Cross Cultural Communication

Are you comfortable working and communicating within a culturally diverse environment? 
How comfortable are you to speak up during meetings with foreign customers? 
How can you deal with conflict or negotiations with individuals of other cultures?  
 

Working, meeting, dealing, entertaining, negotiating and corresponding with colleagues or clients from different cultures can be a struggle. 

Having employees who are able to communicate inter culturally have proven to be invaluable to their organizations. 

In this cross cultural awareness workshop, our expert speaker, (westerner himself who have blended into the Asian culture for the past 10 years), will help you to achieve your greatest individual and organizational success.

By the end of the training, you will not only understand other cultures, but empower you and your team to look forward to your next opportunity to engage in cross-cultural communication confidently and tactfully.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Increase positive attitudes toward the people of other countries and cultures.
• Understand how cultures are measured and see how cooperation and collaboration can be developed across cultural boundaries.
• Increase awareness of problems that arise in communicating with people of other cultures.
• Increase awareness of participants’ own cultural values and unstated cultural assumptions.
• Learn to emphasis similarities rather than differences with those of other cultures.
• Assist participants to better adapt to and be more productive during interaction and communication with overseas business partners.

Multi national companies' managers and staff, anyone involved in international sales or support, frequent business travellers, all involved in any form of the tourism industry including medical and hospitality.
 

Module 1:  What is Culture?

• Understanding what culture is and how it affects us
• Getting to know our own culture
• Cultural values and how they affect your work

Module 2:  The Culture Scale to Measure East Asian Cultures

•     Hierarchy vs Egalitarianism

                       Boss or leader, which do you prefer?

•     Indirect vs Direct

                       High context vs Low Context

                       Communicating problems and differences

•     Collectivism vs Individualism

                       Identifying the decision makers

•     Relationship vs Task

                       Let’s get down to business

                       Who is at fault? Dealing with mistakes

•     Caution vs Risk

                       Initiative-Presumptuousness or Resourcefulness?

•     Case studies for examination and discussion
 

Module 3:  Communication Styles Across Cultures

• Understanding our own communication style
• A contrast in communication styles
• Bridging the gap in communication styles
• Do’s & Don’ts when communicating within each target culture

Module 4:  Seeing Beyond Bias and Stereotypes

• Common blocks to cross-cultural communication
• Overcoming counterproductive stereotypes
• Moving passed bias

Module 5:  Communicating within Social and Workplace Scenarios

• Social etiquette strategies
• The international conversationalist
• Conducting meetings within a cross-cultural context
• Culturally sensitive  phone manners
• Emailing with cultural understanding

An interactive and practical approach incorporating group discussions/exercises, case studies, presentations, role plays and video.
 

Mr S. L Muhs,   M.Ed. BA (Canadian)

Before beginning his teaching career, Steve worked for one of the oldest and most established brokerage houses in Canada.  His role within the company was that of regulatory compliance and education.

After realizing his true passion was in education he decided to change his career path and focus more on teaching.  This brought him to Malaysia 12 years ago and he has worked within all areas of education here ever since.  In this time he has been involved in instruction, training and curriculum development within the ESL community and the corporate world.  As of 2011, he wrote an upper-intermediate reading textbook to be used in EAL teaching for secondary schools throughout Malaysia.

Steve is an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher who operates an active classroom and always keeps his students amused and challenged.  He thrives on challenges and is always looking for ways to make his training better.

Steve is a member of the global community and as such has enjoyed the opportunity to work with and train people from over 30 different countries.  Having spent the last 12 years living and working in Malaysia, he hasn't just taught cultural awareness, he's lived it.  During the past 8 years Steve has had the privilege of working with many multi-national organizations, such as Dell, HP, Intel, CIMA, GM, Kia, Philips, Fischer Scientific, AmEx and many more.  All have seen the evidential effects of investing in cross-cultural training for their organization and staff.

Steve is an excellent communicator and has enjoyed working with a variety of organizations throughout Asia, designing and facilitating courses that have cooperatively met their objectives with great success.

“Before attending the course, I felt that the cultural intelligence is not so important. Nonetheless, after the course, I understand better on how to make my work performance better by using this new skill, the cultural intelligence. Steve, the trainer gave us great presentation on this topic. His humor helped to make the course more interesting.”  – Rosleen, Service Management Leader, Astra Zeneca
 

“I felt curious about this course when I heard I will be attending this course. I felt so funny when Steve said ‘Same same but different’. Steve is an excellent trainer! I feel motivated after the course. I learned about how culture impacts the leadership style.” – LW, Lim AstraZeneca
 

“I feel more culturally aware of leadership style. The training is very good and it has good insight so we are easily understand what the cultural intelligence is actually.” –Astra Zeneca.
 

“The training is very good and interactive. The point is how to understand and appreciate different culture, but not by criticizing.” – Louise Maclean, Astra Zeneca Sdn Bhd.

“Ilearned about the leadership style needed for workplace which has diversified cultures. I feel satisfied with the training because the excellent presentation of the knowledgeable trainer, Mr Steve Muhs.” – Asraff, Astra Zeneca

“After this course, I feel confident to deal with people of different culture. The training was engaging and the trainer was able to articulate well.  – Michelle, Compliance Leader,

 “After the course, I understands more about the people and their cultures. Steve is very active and he is able to give good presentation about the topic.”  – Khalil, Team Leader,

“The Cultural Intelligence training is extremely energetic and the trainer is very knowledgeable!”  – Christie Wong, Team Leader

“After the course, I feel that I need to put more time in building relationship with clients and staff of different cultures.”  – YS Lo, Team Leader   

Red Cross

CAE

Kuliche + Soffa

"Steve is a great trainer who manages to break the language and cultural barrier of his audience right from the get go. His contents were excellent and addressed all grey areas in the cross cultural topic.

"

"A wonderful experience to know and assimilate into the local culture. A nice blend of thought processes."

International School Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (ISKL) 

"Mr. Steve is an intelligent person and has more cross-cultural knowledge than anybody that I know. His examples and understanding of the varied culture gave me an insight to look at my life at ISKL and people around me. Thank you, Steve!"

The course can be customised as in house programs.

For companies who have 5 and above participants who would like to attend the course, please contact us to Request for a Quotation today.

Click HERE

Also, if you'd like to speak to us, please call NOW at +603 8074 9056 | +6012 6869 628 and speak to one of our friendly Course Consultants.