Customers use the Cultural Detective Series in a myriad of ways. Recognizing the challenges of a diverse workforce, some organizations use Cultural Detective to improve communication, both in virtual settings and among employees in the same physical location. Some organizations use Cultural Detective to help change the organizational culture to attract the skills of a diverse workforce.
Whether you are part of a multicultural team or you have a leadership role that crosses cultures, Cultural Detective can enhance and improve your intercultural competence and that of your colleagues.
Want to increase ROI, develop new markets, improve performance and productivity, save time and money, build loyalty, and enhance satisfaction and commitment? Click on the links below to read some Cultural Detective Success Stories. (Have one to share? Let us know—we’d be delighted to add your story)
Business Travel
An intercultural vendor (trainer/coach/consultant) uses Cultural Detective to increase the effectiveness and productivity of a client's short-term business travelers.
Civil Service
The government of Singapore incorporated Cultural Detective and Appreciative Inquiry into a highly successful two-day workshop to raise the communicative competence of civil servants.
Coaching
The Global Diversity Director of this consumer products firm found Cultural Detective invaluable in helping her prepare for expatriate assignment, and guiding development of a worldwide strategy for her practice.
Education
High School and Middle School Students
People to People International, a non-profit that promotes world peace and understanding, used Cultural Detective to rave reviews as the core curriculum of their 10th anniversary Global Youth Forum.
University
ESPEME-EDHEC business school in France has used Cultural Detective and Cultural Detective Online as a core methodology of their "Doing Business in x" curricula. University of Southern California relies on Cultural Detective in a variety of ways.
Enterprise-Wide Total Customization
In-house affinity group members initiated a Cultural Detective program customized specifically for their company's Chinese and Mexican operations. Both Chinese and Mexican affinity group members were trained to facilitate Cultural Detective sessions using proprietary critical incidents specific to the firm's operations and data on partners and facilities.
Ethics and Values Training
A major Norwegian governmental organization uses Cultural Detective to help achieve consistent and interculturally appropriate understanding and practice of its ethics and values worldwide.
Expatriate Success and Predeparture Orientation
A major engineering consulting and construction firm uses its Cultural Detective site license in almost every location worldwide, for expatriates and receiving staff, as well as those who work virtually.
A large multinational tells us how they incorporated Cultural Detective training for two very different expatriate families: one family with significant international experience, and another new to expatriate assignment.
Function-Specific Training
Many global organizations use incidents from Cultural Detective to demonstrate the impact of culture on specific business functions such as sales, human resources management, or production and manufacturing.
Global Business Skills
Often clients introduce their employees to the Cultural Detective process by using it as the core method in a two-day-skills workshop designed around the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (M. Bennett).
Global Management Development
One of the world's largest multinational corporations conducts worldwide one- and two-day workshops that incorporate the Cultural Detective Method, Critical Incidents, and Values Lenses to develop intercultural and global managerial competence.
Global Team Effectiveness
Initiated in India, a large high-tech firm used Cultural Detective as a tool for dialogue and discovery—part of its strategic plan to make the organization more globally effective.
Online Learning
City University of New York is one of many campuses using Cultural Detective Online in their online courses.
Outsourcing
A major outsourcing firm leverages the flexibility provided by a site license to use:
- The Cultural Detective Method in their Global Diversity training;
- Cultural Detective Critical Incidents in management development programs and affinity group activities;
- Cultural Detective Culture-Specific Packages as the foundation for job-specific workshops such as those designed to develop call center competence.
Procurement - Effective Negotiation
A best-in-class electronics manufacturer uses Cultural Detective Culture-Specific Packages to develop the abilities of their purchasing and procurement staff to negotiate with partners in China, Mexico, and other countries.
Skills Development
Multiple organizations use Cultural Detective incidents with their employees to develop and practice specific competencies such as interviewing and hiring, feedback and coaching, and performance management.
Study Abroad
A world-class university exchange program, as does another program, uses its Cultural Detective site license with students and staff worldwide, face to face and online.
A leading high school international exchange program uses its Cultural Detective site license with students, staff and host families.
Worldwide Project Management
A French-Japanese-US mobile phone venture used Cultural Detective to train its management team and staff in each location as a way to discuss and agree on norms for working together, sharing information, resolving conflict, and making decisions.
As you can see, there are numerous ways that customers have used Cultural Detective; the use is only limited by your imagination and creativity. Should you desire to use Cultural Detective for a particular application not shown above, let us know and we will help you brainstorm how to apply the CD Method. It is a truly powerful, flexible tool. If you are an existing user and would like to share a success story, please drop us a line—we would love to hear from you!