have experience of the culture, and like I tell my clients too: observe and learn from the people you’re sharing these working moments with.

New perspectives on French culture

“It was great fun thinking about cultural change in France and being part of the review in CultureConnector. We had to recognise that some things had not changed. The French are still bureaucratic (take for example of the filling-in of forms during the corona crisis). They still like a good argument. They will still punish you for making mistakes or for sloppy-thinking in debates.”

“On the other hand we could recognise a great many things which had changed. There is more acceptance of trial and error. The French spend less time spent testing ideas at the concept stage. They expect faster innovation.”

“They want to take more ownership of their own careers. Sometimes they even allow a little optimism to creep into conversation.”

“More and more workplaces are rejecting the traditional command-and-enforce model and instead embracing personal responsibility at work, though still small in number.

“In some sectors, teamwork has become less competitive and there is talk of trendy concepts such as ‘co-creation’.”

“And shock of shocks: you may even see lunch being served during a business meeting in a conference room!”

Kathryn Libioulle-Clutz is an independent executive coach and consultant and for CultureConnector is Cultural Correspondent for France. The updated profile of 2020s France is available now in CultureConnector.

Like feedback?

Richard Farkas — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 10:28:56 +0000

We’ve introduced a powerful new feedback feature for the CultureConnector community.

Now in CultureConnector users can pass comments to each other in many directions while staying in control of their data.

Trainers to learners
Learners to trainers
Learners to management and training providers
Trainers to the Argonaut team

Tell your trainer what you think

It’s quick and efficient to give feedback in CultureConnector. As a learner, you can drop in a comment about your home culture, or a comparison with one of your chosen cultures, or your overall experience. The comment will immediately appear for your trainer.

Say what you really think

Giving feedback demands sensitivity and trust that the comments will only reach those who should hear them. Sometimes anonymity can improve the quality of feedback. We’ve enabled commenters to decide who can read the comments, be it the organisation’s management, the trainer, the training company or simply the people developing CultureConnector.

Quick and easy for community members

Now it’s easier than ever for trainers to contribute ideas, corrections, criticisms and likes to CultureConnector. The new feedback box appears in specific screens, so you don’t need to describe the topic or feature you’re commenting on. Simply say way you think, and continue with your day. It takes just a few seconds.

Customising how you ask the question

If you’re a business customer using CultureConnector, you can configure comments according to your business needs, asking for feedback in a way that is relevant and valuable for your work.

Feedback on feedback

CultureConnector feedback will auto-adapt to the way you are giving feedback and to your role. We hope that you’ll see the feedback form exactly where and when you want it, without any annoying moments. We’re checking the analytics and feedback daily. Let us know what you think of the new feedback feature.

Check your feedback now

If you are a trainer using CultureConnector, you can check your feedback in the Trainer Dashboard area. Organisation managers and business customers will also find feedback in their own admin panels.

Thanks for sharing!

In the Argonaut team we are joyfully running in a never-ending race to keep our cultural content up to date. Cultures change continuously and sometimes rapidly. Our community has always had a key role in helping to keep CultureConnector as the most up-to-date source of country-specific intercultural information. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Now it’s even easier to join a winning team in this race!

Return on investment in intercultural training: three insights from modelling training impact

Richard Farkas — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 09:51:30 +0000

Project notes on the development of CultureConnector’s tool for modelling training impact in the intercultural field.

For a curious mind, it’s thrilling when something unexpected happens. There’s something new to be probed and understood. So it was with our project to model the real-world economic impact of intercultural training.

After years exploring the available, relevant research and testing different approaches to the mathematical model, I expected diminishing returns from each addition research sprint. The law of diminishing returns is the observation which says the deeper you dive into a new thing, the less reward you get for each additional kick.

The opposite happened. As the model started to spit out results to our research questions, the answers became more interesting and more enlightening.

Here are three striking observations from this work so far.

