50 Shades of Beige: Communicate with the Cross-Cultural Advantage

9:00am-10:00am

Tina Varughese
Diversity & Inclusion Speaker

Are issues like these causing stress, conflict, confusion, time and money in the workplace?

• Why does this client/co-worker constantly interrupt the conversation? Is he not interested in what I’m saying?
• He never looks me in the eye. Clearly he does not respect me.
• Hua said she’d complete the proposal last week yet she still hasn’t. Does she not understand it’s important?
• Gustavo never has an opinion during meetings. Was he the best candidate for this job?

Why this topic?

Successful organizations understand that being able to communicate cross-culturally in the workplace leads to enhanced productivity, performance and employee engagement. Managing diversity drives profitability, leads to innovation and promotes an inspiring workplace culture.

Everybody can benefit from communicating more effectively, however, when 20% of Canada’s population is foreign-born (and much higher in urban centres), communicating with the cross-cultural advantage is arguably one of the most important types of communication to understand and benefit from in the 21st century. Any organization with a culturally-diverse client base or increasingly multicultural workforce would benefit greatly from this topic.

What Attendees Will Learn

• Cultural differences in communication: Indirect vs. direct speaking styles
• Individualistic and collective cultures: How values change the way we communicate
• Effective day-to-day communication when English is a second language
• Non-verbal communication: Why the “unspoken” word is the most important of all
• How global companies lose millions in revenue due to a lack of understanding of cultural differences