
How To Overcome Dysfunctions In An Intercultural Team? – in company training
Multicultural teams, on the one hand, are considered a source of great potential, due to their innovativeness, creativity and richness of perspectives represented in them. By breaking up workplace homogeneity, the employees become more aware of their own potential biases — entrenched ways of thinking that can otherwise blind them to key information. Diiferent companies which pursue a desire to stand out from a cround and succeed in the long run must make a strong emphasis on culturally diverse environment in the organization.
On the other hand, it is not enough to simply build a team consisting of representatives of different cultures and expect them to deliver above-average results. Such cooperation may result in a multitude of problems: direct versus indirect communication, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, different approach towards conflict and feedback, conflicting decision making norms or simply trouble with accents and fluency.
Another range of problems includes:
Language barrier (if your organization is represented by workers coming form different countries you must take into account such things related to the language as slang, pronunciation, dialect which can be totally different depending on a country where your employee was born. Sometimes workers may feel reluctant to speak a language used in your organization simply because the language used in the company may be their first or second language which means that they can face problems when it comes to understading of slang, idiomatic expressions and jokes. In this case, you primary responsibility is to make sure that there are no misunderstandings between the members of your team and ensure that each voice of your employee is heard and taken into consideration).
Technology issues: depending on a sector where your company carries out business activity and in case if company uses innovative computer programs to achieve its business goals, you as employee should take into account that not everyone within your organization is up-to-date with technology. So, your primary concern is to provide your workers with training in the use of IT software used in a company or regular basis.
Problems related to different perception of a trust by team members: (sometimes it happens that workers may have a cultural bias agaist people coming from different countries and representing a totally different cultural background which can result in mistrust).
Differences in a way how team members resolve conflicts: (differences in the perception of a conflict and different approaches toward it’s resolution may result in quarrels between team members, misunderstandings and, as consequence, affect negatively team cooperation and halt the growth of your company); differences in the level of commitment made by individual team members (in order to ensure the success of your organization or a particular project in the long run you must keep an eye on each employee and monitor to what extent they are involved in work).
In order for multicultural teams to unleash their full potential, it is essential to provide them with support that will make it easier for individual team members to communicate effectively, interact with each other and work towards a common goal.
How To Overcome Dysfunctions In An Intercultural Team? – in company training