1. The power of an intercultural lunch and learn

What is the gold standard training format for intercultural competence? A full 3-day module on a year-long leadership development programme, perhaps? A multi-year relationship with an inspirational coach? A multi-channel, multi-session blended learning programme, based on adaptive online learning tech? Yes, these promise impressive results for the learner. Gold standards indeed.

By comparison, a lunch-and-learn intercultural briefing, delivered to busy executives under heavy time pressure, seems like the poor cousin of those Gold Standard formats.

But wait, our training impact model is telling a different story. Based on a new analysis of the cost-side of the ROI equation, a rapid injection of new intercultural knowledge can generate excellent return on investment for organisations which use this method. While the absolute returns on a lunch and learn may be smaller than a full transformational intervention, the rate of return on investment is one of the best, and certainly a good pathway towards more ambitious forms of competence development.

2. An intimate training for 508 participants

The joy and the challenge of modelling intercultural competence are the network effects inside organisations. When a freshly-trained participant starts a collaboration with a colleague who has a low level of intercultural competence, some of the benefit of the training is enjoyed by the non-participant, who gains from more effecient interactions with the trained colleague, and potentially other benefits in achieving their mutual goals.

In this way, intercultural training can impact hundreds of non-participants, who are colleagues of participants. The number in the pool depends on the diversity of the organisation and the participants, the level of isolation of clusters of participants and other assumptions, such as the amount of outward-facing interactions. There can even be benefits of intercultural training for people of the same culture where differences are individual, not cultural.

When your training class attracts just an intimate (small) number of participants, keep in mind that potentially hundreds more who don’t attend will also benefit.

3. The trainer’s bill is a small part of the investment

You can charge the top-end of your price range for your time and provide a gourmet lunch for participants, perhaps with travel and comfortable accommodation, but still the trainer’s and logistical expenses are likely to be dwarfed by the cost of taking productive employees away from their core work tasks, while they participate in your training.

Line managers and anyone with profit and loss accountability knows this. There is some price sensitivity in the market for intercultural training, especially when the procurement department get involved (they are probably not at your meetings to learn about icebergs or onions …). However, what we can see from our model is the importance of looking at the impact side, when an organisation chooses a supplier or selects its own internal training methodology.

Squeezing the trainer’s bill down will have little effect on your return on investment rate. You can truly shift the needle on your return on investment by working together with the intercultural consultant to set the training up for success in achieving performance gains.

The CultureConnector intercultural training impact modelling tool is now available as an early-access programme for customers and contributors in the CultureConnector community.

Data-driven development model for intercultural skills

Richard Farkas — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 20:29:15 +0000

It took us years to develop it, but we can bring it to you now. This week we launched a data-driven development (DDD) model for intercultural skills.

This was long in the pipeline. Its goal is that trainers, coaches and organisations can develop intercultural skills much, much faster.

Faster outcomes

The model is set of algorithms which work with cultural data under-the-hood as part of the CultureConnector engine. It supports trainers and learners to find an efficient path to success in the real world. This makes possible an acceleration of the impact trainers and coaches can achieve with learners. It’s not a traditional standalone model or a framework for training.

Flexible implementation

We’re proud that CultureConnector’s flexible toolkit supports a wide diversity of training, coaching and self-directed learning approaches. The new Achievements feature, which is built on the DDD model enables trainers to continue to design and deliver training expertly targeted to their customer needs and to local market conditions. Achievements help stakeholders track and optimise the learning journey.

We’re all looking to achieve more in less time. Now CultureConnector can help interculturalists fast-track their business results.

Available for all

Check out CultureConnector’s Achievements feature now by clicking your next step. If you don’t have an account with CultureConnector, create one today.

Your next step

It’s included at all licence levels, even the Free licence. If you’re training with CultureConnector, you’ll also see the new feature embedded in your one-to-one training view.

