Preparing and Presenting Cross-Cultural Training

The globalization of business adds complexity to the way we enlighten our organizations, onboard new hires, elevate high potentials, encourage high performance on our global and virtual teams, and develop leaders to be their best. Have you developed an approach to localize your training content and delivery tactics to meet your participants’ diverse learning needs? Here are some ideas that can help anyone who facilitates, designs, or manages training. 

I often get questions about ways to approach training and facilitation across cultures. At my recent webcast, Mastering a Global Mindset, many of the questions were on this topic. However, when I discuss cross-cultural interaction, I should start with a disclaimer about stereotypes. 

Stereotypes are generalizations that carry negative value judgments, which aren’t helpful when trying to understand people from diverse cultures. Instead, we can use healthy generalizations about broad-based values to begin a conversation about cultural difference. Such generalizations allow us to more accurately interpret behavioral patterns that are supported by country-level research. 

As intercultural practitioners, it’s our job to call out the use of norms as stereotypes, such as these: 

• “Those people are always late, and sometimes they don’t even know it.” 
• “Our counterparts over there never have anything to say on conference calls because they obviously don’t have an opinion.”  

Your job as a trainer in a multicultural environment can include highlighting when unhelpful and often divisive stereotyping takes place. Challenge your participants to see things not from their own perspective, but from the perspective of the person subjected to stereotyping, and to use that new perspective to dispel the stereotype and explain the underlying norm driving the behavior. Regarding the examples: Being on time may be less important for people from cultures that prioritize flexibility and interpersonal relationships. Voicing opinions on conference calls may be inappropriate for cultures that clearly define who speaks and who listens, based on a certain hierarchy, during meetings. 

Preparing and Asking the Right Questions 

You’re most likely already surveying your participants’ learning needs in advance of training, but when you know you’ll be training across cultures, here are some additional ideas: 

• Ask participants to share some background on their personal culture, for example: “Where were you born and raised?” or “What languages do you speak?” Use the answers to tailor your approach based on high-level country or cultural preferences for training. 
• As you design needs analysis surveys, develop questions that factor in relevant cultural differences. For example, when requesting that people share their challenges, be sure to give people from face-saving cultures a safe way to share anything that might be controversial or negative. Do this by making the survey anonymous, and instead of always asking about challenges themselves, ask people for the questions they want answered or the things they most need to learn. 
• Ask about the formats participants prefer: webcast, small groups, large groups, or self-guided. 
• Ask how they like to learn: playing games, watching videos, competition, lecture, role-playing, field work, and so forth.  

Presenting Yourself and Establishing Credibility 

Every trainer faces these two hurdles, and they are crucial to a successful training session. It’s important to understand how trainers or teachers are generally perceived within the culture where you’re training. A great place to start is to examine the student-teacher relationship. This can give you some clues as to how formally or informally you present your credentials. 

In some cultures, it’s important to present a thorough and formal introduction, whereas in others, it might appear boastful. While an introductory slide or bio will work no matter where you go, don’t overlook how you prioritize the content of your bio. For example, in the United States, education is listed last (or not at all), but in more formal and status-oriented cultures (southern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the United Kingdom), you might want to try leading with your academic credentials and follow with professional experience. If you’ve been to a world-renowned university, highlight it! Participants from hierarchical cultures may feel more at ease knowing that you’ve got academics behind you. 

Brand names also carry weight. Highlight the names of global brands that you’ve worked for and that are widely recognized, or cite brands that are relevant or related to the region in which you’re training. This boosts credibility and makes it easier for people to qualify you.  

Here’s how you can get free access to our CultureWizard App for a month, where you can complete your personal cultural profile and access insights on 160 countries around the world. 

1. Search for and download “CultureWizard” in the App Store or Google Play. 
2. Launch the CultureWizard Mobile app and then enter your email address. 
3. Click on “New Account.” 
4. On the next screen, enter "try" for "mycompany." 
5. On the next screen, use ATD2017 for the access code, select your home country, country of interest, and a password.