When Cultures Meet is an insight-provoking, experiential workshop that helps participants navigate the challenges and maximize the opportunities that occur when two or more cultures interact. The workshop provides the knowledge base and methodology for developing robust, integrated cultures that leverage the unique capabilities and contributions of all of an organization’s members. The workshop can accommodate groups of 15-50, or in a customized format, groups of 51-300.   The workshop can be delivered in a half-day or full-day format.

HOW DOES IT WORK

This workshop is a blend of:

• two dynamic, experiential exercises recreating the tensions resulting from the coming together of differing cultures
• thought-provoking strategic frameworks to help people make sense of the causes and costs of cultural clashes
• application activities that help participants to bring practical solutions back to the organization

The first exercise focuses on dominance. One culture with its traditional ways of working faces the challenge of incorporating people with different ways of operating.

The second exercise focuses on organizational culture. Four organizations with differing cultures are developed and then one acquires the others.

These exercises set the stage for dealing with the emotional and strategic issues that arise when different cultures meet, whether in an organizational or societal setting.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Any group, organization, institution, or community that is challenged by the tensions generated by the interaction between two or more cultures.

• Consultants working with groups and organizations dealing with mergers and acquisitions, globalization, or diversity & inclusion.

WHAT IS THE NEED

The meeting of cultures happens in a wide array of settings:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Globalization, when one organization brings its culture into another country with its own culture
• Two units within the organization, each with its unique culture, need to work together
• Increasing diversity within organizations
• New demographics within the organization
• Different religions struggling with one another for dominance
• New waves of immigration

Different cultures meeting can be an unsettling process for all parties. The question is: Which way will it go? There are two possibilities:

1. FAILURE has been and continues to be a costly outcome.

• ongoing tension
• misunderstandings and disrespect
• loss of talent
• lack of innovation
• struggle for control
• internal conflict or strife
• oppression

2.   SUCCESS is a rarely achieved possibility.

The creation of a newer, more robust culture, one more robust than any of the individual cultures by themselves.

WHAT DO PARTICIPANTS LOVE ABOUT IT

Participants learn how to stop repeating the same, ineffective patterns that occur so frequently in organizations

• Create lasting solutions. The path to developing productive, innovative, and healthy organizations lies not in changing the players, but in helping people at all levels and in all positions, understand and master the systemic conditions they are in.
• Real world issues. When Cultures Meet workshop deals with the practical challenges of connecting across differences. They recognize their own organizations in the events of the workshop which makes them more open to exploring a productive path to creating a culture in which everyone can contribute their full talents and passions.
• Fun. The workshop generates profound learning and it is fun. People remember their experiences years later.
• The learning mix. The mix of techniques gives the workshop appeal to all learning types – whether you like theory, action, reflection or all three.
• Applicability. The insights and the concrete strategies for change are clear and immediately applicable.

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES

Participants will gain:

• A deeper understanding of the human issues involved when two or more cultures interact
• More confidence in their ability to function effectively in that process
• An appreciation for the value of cultures different from their own
• A recognition of the implications of being “dominant” and “other”
• A concrete framework for developing robust human cultures that maximize the contributions of its members

Click here to Bring WHEN CULTURES MEET to your group, organization, institution or community.