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June 2010Clues to Intercultural Effectiveness
Tips, Techniques and Resources 
Another International Study Supports CD Approach

Bertelsmann Stiftung-Fondazione Cariplo Study
Bertelsmann Cariplo Study cover

The central theses of this research and policy paper, entitled "Intercultural Competence-The Key Competence in the 21st Century," highlight five key ways in which Cultural Detective is state-of-the-art intercultural practice.


Overlaying Lenses

 

People Are Complex, Not Charicatures

What role does personality play vis á vis culture? Does organizational culture or professional training trump nationality? What about generational differences, sexual orientation, or spiritual tradition? Don't those cultures influence us as much as or more than others?

That's where Cultural Detective Values Lenses can be enormously helpful. While not aiming to directly answer the above questions, Values Lenses provide tools for dialogue, to enable us to live and work better together. Cultural Detective Self Discovery can help us examine our personal values, and we can then contrast those with our national, ethnic, spiritual tradition, or gender values by overlaying Values Lenses.

A colleague recently complained to me, "My participants learn the answers, then they change the questions. 'This Mexican guy didn't behave the way he was supposed to...'" Values Lenses help us teach patterns: that the man in question, yes, is Mexican. But maybe he was also Blended Culture, and had lived in Brazil a while. No doubt his age and economic class as well as education level came into play. Using the Cultural Detective Worksheet we can unravel the mystery of an interaction in context, looking at what real people did in real situations. And using Lenses, we can tease apart what part of what the guy did was because of who he is as an individual, vs. what role organizational or generational culture played.
Coaching Using Cultural Detective

CD Romania cover
Coaching can quite often increase productivity, effectiveness and satisfaction much more quickly and meaningfully than can training. Be sure to review the exciting one-year, multi-location coaching skills program grounded in the Cultural Detective method that Cultural Detective Romania co-author Rita Booker has put together.

Her husband, Kevin Booker, co-author of our forthcoming Cultural Detective Austria, is a filmmaker. You definitely want to check out the video these two have put together to announce the new program.

How a Client Uses CD in Study Abroad

CD Romania cover
Cultural Detective materials are primarily targeted at adult populations: corporations, NGOs, universities. AFS Intercultural Programs license the Cultural Detective for use with high school exchange students and host families. Read a first-person user account about how they put this method and materials to use.

Intercultural Comes of Age

Janet Bennett Reflects on How Far We've Come

Janet Bennett photo
As an intercultural professional, do you sometimes wish you had a more "standard" profession, such as dentist or engineer, something easier to explain to friends and family? While perhaps still not a household word or commonly understood, the intercultural profession has surely established its credibility in the world over the past thirty years.

In a recent keynote presentation to a SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) audience, Janet Bennett noted that:
  • Many professional accreditation agencies now require intercultural competence.
  • Many international aid and humanitarian agencies (prepare before a tsunami) do as well.
  • Bar and other law associations require intercultural education.
  • Many health, pharmaceutical, and dental schools now hold culturally competent health care as an accreditation requirement.
  • Public policy and political leaders acknowledge that intercultural and language competence are key to meeting the demands of the 21st century.
  • Business schools and granting agencies have diversity and inclusion requirements.
  • Organizations have intercultural and diversity/inclusion benchmarks and scorecards.
  • Parents desire global competence for their children.
The Lost Generation

 

A Poem Read Forward and Backwards

Generational Harmony Cover
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria on 9 June said youth joblessness is likely to stay high for the next two years, creating the potential for a "lost generation."

Cultural Detective
is all about seeing multiple viewpoints in the world; understanding what people are intending by their words and actions; and engaging in ways that are most effective, satisfying and collaborative.

This poem entitled "The Lost Generation" provides two very different ways of looking at our youth. After you watch the video, be sure to check out our Cultural Detective Generational Harmony package, too.

Teaching Tolerance

 

Wide Variety of Outstanding Resources

Sergio photo
We have showcased the tremendous free-of-charge resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" program before. If you have not checked them out, be sure to do so. One that recently caught our eye is an entire curriculum for secondary school students developed around a recent HBO film on Brazilian humanitarian and United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The 27-page download-able Teacher's Guide is intended to provide different lenses through which students can view the documentary. Learning is structured around three different themes: service to others, bridging cultural gaps, and human rights.

2010 Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication

Register Now! · July 14-30, 2010 · Portland, OR USA
 
ICI logo
 
The 34th annual Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC) offers professional development opportunities for people working in education, training, business, and consulting, in both international and domestic intercultural contexts. Whether you are leading a global team, designing a new diversity initiative, preparing a course for fall term, or directing a study abroad program, the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication will provide the opportunity for intense engagement with intercultural issues, resources, and professionals.

In addition to over 40 in-depth workshops in one-day, three-day, and five-day formats, SIIC also offers two service-learning programs for those who desire an intense professional immersion experience. The staff at ICI are available by phone (+1-503-297-4622) and email to answer your questions about the SIIC programs and workshops and to advise on workshop selection.
 
Sessions showcasing the Cultural Detective method and materials will include (amongst others):
  • A five-day advanced methods workshop July 26-30 facilitated by Dianne Hofner Saphiere, creator of Cultural Detective. You will leave this workshop with concrete plans for improving intercultural effectiveness in your organization and for getting your job done better and with less effort (Workshop 31).
  • A three-day session on experiential methods, July 14-16 (Workshop 7), conducted by Tatyana Fertelmeyster (CD Russia) and Basma Ibrahim DeVries (CD Egypt).
  • A Cultural Detective Facilitator Certification between SIIC sessions 2 and 3, July 24-25.
Online Facilitated Learning
 
Interactive, Engaging and Amazingly Productive!
 
Sound like a dream to roll out the Cultural Detective method and materials to your people around the world, without the hassle and expense of travel?

Here is what a recent sponsor, an organizational vice president, has to say:
"I remain extremely impressed with what your Cultural Detective team has been able to achieve with our staff, in a very short time, through these webinars. You adapted the material to our world, you actively engaged the participants from a wide assortment of our international locations, helping us to learn a memorable and seemingly simple process that is incredibly deep and complex. These webinars were a major step forward in enabling us to achieve our organizational goals and objectives."
If you are looking for an affordable way to enable managers, executives and dispersed team members to resolve conflict, bridge differences, and collaborate more effectively across cultures, sponsor one of these online learning events today.

Email or telephone Kris at +1-913-764-2624 to learn more or to schedule.

Related Products
 
 
Ecotonos, Redundancía, Shinrai, Communication Highwire  
 
Ecotonos logo
Cultural Detective authors have created many intercultural effectiveness simulations, games and tools. Are you aware of them?

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Past Issues Online
 
We record the latest news updates, and have archived past issues of this newsletter, on one of our web pages. Past issues include instructions for interesting activities, theoretical discussions about intercultural issues, and links to many intercultural resources. Please take a look and enjoy the resources you find!

 
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