Intercultural coaching for the leaders of 2025

Richard Farkas — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 11:36:14 +0000

Skills for 2025 already in demand now

Looking to the year 2025, Manuela Marquis sees a world where priorities have shifted. New skills are in demand: intercultural competence, virtual collaboration, participative leadership. She founded CrescenTalent to help key individuals and organisations who are already targeting the skills needed in the mid-2020s.

Targeting change in the real world

CrescenTalent is beginning a major initiative to make coaching the trigger to change. Coaching, according to Manuela, goes far beyond skills. “The concept of coaching is fundamentally different to training” says Manuela. “Skills may be activated or developed through training, but the target of coaching is direct change in the real world. This is a solution to the oldest problem of training: transfer from the classroom into work.”

Research-based intercultural coaching

Manuela follows published research on business competences. “The World Economic Forum in 2016 was a particular turning point in my thinking,” she reflects. “Since then, the WEF and other organisations have produced important trend data on current developments and predictions about business skills. We are starting to face the realities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is why I am in collaboration with other intercultural coaches and consultants who want to offer a constructive response to that challenge.”

IMC-coaching, Ceran, ICF, SIETAR, CrescenTalent, ICF and SIETAR

Manuela’s connections to several leading networks mean that she can exchange and develop ideas with fellow professionals from the widest variety of cultures and industries.

Manuela Marquis, founder of CrescenTalent

IMC, or Intercultural Mobility Coaching is the network of professional coaches with expertise in communication and international management. Ceran is a large training organisation providing intercultural training and consultancy services, with a particularly large community of intercultural consultants. CrescenTalent is a consultancy founded by Manuela. The term crescent originates in the Latin word crescere, which means “to grow”. CrescenTalent focus on developing talent, creating bridges of understanding between humans to boost performance and thus increase competence in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous VUCA world. CrescenTalent help businesses to adapt to organisational and technological change in an international environment. The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the world’s largest organization of professionally trained coaches, where Manuela is actively engaged in organising international events for the members in Paris. Finally SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research), an association for interculturalists, is another inspiration for Manuela.

“Teamwork and collaboration come naturally after working in an American corporate environment” says Manuela “and independence and agility are essential to my business. As the founder of a specialised consultancy firm, we need to be agile in order to conduct change-management fast and effectively”.

Serious intercultural business at Disney

Manuela’s intercultural journey began when she left her native Germany at the age of 20. After some time in hotel and event management in London, Cannes and Luxembourg, she took a role at Disneyland Paris, in their giant conventions business. “Opened in 1992, Disneyland Paris was at first known for its theme parks but not for the convention business. An internal training was organised to explain the difference to the employees as the clients’ expectations were totally different. ”

From her position in Disney’s business event management, Manuela soon found herself managing multi-lingual, multi-cultural teams with similarly diverse clients where all the normal challenges of international business are heightened: integration and diversity, high-profile, quality-conscious, on-schedule delivery of complex projects, layers of national and organisational culture, fast-paced formation of new teams, and a focus on recruiting and developing talent locally and internationally.

Training for a multi-cultural business environment

“Disneyland Paris was a good school for me” says Manuela, considering her ten years in the business-convention field. “With guests from all over the world, we dealt with every possible kind of intercultural interaction. But in our business, hierarchy was the cultural difference we experienced most sharply. I moved into training and became fascinated by the concepts and the pedagogy. Training methodology has a big impact on success.”

In harmony with changes in technology

After leaving Disneyland Paris, Manuela trained as a professional coach, got an ICF Certification and dived deeper into the blending of skills and technology. “Today there is less expatriation, more virtual collaboration. This often divides the generations and different individuals on a team. A personalised approach is important to achieve results.” Manuela enjoys getting hands-on with technology and works creatively with teams to implement new tech and establish successful working practices for online collaboration. “These are becoming essential intercultural skills” she suggests.

