Why does intercultural competence important in the international environment?

Intercultural communication at work

Leading multicultural teams

Techniques for overcoming intercultural conflicts and misunderstandings

Adaptation to culturally diverse environments

Strategies to understand and learn about other cultures

Development of intercultural competence

The keys to intercultural training

Intercultural competence is the ability to understand the behavior and, above all, the values, beliefs and attitudes of others. As one of the most in demand skills in the global world, being interculturally competent helps avoid misunderstandings and intercultural conflicts in organizations and facilitates effective collaboration between people from different cultures. Intercultural competence can be learned and developed through training and experience. The building blocks of this type of training are: being culturally aware, valuing and understanding cultural differences, experiencing other cultures and identifying and acknowledging the biases in our own culture. Developing intercultural competence also entails learning to communicate appropriately and effectively according to the cultural and linguistic environment as well understanding their beliefs and values. It is essential to learn about language conventions and barriers as well as different communication styles in order to foster effective intercultural communication. Skills like curiosity, empathy and open-mindedness lie at the core of intercultural competence. Moving from a superficial knowledge of different cultures to a genuine interest in them is critical to intercultural training.

The main challenge we encounter is that we tend to minimize the role of culture and only pay attention to the most visible and obvious differences, such as language, traditions and certain symbols or behaviors. We give great importance to globalization and use the argument that, deep down, all of us want or seek the same things. Although it is true that human beings have similar needs, the different cultural perspectives, worldviews and ways of communicating and understanding reality differentiate and influences us on a daily basis.

In our trainings we consider culture as a phenomenon that goes far beyond what we can perceive with our senses. We delve into the values, beliefs and attitudes, sometimes invisible or difficult to perceive with the naked eye. Culture can produce specific behaviors, desires or norms in a certain group of people that are not necessarily understood by members of other groups. Culture and communication go hand in hand and through both we determine in our societies what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, acceptable or unacceptable, etc. We will also reflect on the influence of culture on the concept of time, space, the environment, communication or relationships.

The main objectives of intercultural communication are to:

• Become aware of the importance of working effectively in culturally diverse environments and learn to function better in multicultural teams.
• Reflect on how our values ​​and beliefs influence the way we behave and relate personally and professionally.
• Learn about cultural differences while making decisions, leading and managing teams, negotiating or solving problems.
• Identify the cultural patterns related to competitive or collaborative work environments, uncertainty avoidance, hierarchy, time management, risk management, importance of relationships over tasks and norms.
• Avoid stereotypes and erroneous assumptions about other cultures that can cause discrimination, marginalization or polarization between groups of people.
• Learn to communicate effectively according to linguistic and cultural norms and structure speech in a clear and concise manner.
• Adapt communication styles and develop new strategies that work better and are more effective in the new culture.
• Solve those linguistic doubts that hinder oral or written communication.
• Develop flexibility, open-mindedness, cultural empathy and curiosity about other cultures.
• Learn to manage misunderstandings and mediate in intercultural conflicts.
• Understand consumers or clients from other cultures and identify their cultural patterns.
• Become more tolerant, collaborative and openminded in a changing world.
• Cultivate diversity and inclusion.

Most work environments are no longer completely monocultural. That is, almost all people, to a greater or lesser extent, live and work with people from other cultures, whether they are their neighbors, their clients, their co-workers or classmates, their supervisors or their subordinates. In short, this type of training is very useful for anyone who lives and works in an international of multicultural environment.

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