We assist global organizations to strengthen their cross-cultural management, teamwork and communication for more effective results – on time, on quality, on budget, by providing:
In a world where business tends to expand beyond geographical boundaries in search of constant innovation and growth, business success increasingly depends on effective communication across cultures and the ability of intercultural teams to work together efficiently. It is often the case, however, that deeply ingrained (and often overlooked) value-based cultural differences get in the way of collaborative success, steering teams towards disagreement and conflict and away from business goals.
Team building
Facilitation for intact teams to address their own specific issues and to bridge across their cultural differences. Effective interaction, conflict resolution, intercultural competencies and integration
Training
Interactive workshops and programs including skill building and hands-on practice
Options: – Americans/other cultures and Israelis – separately or together – open enrollment or intact teams – managers and/or employees – stand-alone or part of overall team building or leadership training
Consulting
One-time or ongoing observation of and feedback on real-time interactions for constant improvement and development of cross-cultural competencies.
Coaching
Managers, leaders, executives. Consecutive sessions focusing on creating strategies and building skills for effective cross-cultural communication, remote management and problem solving
Contact us to find out how we can help you turn cultural diversity into a business advantage!
IAIA’s professional training and broad experience working across a wide spectrum of business relationships – global start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike – together with a well-established process enables surfacing of mission-critical gaps. IAIA facilitates the oftentimes difficult conversations that need to happen in order to get to bridging and resolution of conflict and cultural misunderstandings. This ensures clients walk away with the skills and understanding needed to survive and succeed in the global world.
IAIA’s initiatives are specially tailored – the scope (content, structure and focus) of each project is customized to the particular organizational needs, constraints and business goals of each client and adjusted to their preferred cultural learning style. Programs are highly interactive, typically including some of the following elements:
Interactive work with ‘The Cultural Detective™’ Model
Enhancing communication skills and team-building by using an internationally developed, situation-based series of culture-specific training tools for analysis and resolution of conflict situations. (www.culturaldetective.com)
Providing Insight to the "other side's" mode of operation
Exploring into the historical, geographical, economic and cultural elements driving the behaviors of the ‘other’ to neutralize negative perceptions and create trust in the other side’s intentions, commitment and abilities, enabling authentic dialogue and successful teamwork.
Using the ‘Multicultural Work-Styles™’ Mapping Exercise
Interactive exercise examining specific ways team members approach work, workplace relationships and communication. Mapping contrasts in work-style among participants as they impact the workplace and capacity to reach set goals, thereby raising awareness to existing and potential friction points and enabling open, non-judgmental conversations.
Development of hands-on cross-cultural skills and best practices
for effective communication and virtual teamwork -through the application of a variety of well-established models and tools, case studies, role plays, group exercises, critical scenarios and facilitated discussions – each customized to meet the particular organizational needs of the client and address the mission-critical gaps particular to each team.
Practice and application of new strategies and skills
within key work contexts such as e-mail, phone, 1:1 and team meetings, giving and receiving feedback, conflict, negotiations, etc. To bridging across cultural differences for increased individual and organizational effectiveness.
Excepts from Articles Written About Our Work
Extract from an article titled ‘Selling Each Other Short? – Workplace culture shock between American Jews and Israelis’ by Orli Santo for The Jewish Week, New York, July 2013
“Israelis tend to think that because they watch American TV, they understand Americans. They find out pretty quickly that life is not Seinfeld… In their workshops [IAIA helps participants] examine specific workplace interactions through a practical anthropological lens. They explore the different environmental, geographical and historical roots from which Israeli and American identities developed, and the resulting disparities between Israeli and American behavior.”
Extract from an article titled ‘Bay Area women teaching Israeli-American office harmony’ by Angela Privin for the Jewish News Weekly: Northern California, October 2006
Whereas “many cross-cultural trainers tell the participants how to get along” without ever explaining the underlying causes for these behaviors, IAIA, working on the simple psychological premise that real change requires real understanding, takes care to “explain to participants where behaviors come from, [discussing] the geography and history of both countries and… why the cultures evolved to behave like they do.” The results speak for themselves.