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.

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.

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.

interculturaltoolbox.org

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify | Listen on Google Podcasts

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/

Based on my observation, I have created for myself the stereotype that native English speakers are welcoming and friendly. Later on, I would learn to nuance my stereotype when moving to the UK.

My observations have led me to attribute behaviour to individual members of a group according to the group characteristics or traits. In other words, each member of the group will behave as per the description of such behaviour of the group.

That is the essence of stereotype, a word which comes from the printing world. It was in 1798 that Firmin Didot coined the phrase to describe a printing plate that duplicates any typography. The duplicate printing plate or stereotype was used instead of the original. It was first used in its modern psychological sense in 1922 by journalist Walter Lippmann.

The well-known iceberg analogy used in intercultural to illustrate the national cultural values in which the visible part of the iceberg represents the conscious actions, and the much bigger and hidden section represents the subconscious and cultural values, can be used for stereotypes.

We can distinguish between explicit stereotypes and implicit ones.

An explicit stereotype is the one in which individuals are aware of holding and use it to judge people. Reverting to the iceberg analogy the explicit stereotype would fall in the visible portion of the iceberg. Individuals may try to mitigate the stereotype they hold but they often fail to be impartial by either overestimating or underestimating the amount of bias created by the stereotype. The stereotype created in the example above would fall in the category explicit stereotype.

Implicit stereotypes are those that are in the subconscious of the individual and therefore they have little awareness of it, if any at all, and thus have little control over it. Such stereotypes are frequently assumptions about members of out-groups, such as other cultures.

Meeting a member of an out-group for the first time may trigger a cognitive process during which the individual will either have his or her assumption in the stereotype confirmed or refuted, or the individual can resist the recognition of the assumption and reject it. In the above example, if I meet an American and I note that he or she is welcoming and friendly my assumption will be reinforced and in so doing strengthen my stereotype. To the contrary, should the American I meet clearly not be friendly and welcoming, my assumption will be challenged to the point of doubt or even annihilation.

Stereotypes impact not only the individual holding the stereotype but also the member of the out-group subject to the stereotype. This happens in very many ways, it can be ambiguity, threat, self-fulfilling or even self-evaluating.

We are told over and over again not to use stereotypes, but we keep doing it. Why is that?

Stereotypes are an efficient tool to create categories and to make sense of the world around us. Our senses are constantly bombarded with information. If we try to retain all of it, our brain would explode, so it is for the brain a matter of survival and the way it does that is by retaining only the information that is relevant to its survival, discarding the rest and organising what is kept into some sort of order including creating categories into which content can be added.

There is a dual danger with stereotyping. One is that the stereotype may well not be accurate in reflecting reality, and two is that it may impede any new information on the individual in front of us differing from the stereotype from being accepted and therefore being locked-in in the assumption or belief and becoming impervious to any notion of revising the holder’s assumptions.

Stereotypes held by individuals are likely to impact on the social behaviour and communication with members of groups other than the one to which the individual belongs.

Stereotypes in themselves are not bad, it is the way we use them we have to be attentive to. In other words, if we meet a member from a group other than ours or out-group, and certain traits and behaviour of that individual do not correspond to what is expected from the stereotype, we must keep an open mind and accept that a group is made up of individuals who may show some characteristics of the group but these are not universal to all the member of the group.

Therefore, awareness and understanding of other cultures and an open mind to notions that may be going against assumptions in stereotypes are crucial in the framework of international exchanges.

Image licensed as Creative Commons 2.0 Share Alike by Cochese via Flickr, adapted

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.

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!

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.

But it wasn’t always so easy. Back in 2007, Erin was working in a remote village in Latin America enjoying her work as a teacher but living an insecure economic situation, paid in beans and rice – and not advancing up any career or business ladders.

A self-imposed intercultural challenge

The bridge between these two contrasting situations was intercultural. Erin set herself an intercultural challenge to immerse herself completely in a culture and a language very, very different from her own. Erin’s chosen country was Jordan, a relatively conservative Islamic kingdom with borders to Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and more. Soon, with her close friend Jennifer, a new goal to build a business was set into motion.

Mission impossible?

The business challenge seemed to embrace the impossible. The mission appeared to ignore the realities. How could two Americans create a business of a kind which had never before scaled in Jordan, where people are openly suspicious of your motivations and earnestly question the soundness of your business idea, where personal connections are everything, and where some familiar bedrock concepts of American business, such as a generally dependable and transparent legal system, were simply not present?

Imported ideas won’t work

Erin’s response to this challenge was a combination of her own methodology and a voracious appetite for insights and approaches from the intercultural field. Within a short time living in Jordan it was obvious that you could not import your home-culture’s model for business success into this country. You’d need a business approach far more rooted in the local culture.

تعلم اللغة العربية

First, Erin invested fully in learning the language at a very deep level. Language skills opened doors and turned acquaintanceships into friendships which in turn opened doors to a world of social connections, a multiplying network of people willing to help a friend or a friend of a friend.

Suspicious activity

Life is rarely so simple, and learning the language aroused suspicion too. In this tense and volatile region of the world, local people may have in mind that there could be foreign spies in the country, and if true, those spies might look and sound like you do. Gaining acceptance here in Jordan would demand so much more than just knowing the language.

Success was not coming easy, but some early wins with her expanding and deepening network of local friends convinced her to continue to strive on the path she had set herself.

Out of the cultural comfort zone

With the help of intercultural literature, Erin trained her eye to see important details of culture in everyday situations. She noticed that other people were not seeing – nor not responding – to those cultural differences.

Erin found a way to stay true to herself while adapting authentically to the culture she was in. As their business grew, Erin began to convert her experience and the collected research from the intercultural field into cultural-competence components at the language centre.

Their Shababeek language centre was gaining a reputation as a forum for facilitating relationships between Arabs and others. The centre’s development model was based on the idea of nurturing students. The service provided support as students gained language skills and passed deeper into authentic intercultural experiences, further out of the comfort zone.

Diversifying the management

Within a year, the business was at a scale and complexity where more local talent was needed in the management. Drawing on famous American entrepreneurial characteristics of hard work, persistence and a “we can figure this out” attitude had taken the founders a long way, but recruiting talented local managers for the business was a game-changer.

Recruitment of staff, which was almost entirely by social media and personal networks could now accelerate and expand access to new sources of talent.

Erin continues to be part of the leadership of the Shababeek language centre and has more recently developed an independent business, CultureDive, which focuses 100% on her intercultural practice.

Stepping back from personal crisis

With the CultureDive brand, Erin is delivering a compassionate service to expatriates who are facing challenges often so intense that their entire expatriate assignment is threatened. “I had seen so many early returns from my expatriate circle of friends” says Erin, “I created CultureDive to ensure that people had a way to step back from crisis when they are hurting on an overseas assignment.”

CultureDive is more than a preventive to expat failure. According to Erin, CultureDive exists to enhance people’s lives as expats. The methodology gives clients cultural lenses, helping them adapt to extreme difference while retaining their own strong sense of self.

“We’re here to help expats thrive”, says Erin. “We know that it is hard to live and work in another culture. When people start working with us, they may feel that they are also surviving on a diet of rice and beans, so to speak. My story, and many other stories like mine are proof that stepping whole-heartedly into a new culture can bring the energy and inspiration which turns your whole life around”.

Erin Reyes is CultureConnector’s Cultural Correspondent for Jordan.

Image credits: Erin Reyes

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.