With the continuous growth of modern technology, workshop methods and strategies have evolved. For instance, Intercultural Teaming, also known as Cross-Culture Team Building, has now become a massive and essential aspect of various industries.
Why Opt For Intercultural Teaming
Intercultural team buildings are made explicitly for international teams, clients, partners, or organisations. Living in entirely separate parts of the planet or even having highly distinguishable orientations can offer a way to several different beliefs.
Using intercultural coaching is an excellent way to diminish barriers as it relies on building relationships among people and organisations who may have differentiated beliefs and ways of working.
Moulding New International Team Leaders
Our provider Katrin Grunwald is a consultant for team & organisational development and expert coach for first-time leaders.
As an entrepreneur, she built her company, which aids international organisations and clients within the corporate world. Katrin Grunwald provides team effort development workshops for international teams. Also an interactive online coaching program for international first-time leaders.
Her intercultural “kick-off workshop” aims to develop trust between team members, create clear communication systems and enable real teams to quickly get to know each other in order to work better together in the long run. Katrin, when asked about effective teaming in a workshop, said;
“I believe that the effectiveness of the ‘kick-off workshop for international teams’ can be measured by the real teams themselves. A few months into working together they can run a real teams meeting to reflect on. E.g. the levels of trust in the group, how openly the feel they can give each other feedback, how transparent the communication is amongst themselves, etc. It’s also possible to do a virtual 2-hour follow-up with me where we reflect on the topics above. Also in how far the workshop has in the long term supported them in achieving a successful start as a team.”
Support for International Teams
The “Kick-off workshop for international teams” sets itself apart from other team-building techniques with its tailor-made purpose. Rather than accommodating general concerns. Katrin specifically prepares her coaching sessions and workshops through short phone calls/interviews with all team members, not just the team leader.
Also, the workshop caters to English, German, Spanish and French speakers. This makes it perfectly suitable for international teams.
Feedback Matters!
When asked about a specific memory of the impact of feedback to make an effective teams, Katrin recalls a moment in a team effort development workshop with a team effort that had worked together for many years:
“When I suggested a feedback exercise*, quite some team members were sceptical. The exercise involved giving constructive feedback to different people. For example, choose someone where it’s easy for you to provide feedback, someone where it’s difficult, someone you work with a lot and someone you don’t know very well thus your feedback is rather based on first impressions.”
After the workshop, the team members responded excited and said:
“We have been working together for so many years, but we have never had such a deep and honest conversations like in these 15 minutes!”
Cross-Cultural Team Buildings will surely strengthen your group’s relationship ties!
And don’t miss to check out Katrin’s workshop on WeWent: KICKOFF WORKSHOP
*A BONUS: Feedback Excercise by Katrin for Intellectual Teaming
Lastly, Katrin shared with our readers a very powerful exercise: There are 3 rounds and participants chose their partners themselves (inspired by the criteria above). They have 15 minutes for each feedback conversation whilst going for a walk together.
During this walk they can choose from a set of topics for the feedback:
- How do I perceive you at the moment/ at the workshop?
- What do I like and respect about you?
- My expectations towards you and your role in the team?
- What would I like to wish you?
- A recommendation I would like to give to you based on something specific I observed?
- What do I appreciate about you?
- What I would like to learn from you?
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