Measuring the impact of coaching

“My clients, who are often executives, Directors, VPs or HR people, have always had a clear view of what to expect from intercultural coaching”, claims Manuela. These clients often want their employees to listen to outside views, to get a new perspective through a non-judgemental coaching dialogue. “They want increased self-awareness, to find bridges to other people and work better together. In short, intercultural collaboration skills.”

“With technology, today diagnostics can be done very easily. We can very efficiently do “before- and after” -studies.” Many HR departments among Manuela’s clients need help converting their goals into metrics. “There is much more interest now in measurability, but it is surprising how many top leaders recognise the importance of soft-skills and do not demand a data-driven approach to coaching.”

In a typical 5-10 session coaching series, Manuela targets business transformation. She concludes “During one coaching series we can find the strengths and weaknesses in the team and put them on a path towards solving the challenges of international business they decided to address.”

Intercultural training goes digital, a trainer’s perspective

Richard Farkas — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 11:54:04 +0000

A revolution for trainers

The change has happened. Intercultural training has gone online. And there is more change to come. Argonaut met Béatrice Rivas Siedel, an intercultural coach and trainer based in Paris and member of Terres Neuves Network to get a trainer’s perspective on the rush into e-learning.

“For years not much happened, except for a few early adopters running pilots and low-profile projects” says Béatrice. “Some big organisations had online self-study tools for intercultural skills, but trainers were able to continue training in traditional ways. That’s all past now. Today clients and employees expect to learn online – at least partly.

We are training in a period of complete transformation lasting just a few years

Béatrice is a leading part of the trend in her home market, France. She tracks the development through industry reports, including the IFTS survey. “The trend towards digital learning is happening at rate of around 7% per year. We are living in and training in a period of complete transformation lasting just a few years”.

“That feels like a step change, and we’re noticing it”, says Béatrice. “These trends have hit intercultural training too, and it’s a shock for those trainers not ready or able to adapt.”

What trainers can do

Béatrice believes that further change is inevitable. “The end result must be that trainers incorporate technology deeper into their work. Trainers will find their own unique path which suits them and their client base. I’ve told the story of My breakthrough moments as an intercultural trainer in a recent blog post here.”

Being part of the discussion

Hearing the voice of a trainer on blended-learning transformation: Béatrice Rivas Siedel

We asked how trainers can take a bigger role in the e-learning revolution. “Trainers also need to have a louder voice in this transformation. They have valuable expertise in how learning happens.” Béatrice lists the three groups who could benefit from hearing the insights and getting support from the trainers.

Opening the conversation about e-learning with

training providers who engage trainers
clients who have the organisational needs
employees who participate in training

“They are all on the same journey into technology-enabled learning.”

New training methods in practice

While talking and listening are important, Béatrice says trainers also need to experiment with change. One area is to build solid expertise in facilitating virtual training sessions. Béatrice has shared eight actions for trainers switching to virtual training.

What employees can do

What learners can do to join the e-learning transformation

Completing a training programme which is 50%-100% remote can be a great experience as a learner. Here are some of the opportunities which Béatrice encourages her training participants to consider:

Take advantage of asynchronous learning, which is learning which you can fully schedule, where you are not required to be in a live call or live session with the trainer or others. Make a schedule which suits you in terms of pace, time of day, length of session, your physical location.
Get to know your own learning style, and make sure you benefit from that, especially if the trainer is remote or if you are working alone. For example, if you are visual and kinaesthetic (using movement and touch), then draw and write. This helps you learn better as you watch video or read content. Do no not allow yourself to take the role of passive recipient of knowledge and skills. Be an active e-learner.
Get regular feedback: use the tests which are often built into the online learning platform, participate in games, ask the trainer and co-learners to give you feedback
Repeat and review. Many people learn lasting skills and get lasting knowledge by repetition or returning to material with fresh eyes. Reviews and repetition are great for memory.

