interculturaltoolbox.org

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I say “our” new podcast, but really the Intercultural Toolbox podcast belongs to the guests and the audience. The guests are the stars of the show and the audience are the community of interculturalists we are proud to play a part in.

The Intercultural Toolbox guests include our much-loved Cultural Correspondents as well as many others who are contributing to the intercultural field. One of the great pleasures of my role running Argonaut and developing the CultureConnector service is getting to meet the fascinating people who do intercultural work. I feel privileged to hear their stories, see the impact they have and often to collaborate with them.

But one thing has always bothered me. So many ideas are exchanged and freely shared in private or semi-public conversations, but those ideas are lost to the community who were not present in the moment. The Intercultural Toolbox is a way to capture the best of those conversations and to make more useful, inspiring and sometimes just fun stuff available to more interculturalists.

What would you put into the intercultural toolbox? Who would you like to see appear as a guest? You can register and get involved at https://www.interculturaltoolbox.org/register

Image info: “David Adamec Interview with ABC News” by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

• More about Elizabeth and her work on diversity in the workplace in Japan

How do you get buy-in for intercultural training in what could be the world’s toughest market?

I invest a lot of time in bringing down the barriers on a human-to-human level. For me, being based in Tokyo means doing business not only in Japanese, but also in a terminology that’s familiar to top execs. I work hard to see things from their point of view. And in practice, I make sure that I meet the decision-makers and influencers through projects, networking events and any forum outside of a traditional sales pitch. The five-point approach published on this site is a good way to capture the fundamental spirit of what I do.

What’s the core idea behind your work?

My current mission in life is to help the Japanese deal with their declining and aging population by embracing and integrating other cultures into Japanese culture. It’s fair to say that Japan is still a monoculture.

One of my key goals is to build recognition of diversity issues in Japanese board rooms. That recognition of diversity is growing, and slowly organisations are learning to walk the talk on diversity and inclusion. It’s not quick, but we are making progress.

How do you get started?

I have to give a little personal history, because it’s almost impossible to hit the ground running coming in as an outsider into Japan. Your personal connection with Japan is key. They prefer to deal with insiders and they look for people who have a deep understanding and long history with Japan. I have an Australian background and worked as a Diplomat for the Australian government’s trade commission. I worked in many Asian countries and my connection with Japan goes back 30 years. My role back then was to connect local companies with Australian companies, so I had to act as an Asia expert and a cultural interpreter.

It’s unlikely that a foreigner in Japan will ever be accepted as an insider. You may eventually qualify in the eyes of Japanese colleagues if you work for the company for 30 years, but becoming an insider is impossible for many foreigners. Your track record in Japan is your best hope of being chosen to join the inner circle.

In terms of getting a specific Board-level action started, one of my projects started with a conversation between me and a business leader about introducing CultureConnector into his organisation. I already knew the gentleman. Introducing technology, automation and reporting can really attract the attention of Boards in tech-loving Japan. You just need to connect the technology to their business goals.

Technology is part of the “getting your approach right” aspect of the five-point system for winning Board support.

Talking of the five-point system, what’s your experience of this in Japan…

…on ambition level?

You cannot push things too far, too fast in Japan, especially if that thing seems to come from the outside. The notorious case of the Olympus CEO shows how quickly ideas are squashed if “global” approaches are introduced too rapidly. Working as a board insider in Japan, I see this very clearly now. Learn to walk before you try to run.

…on getting your approach right?

As a foreigner in Japan, you’re only selected for certain roles, so you need to generate maximum advantage from the opportunities you get. The role of “cultural interpreter” may be vague and poorly-defined, but it is important and can get you a seat at the top table.

I’ve taken every chance to introduce the ideas of diversity and inclusion. The approach which is working best now in Japan is to frame culture as an aspect of management, as a management science. In fact, the term “diversity management” makes sense to people here. With a decreasing population, Japanese leaders accept the need to bring new sources of talent into the economy.

…on connecting with individual board members?

One of my many hats is as global research team leader for the Japan Diversity Network, an umbrella organisation for other associations which promote diversity, including some big companies. It’s rewarding to collaborate with so many energetic people who bring energy to the movement towards diversity in Japan.

There are some great high-profile examples here, such as the charismatic former CEO of food and snack-maker Calbee, who made huge progress in promoting gender-balance in the workplace.

…on the financial case?

Japanese boards are like boards in US and European in the sense that they want to see measurable results. They are looking for a connection with business goals and impact on financial performance.

If you manage to demonstrate the benefits in dollars and yen, then board members here are much more likely to sign up to “soft skills” initiatives. But the evidence base here in Japan is still weak and we need more longitudinal studies.

…on getting the timing right?

Few Japanese business leaders will invest their time and corporate resources into pre-empting the need for cultural competence. People here accept cultural training as necessary only when there is a specific business event that creates a “burning platform”

How to win board approval for your proposal

Five steps to preparing your proposal to board-level executives for intercultural training, with downloadable material.

How do you see the future of intercultural competence development in Japan?

