Management of Multinational and Cross-Cultural Teams

Do you (or do you want to) work on a multinational team? Do you want to become a manager or improve your current management style to get better results? Are you unsure if culture is impacting your ability to communicate and collaborate? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this course – and its associated specialization – is for you! We have entered an era where multinational and cross-cultural teams are now the norm. As a result, it is nearly impossible to conduct business without interacting with people from places far from home. In order to be an effective manager, one must understand the challenges that arise because of culture, how to navigate them, and, most importantly, turn them into opportunities for success. Thankfully, this is not new. We all have a culture that is unique to ourselves and we have all been part of a team with people different than ourselves. The secret truth is that this has always been an essential tool. We are lucky that now we have incentive to examine it and build the skills to use it. So if you’re ready to learn all about how to be a more effective and valued manager of multinational teams, join us and fill your cross-cultural toolbox!

Communication is much more than the words you say. And cultural communication is much more than just the language you speak. What you say is never interpreted exactly as you meant it and what you hear is never what was meant by what was said. When you mix in the differences of how different cultures draw lines between social interactions and work interactions, give and receive feedback, and engage in and resolve conflict, the barrier to understanding can feel impossible to overcome. You will learn how to recognize your own communication style and how it is being perceived in ways you never intended. From there, we will explore how to successfully integrate multiple cultural norms into your communications and to create a brand new language unique to your team. Before you know it, on the strength of your multinational cultures, your team will be the model to which less diverse teams aspire. We can’t wait to communicate with you!

Airplanes gave us the ability to travel across oceans to visit international team members. But virtual spaces are now bringing us together in an instant. New rules have been written, and as work-from-home is on the rise, re-written, and they bring their own unique cross-cultural challenges. We’ll discuss communication differences unique to text-driven spaces like email and instant message as well as the evolving world of video conferencing. We’ll explore unique cultural challenges brought up by this “new office”, such as the blending of private and public spaces, the “virtual water cooler” of informal virtual communication, and the “time zone dance” done by teams sharing virtual work done while one half is asleep. The future is now. Thanks to technological advances, we have an opportunity to show up, share our cultures, and build creative and innovative pathways to successful multinational teams. Let’s build best practices together in this virtual space and then work together to make them go viral!

Whether you are currently a manager or not, you should now be ready to learn to play a leadership role in a multinational team. Leadership is more than management, and culture greatly affects what is expected of leaders. For instance, some cultures expect their leaders to give directives; others expect them to facilitate so that everyone on the team has a chance for their voice to be heard. No matter which way they lean, you are likely to hear “that’s just the way it’s done” if you try to shake things up. Leadership requires adapting your style to build comfort from team members with different backgrounds than yours while also helping change the narrative for people who don’t want to adapt to your strengths. You need to help others find the levers to pull that work for them to adjust to a cross-cultural environment. As leaders you also need to be constantly learning to prepare for the inevitable changes of the future? By looking into the future, how will different cultures grow, and how will climate change and technology fundamentally alter the line between physical and virtual space. What will all this mean for multinational team leadership in the future?