What training providers can do

Training providers can innovate to compete in a transformed business environment

Béatrice proposes that training organisations re-think their business models, in dialogue with their customers and with their trainers. “Some trainers are not convinced. They worry that as e-learning rises, the quality of human interaction falls. There is scepticism and criticism. Here in France, we may express our opposition openly. Often trainers fear that F2F trainings will disappear.”

Some training providers have successfully involved trainers in piloting new models, based on blended learning approaches. “Training providers should empower trainers to design the training structure to fit customer needs.” Béatrice points to one model which already becoming a classic blended learning training structure:

one remote asynchronous module → then live F2F → then social media

But many different structures are possible. “We are moving out of the era when clients come to training providers for a rigid model or fixed approach to training design,” Béatrice continues. “Although training providers need to build their brand and the unique advantages of their approach, they should also reserve creative space for the trainer to construct the learning around the precise needs of the client in each case.”

Innovative intercultural training providers

Terres Neuves, part of the Ceran group, is one example of an innovator in this area which gets good feedback from Béatrice. “They are working with the Argonaut team to provide training for consultants, and support when clients and trainers adopt new techniques.”

“Training providers like Terres Neuves can give opportunities for trainers to acquire new skills necessary for success with e-learning. Key skills for trainers are:

leading virtual meetings
using technology in face-to-face training sessions (and know when not to)
remote mentoring, use of chat rooms for longer-term processes with clients
content creation, starting with blogs, video interviews and so on.”

Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear.

Béatrice notes that training providers have an important role in getting permission from the client to mix synchronous and asynchronous learning. She adds that training providers can make sure that trainers have access to technologies, even something as simple as social media, which is often a great module to complete a training or to enable continued involvement.

“One of the most significant decisions a training provider must make, is the decision to licence learning technology. They will need a good learning management system with good tracking, so the client can find out what’s happening.”

What clients can do

Businesses: how to drive transformation towards blended learning models

Most of Béatrice’s clients have a learning and development strategy which includes increasing the use of e-learning. They are already on track to boost the use of technology in their employees’ training. But intercultural training is rarely the first area to get investment or to see change.

“Clients can achieve benefits in intercultural training too”, says Béatrice. She highlights some advantages and obstacles that are relevant for intercultural training too.

Seek flexible training designs, both to control the cost and to find a better individual fit for the employee or group
Promote the possibilities to employees
Demand, review and use tracking data about the training, to influence the design of future trainings

Reduce or remove these obstacles for training companies:

Investment in platform: opening corporate Learning Management Systems for intercultural training, or accepting the platform costs in external intercultural training provider solutions
Investment in content, including industry-specific and company specific case-studies, shared in e-learning format
Investment in training skills of in-house and freelance trainers; this can also happen at no cost for example by including external consultants in internal e-learning training courses for trainers and L&D managers

100% face to face is never best

Béatrice has become a convinced advocate of blended learning. “100% face to face is never best, just like 100% e-learning can never be best” she says.

Allowing employees some asynchronous learning time will always beat a seminar or course which is scheduled according to people’s calendars. “In asynchronous learning, you can learn at your own pace and use the synchronous (live or face-to-face) sessions for inspiration, energy, creativity and emotional experience. The Mix is more efficient than 100% face to face.”

Béatrice comments that cross-cultural training providers dominate her industry, and they can be drivers in our industry’s tech revolution.

It will happen anyway

She sees no threat to innovative trainers or training providers. “Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear. I would say the reverse. When a trainer can use remote training techniques, it moves the face-to-face part to a higher level.”

For Béatrice, the surest way to preserve face-to-face training is to incorporate digital learning. “As trainers, we can remove the PPT, and make our sessions truly interactive and experiential.”