Japan is starting from behind. But international comparisons are not useful here. Japan is in fact doing quite well, considering its unique history.

In Japan, we could say that diversity is gradually becoming accepted, but inclusion will be the greatest challenge. People here need to fully accept diversity in principle first before we move forward to inclusion strategies. Training has a role to play here.

You can appreciate the scale of the challenge when you realise that the Japanese believe that it is not really possible for outsiders to truly understand Japanese people.

Japanese organisations do respond to messaging from the top and fortunately I am seeing an increasing number of boards who “get” diversity as a path to future business success.

Careers are habit forming. Many of us go deep and become specialists. We grow roots into a certain professional field as our everyday ties to our work strengthen. We get paid (reward), we surround ourselves with the people, objects and tools of the work (reminders) and we get good at what we do, in some ways so good that we can do parts of the work automatically (routine).

Rewards, reminders, routines inside the comfort zone

After twenty years in the language-training business in Italy, the rewards, the reminders and the routines had grown very strong for Lara Statham. The easy path, the most likely scenario, was to continue the status quo careerwise.

Seeing a path into something new

Lara Statham
Providing a range of intercultural training and coaching for companies and individual executives, Lara is based in Turin Italy. Her specialist interest is UK-Italian cultural interaction.
More on Lara Statham

For Lara to recognise the real possibility of change, something dramatic was needed. The drama was delivered by the economic disruption of the 2007- global financial crisis, which hit Italy hard. As a chaotic economic situation brewed around her, Lara realised that she had an opportunity to make a dramatic change in her own professional life. Her future would not be the status quo. She needed a new path.

By 2017, Lara’s professional transformation was complete and we in the Argonaut team were delighted that she joined as a Cultural Correspondent for Italy. We heard her story and asked her to share some insights for other people considering a move into the fascinating field of intercultural competence development.

Ramping up the culture

Cultural factors and business advice were already a part of Lara’s work in the language business, but they were not the focus. She worked with senior managers, building their capacity for using the English language. As the years passed, she increasingly taught her clients how to communicate effectively, participate in meetings, write powerful text, and negotiate in English. The goal of the training was analysis and proper use of language.

Cultural competence for free

Her clients expected language training and paid for improved language skills. So, as Lara says “for my clients, getting stronger intercultural competence was a nice extra which did not appear on the invoice”.

The first step in Lara’s transformation was recognising that some building blocks of an intercultural career were already present in her language teaching role and her qualifications as an educationalist. She decided to go further in the intercultural business consulting, and took a teaching post at the University of Turin’s Department of Economics. Language was still the focus. The lessons were structured around analysing grammar, but the context for her newer clients was very much about getting new skills for better business results.

Widening the focus

Lara was starting to talk business with business leaders. Her own business as an independent language training provider in Turin continued in parallel, but Lara’s interest in the business impact of cultural competence just grew.

I didn’t wait to be lucky. I worked hard to create every new relationship

You’ve got to love it

A career switch would not be easy. It requires commitment, passion, energy and perseverance. Lara considered her options. It was not hard to see that intercultural consultancy would be a rich source of professional interest.

But intellectual curiosity into cultures is not enough. Lara also considered the format of intercultural coaching, training and consultancy. How would it feel in practice?

“I get so much satisfaction from working on a one-to-one basis with my clients” says Lara. “And small groups too. I am able to stay in contact with my clients, see the impact. It is so enriching to hearing about their successes after our training.”

Testing the idea

Becoming an intercultural coach and consultant felt like the right move to Lara. But what would other people think? She decided to find out. “I sounded people out about the idea, people I knew who knew me. They immediately backed me. Through dozens of conversations with business insiders, my vision crystallised and my ambition solidified. I would do this.”

Lara joined got involved with internations, joined international clubs, expat women’s groups, started to “network like crazy”. In each new scene, her new career path got warm approval.

Beginning a transition

Things seemed to move fast, because Lara was detaching herself from the routines, reminders and increasingly also the rewards of her first career.

But indeed, this was a transition, a gradual shift. The only step change was in ambition and orientation. Practical changes came more slowly.

In her language and communication skills training, Lara rapidly dropped out the grammatical nit-picking. She focused more on the context of communication, extracting insights from different kinds of work situations face by her clients.

The original language-culture balance began to reverse. Increasingly, language came as the bonus for customers (English is usually the language of Lara’s trainings).

Becoming an interculturalist: to do list

While there are successful self-taught interculturalists working in the field, Lara is not one of those. After her firm decision in 2011 to begin a career change, Lara dived into research in the field. Her university base was an excellent place to begin. She feasted on books from the founding fathers and mothers of the field, to latest academic articles. She continued to network into the business and participated in remote learning and as well as classroom training.

“A lot of reading was necessary for the transition. The courses gave me some additional new skills, such as coaching and business analysis. One of the most satisfying parts was my systematic programme to build my own intercultural network. I created contacts in other countries, formed bi-lateral partnerships between Italy and UK, travelled a lot to China. My new connections generated projects, and helped convert my career transition from idea into reality.”