Multicultural teams, on the one hand, are considered a source of great potential, due to their innovativeness, creativity and richness of perspectives represented in them. By breaking up workplace homogeneity, the employees become more aware of their own potential biases — entrenched ways of thinking that can otherwise blind them to key information. Diiferent companies which pursue a desire to stand out from a cround and succeed in the long run must make a strong emphasis on culturally diverse environment in the organization.
On the other hand, it is not enough to simply build a team consisting of representatives of different cultures and expect them to deliver above-average results. Such cooperation may result in a multitude of problems: direct versus indirect communication, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, different approach towards conflict and feedback, conflicting decision making norms or simply trouble with accents and fluency.
Another range of problems includes:
Language barrier (if your organization is represented by workers coming form different countries you must take into account such things related to the language as slang, pronunciation, dialect which can be totally different depending on a country where your employee was born. Sometimes workers may feel reluctant to speak a language used in your organization simply because the language used in the company may be their first or second language which means that they can face problems when it comes to understading of slang, idiomatic expressions and jokes. In this case, you primary responsibility is to make sure that there are no misunderstandings between the members of your team and ensure that each voice of your employee is heard and taken into consideration).
Technology issues: depending on a sector where your company carries out business activity and in case if company uses innovative computer programs to achieve its business goals, you as employee should take into account that not everyone within your organization is up-to-date with technology. So, your primary concern is to provide your workers with training in the use of IT software used in a company or regular basis.
Problems related to different perception of a trust by team members: (sometimes it happens that workers may have a cultural bias agaist people coming from different countries and representing a totally different cultural background which can result in mistrust).
Differences in a way how team members resolve conflicts: (differences in the perception of a conflict and different approaches toward it’s resolution may result in quarrels between team members, misunderstandings and, as consequence, affect negatively team cooperation and halt the growth of your company); differences in the level of commitment made by individual team members (in order to ensure the success of your organization or a particular project in the long run you must keep an eye on each employee and monitor to what extent they are involved in work).
In order for multicultural teams to unleash their full potential, it is essential to provide them with support that will make it easier for individual team members to communicate effectively, interact with each other and work towards a common goal.
Aims & benefits
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
- Better understand the differences in communication resulting from the cultural background of team members.
- Take advantage of new ways of building trust in their team.
- Indicate ways to handle conflict in their team.
- Take specific actions to overcome the dysfunction of lack of commitment in their team.
- Give one another constructive feedback respecting both: team and cultural norms of team members.
TRAINING METHOD:
- Before the workshop the participants complete a CQ (cultural intelligence) test as well as team dysfunction test– the results of both tests are discussed later in the training.
- During the training the participants take part in a variety of team activities aimed at facing and overcoming their team dysfunctions. The focus will be on the dysfunctions identified in the test. Particular attention will be devoted to the different approaches resulting from the cultural background of team members and the potential differences in understanding the team challenges.
Agenda
MODULE I. First team dysfunction – lack of trust.
- Trust and intercultural teams
- Different understanding of trust across cultures – what leads to potential misunderstandings?
- Different national trust levels.
- Different determinants and consequences of trust and mistrust.
- Why do we trust people that are more like us and need to work with people that are different?
- Developing trust as a way to reducing cultural distance.
- Building trust in an intercultural team – ways and new ideas.
MODULE II. Second team dysfunction – fear of conflict.
- Functional and dysfunctional conflicts in teams.
- How different cultures handle disagreement – confrontation as loss of face or spirited debate?
- Depth-Frequency Conflict Model – assessing the conflict tendencies in a team and identify areas for improvement.
- Five conflict handling styles – which is my default mode? (activity)
- Ways of taming conflict in an intercultural team.
MODULE III. Third and fourth dysfunctions: lack of commitment and avoiding accountability.
- The challenge of making sure everyone is heard in an intercultural team.
- Cascading communication and clarification of team principles. (activities)
- Holding each other accountable – easier said than done.
- Providing feedback on strengths, contributing to team effectiveness, and on weaknesses, traits that cause decreases in effectiveness.
- Enlightenment round (activity).
- Team Effectiveness Exercise (activity).
MODULE IV. The fifth dysfunction – inattention to results.
- Shaping a culture of focusing on the results of the whole team.
- Check – out – how to make the most of the new knowledge?
MODULE I. First team dysfunction – lack of trust.
- Trust and intercultural teams
- Different understanding of trust across cultures – what leads to potential misunderstandings?
- Different national trust levels.
- Different determinants and consequences of trust and mistrust.
- Why do we trust people that are more like us and need to work with people that are different?
- Developing trust as a way to reducing cultural distance.
- Building trust in an intercultural team – ways and new ideas.
MODULE II. Second team dysfunction – fear of conflict.
- Functional and dysfunctional conflicts in teams.
- How different cultures handle disagreement – confrontation as loss of face or spirited debate?
- Depth-Frequency Conflict Model – assessing the conflict tendencies in a team and identify areas for improvement.
- Five conflict handling styles – which is my default mode? (activity)
- Ways of taming conflict in an intercultural team.
MODULE III. Third and fourth dysfunctions: lack of commitment and avoiding accountability.
- The challenge of making sure everyone is heard in an intercultural team.
- Cascading communication and clarification of team principles. (activities)
- Holding each other accountable – easier said than done.
- Providing feedback on strengths, contributing to team effectiveness, and on weaknesses, traits that cause decreases in effectiveness.
- Enlightenment round (activity).
- Team Effectiveness Exercise (activity).
MODULE IV. The fifth dysfunction – inattention to results.
- Shaping a culture of focusing on the results of the whole team.
- Check – out – how to make the most of the new knowledge?
Experts
THE TRAINING METHODS
Activity Based Learning
The training follows the Kolb cycle and the ABL method (Activity Based Learning).
Workshops
Participants take part in activating exercises preceded by the necessary theoretical introduction.
Feedback
Participants have the opportunity to self-diagnose and receive feedback from the trainer.
Full activation
The trainer presents knowledge using 3 channels of information transfer - sight, movement, hearing.
Discussion
Discussion panel, group and individual exercises, presentation, role playing, case studies and review films.
Opinions
Oceny dla tego szkolenia:
Oceń to szkolenie:
Clients
Organizational informations
How do we prepare our training projects?

Analysing your training needs

Verification of your training aims

Creating a training programme


Logical & administrative settings


Realization of the project
5 reasons you should pick our training:
1. Based on deeply analyse of your training needs, we will recommend you best trainer and programme offer.
2. Through the whole project, there’s gonna be an account manager to take care of your needs.
3. Participants will get all the necessary training materials in very attractive form.
4. We guarantee using variety of training methods through the whole project.
5. Your project will be closed with after training report containing evaluation and reccomendations for the future.

Have questions?
Contact us:
18 Widok St, Apt 2,
00-023 Warsaw
(22) 224 21 95
603 906 655
biuro@humanskills.pl
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