Kathleen Curran

Five Tips for Success

As an end-of-year reflection, an experienced intercultural organization development professional and co-author of Cultural Detective^® Malaysia and Cultural Detective^® Singapore gives us five tips for cross-cultural success.

Read the article

Bill Watson

Was It Worth It?

Several months ago, a client organisation requested a briefing on Arab culture for a senior operations manager. He was leaving for Oman in three days, would be there for two months, and could spare ... three hours.

I lobbied hard for a full day, but he was already in "spin mode" and this cultural briefing was clearly an afterthought. And, I've never been to the Arab Gulf.

Maybe that was what caused me to abandon my familiar power point show and chalk talk, and try a different approach to mentoring. Or maybe it was the sheer volume of detail--impossible to convey in just three hours-that forced me to step back from the situation and look at what I could transmit that would serve the client well in his coming encounters.

Find out what happened

29-30 January 2008

SIETAR France and SIETAR Arabia are collaborating to respond to your requests for a European facilitator certification with a workshop to be held in Paris at Citadines Paris les Halles (Metro "Chatelet les Halles). Program will be conducted in English, with bilingual facilitation as needed. Sign up now to reserve your spot! 10% early-bird discount if you register before 4 January.

In addition to the Paris workshop, there will be two Cultural Detective facilitator certifications in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) in February 2008.

These very highly received seminars will enable you to:

·                   Use the Cultural Detective method as a theoretically sound and process-oriented backbone around which you can plug in other activities, tools and materials.

·                   Make the most of the Cultural Detective materials in coaching, teambuilding, and training.

·                   For anyone new to the intercultural communication field, these workshops provide an excellent introduction to core competencies and theories, in a very practical manner.

·                   For advanced practitioners, this workshop allows you to revisit your core assumptions and habits, reflect on the pros and cons of various approaches and tools for intercultural competence, and combine them in more effective, creative and engaging ways.

·                   One graduate-level academic credit is also possible.

Learn more or register

Seeing the World in New Ways

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It's been two years since our popular World Map Detective quiz introduced us to some cool views of the world.

Another terrific map resource is WorldMapper, where you can see hundreds of world maps with countries sized according to such topics as opportunities for women, international immigration, health, trade or environmental issues.

Using Pop Culture to Educate

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Have you heard about avaaz.org: World in Action? They are a "community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today." Their stated aim is to "ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decisions."

One of their action pieces is entitled "The Clash of Civilizations," and if you haven't seen it, you may want to check it out. You can see it on the Avaaz site, but the link below takes you to YouTube, where is appears a bit larger.

View the video

Past Issues Online

We have archived past issues of the Cultural Detective newsletter, Clues to Intercultural Effectiveness, as well as some past news flashes. Past issues include instructions for interesting activities, theoretical discussions about intercultural issues, and links to many intercultural resources. We trust you'll enjoy what you find.

Visit the archive