But I didn’t wait to be lucky. I worked hard to create every new relationship and to generate every new intercultural project.

After 20 years inhabiting the same language-teaching role, it was fun to introduce myself in as an interculturalist. It was so refreshing to assume a new professional identity.

7 talents of interculturalists our customers want

When organisations invest in intercultural training, they look for the best people to deliver the experience as trainers, coaches or partners in development programmes. How well do your talents match those which top organisations are seeking? How much do your customers know what you have to offer?

Still outside the comfort zone

The start was energising, and her current work is highly motivating for Lara, but there has been a tough journey in-between.

“The transition was difficult on a personal level, letting go of my background as a language trainer. I had to challenge myself to think and act in new ways. I adopted a different approach, with more business focus. Creating the new habits was tricky. I had to develop a new kind of offering, write different kinds of proposals, change my identity and represent my projects in new ways.”

“For a long time I needed to remind myself every day to drop those old habits. There was financial pressure to reach new customers and allow the old sources of income to dry up. I did the whole thing in a period of economic downturn.”

The rewards of being a cross-cultural coach

Nowadays Lara loves her intercultural work and takes pride in the successes achieved with her clients.

“Of course, people are so much more willing to engage when we are talking culture than previously when we focused on the finer points of English grammar.”

Switching from teacher to coach/consultant has removed the hierarchy from her interactions with clients. Lara notices how her new role has levelled things out. Her clients are more open to discussion. She can sense that people feel they get more value in her intercultural training.

“Now my customers understand that they can be brilliant communicators with somewhat limited language skills. The keys I give them are the insights from the study of culture. What makes an effective communicator or an inspirational leader in a foreign country is very likely different from the qualities expected in your own culture.”

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

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

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

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

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.”

Argonaut: What’s the secret of your expertise about China?
Alex Ma: Chinese culture is a fantastic subject to learn about, with the magic of five thousand years history and different behaviours from south to north. Even when I was a little boy I was very interested in reading books about Chinese history and learned from Chinese custom. I like to observe social behaviours and traditions, then trace back to the origin in history. My experiences of helping multinational companies bridge the culture gap here is also good for me to form my own understanding about Chinese culture. I think Chinese culture has a strong ability to assimilate new ideas and cultural influences. A good way to understand Chinese culture is to read more Chinese history and link what you read with what is happening now in China.

A: If you only had two minutes before a meeting to give cultural advice, what would your key point be?
AM: Remember this, we all live on the same planet, and we are closer than we think. For Chinese people, respect, modesty and care of others is much more important than knowing about lots of cultural forms. I don’t expect you to act or think like Chinese, neither do Chinese people expect that of you, so just be yourself. If you have a good attitude, you will find life easier here than anywhere else.

A: How can foreigners use their Chinese friends and contacts as cultural guides?
AM: Chinese people are basically friendly. When you get to know Chinese people, they will take you to eat Chinese food, spend Chinese holidays, or take you to Chinese culture events. This will really help you understand the culture – to see what they do and why they do it. Another good way is to plan a trip with your Chinese friend to some places inside China, other than big cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. If you and your Chinese friend are very close, you can learn a lot about China by spending a holiday or festival time with his family.

A: What’s the best way to learn about the real modern China?
AM: In big cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen you can always find signs of a modern China, but if you want to know more about real China and Chinese people, you can go to the middle or western regions. It is better to stay in a small town or village, live with the citizens or farmers, and observe their daily life for real comparison with the big cities. If you don’t have an opportunity to go to China, you can find a Chinese pen friend, and learn from him/her about what’s happening inside China.. Because of media blackouts, the news about China is often propaganda or distortion, so it’s better to learn from people you can trust.

A: What classic mistake have you seen many times on either side when Chinese people deal with foreigners?
AM: When Chinese deal with foreigners, they sometimes show too much hospitality. Although from good will, it can make foreigners feel uncomfortable. Because foreigners don’t know the importance of face-saving in Chinese culture, they will complain about their discomfort and make their Chinese host lose face. This is a classic mistake which always causes embarrassment and misunderstanding in China.

A: What new issues do you think Argonaut should cover in future updates?
AM: I think descriptions of food, clothes, living and traveling in different cultures as well as different education traditions and political attitudes would be very meaningful. The idea of holding a vote for people from different cultural backgrounds about their degree of satisfaction in life can also help us to know more about how people think about their life in different cultures.

A: What do you do when you are not writing for Argonaut?
AM: I am now working in a bank and write in my spare time for Argonaut. I also like to listen to music, read books and hang out with friends. When I have holidays I like to travel globally, to experience different countries and different cultures, meet with the people and live a different life style for a while.

A: Where can we find you online?
AM: I have a Chinese blog, where I mainly write and criticize about things happening here in China, sometimes I also write in English. You can also find me in Facebook under the name Alex Ma. Because of the current Facebook blockade from the Chinese government it’s hard for me to check Facebook regularly, but Facebook is still a main way for me to contact my foreign friends.