My breakthrough moments as a trainer in the e-learning revolution

Béatrice Rivas-Siedel — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 15:47:00 +0000

The turning point

The zero hour came at an e-learning exhibition in Paris. I have always been professionally curious, but until 2015 I was an outsider to the technologies that are transforming our industry. For a few hours on that day a little over two years ago I had stepped into a foreign culture of geeks, LMS providers, gamifiers, community moderators, MOOC developers, e-mentors and techies.

boring, incomprehensible, technical

My honest reaction was that this e-learning world is boring, technical and incomprehensible. It is also the inevitable future of my profession, so walking out of the exhibition centre I decided that I must understand this revolution. I saw that it had something to offer my intercultural work. I knew that I had to master this new way of training and learning.

Self transformation, year three

So began my two-year transformation. And it continues. I am learning every week, enhancing knowledge and practice, but I am no longer in catch-up mode.

The technologies have become more familiar. The new approaches are still energising and sometimes experimental, but they are now inside my expanded comfort zone. The world of e-learning is no long boring, technical or incomprehensible to me.

My journey to becoming a blended-learning trainer

Having made my decision to adopt technology into my training, I first wanted to experience online learning myself, in the role of learner.

Walking in the learner’s shoes.

I chose a programme run by the excellent ISTF, the only organisation I found who really train trainers in the new learning technologies, and offer that training 100% remotely.

Getting the concepts clear

I began to understand the culture and the terminology. Basic concepts like synchronous and asynchronous became clear, and their relevance to training design and training delivery.

Acquiring knowledge in a positive cycle

I learned how to design learning scripts for different formats of training, facilite group sessions and structure blended learning courses

I learned how to use my voice, how to move, how to adjust timing, how to set up exercises and much more.

Entering the culture

Nothing was off-limits. I tried every technology and explored every technique. I got to know the terminology and the buzzwords. I joined the e-learning culture that had seemed so foreign at the expo in Paris. I grew a genuine curiosity in anything e-learning.

Open to influences from unexpected directions

Steps to professional transformation as a technology-integrated trainer, Béatrice Rivas-Siedel

I made sure I had not become trapped in an e-learning bubble. I accepted ideas and influences from other directions too. My approach was always interdisciplinary. I absorbed latest ideas and proven models from

digital learning
cross-culture
working styles research
principles of training
design
nature

I established the intercultural afterwork meetings with a few fellow professionals in Paris. Every month or two I got to exchange ideas, approaches, cultural information with my peers, keeping an open mind to other ways of working.

Looking after yourself

All this self-development sounds like too much, right? Well, you can develop a long way in two years, but the road ahead continues. I am not finished yet. I never let the vast world of learning technologies put me under unhealthy pressure. I did not become overloaded. I integrated all my professional self-development into my working days. Saturday and Sunday remained work-free zones.

Looking after your customers

Working with innovative technologies demands an open attitude to experimentation. But I did not want my customers to pay the price of failures resulting from inexperience. I never used a technique or technology I had not used on myself. I was the first to suffer and remove poor-performing elements from the training programme. I became the tester, and more convinced of the value of the approaches with did work well.

Intercultural training goes digital, a trainer’s perspective

Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear, says Béatrice Rivas Siedel in this interview with Argonaut. She gives her view as a trainer deep in the digital learning revolution about what we can to do take every advantage. Her insights are relevant for trainers, training providers, client organisations and the learners themselves.

Two breakthrough moments

Two moments stay vividly in my memory, when I recognised that something had changed. I saw that I had progressed to be not only a participant, but a driver of the e-learning revolution.

In France we like to first get the concepts clear, then bring the ideas into practice. In this case, I did the reverse. I built my experience gradually, adjusting my approach, trying new things at a small scale. I was copying, learning, using models, following guidelines.

Now I use a different three words for the e-learning revolution:

Rewarding, flexible, refreshing

A trainer’s transformation

Six decisions in becoming a blended-learning trainer

Experience it yourself as a learner
Coach yourself, set yourself goals
Understand the keywords and the culture
Be systematic about acquiring new skills
Consider certification
Experiment but guard the quality: only use tools which you have used on yourself

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The turning point

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Entering the culture

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Intercultural training goes digital, a trainer’s perspective

Two breakthrough moments

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