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Building cross cultural competence

The Executive Coaching Centre has a joint venture with Dane Tumahai of Ngati Whatua to offer programmes in this area.

Ngati Whatua o Orakei is the principal local Maori tribe in Auckland, with mana whenua status (the original land owners of Auckland) they greatly assisted in the initial establishment of Auckland city on its land.

Dane Tumahai of Ngati Whatua and the company P.A.S.S., with the support of his elders has established a bi-cultural and cross cultural awareness organisation. In this programme he is supported by Dr Iain McCormick, of the Executive Coaching Centre.

Day One Programme - Classroom Setting

• Open with a prayer and introduction of the trainers and participants
• What is culture? What are the range of cultures globally? Where do I fit on a global cultural continuum?
• The history of the Maori people. The Treaty of Waitangi - its meaning and the issues raised by it
• Maori culture and etiquette. An introduction to the Marae visit

Day Two Programme - Marae Visit

• Assemble at Orakei Marae
• Powhiri - the formal Maori welcome
• Introduction to Ngati Whatua and their meeting house
• Interactive exercises - Taiaha demonstration, Maori musical instruments, learning a haka, weaving demonstration and practice, a guided walk around the Marae and Bastion Point Headland
• Explanation of Maori food
• Lunch including Maori hangi food
• Farewell - Poroporaki

The programme has four aims - to have participants demonstrate:

• a high level of interest in the programme
• a high level of knowledge of cross and bi-cultural issues
• a high degree of comfort with Marae protocol
• an interest in applying the knowledge gained in their future work (where applicable)

Typical results from this programme are:

• average level of interest in the programme rated 8.9 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• average correct answers to a series of knowledge questions 8.3 out of 10
• average degree of rated comfort with Marae protocol - 10 out of 10 or 100% comfortable
• average level of rated interest in applying the knowledge gained in their future work (where applicable) 8.7 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• participants were asked if they would recommend the programme to other individuals or organisations. The level of recommendation on a ten point scale (10 being high) was 8.9.

Comments included:

• Extraordinary experience
• I had a great time and the people are really friendly in explaining everything
• I think it was a great experience
• The most important thing for me was that we had personal contact with the trainers we could get our questions answered
• I had a great day
• It was a very interactive course and this helped participants to understand and learn more
• Excellent
• This was a great experience that I will never forget
• This was the best Marae visit - I was made to feel so welcome.

The Executive Coaching Centre offers three levels of learning of cross cultural issues:

• Awareness raising - developing an understanding of the range of global cultures and having a model to understand varying beliefs and preferred styles of operating
• Skill development - developing competence in communicating across cultures and building effective long term business relationships
• Behaviour change - coaching to assist individual managers with problem solving in cross cultural complex situations

Awareness raising - session plan

• Introductions and expectations for the day
• Presentation on what is culture, typical experiences when interacting with foreign cultures, interpreting cultural differences, the evolution of cultural values and the nature of cultural competence
• Individual assessment of cultural style and the impact of personality on cultural style
• Cross cultural experiences and ways to improve cross cultural understanding

Skills development - session plan

• Introductions and expectations for the day
• Review of the cultural awareness session
• Cross cultural simulation - break into two groups and develop the details of two radically different cultures
• Two groups work together to organise a visit from the CEO
• Discuss experiences of interacting with another culture - two groups share their experiences with each other
• Debrief on the cultural simulation
• Practical guidance on working with different cultures
• Share experiences and learning from working with different cultures
• Evaluation of the day and finish

Behaviour change - Cross cultural coaching

• This level of learning can best be achieved in one-on-one sessions or in very small groups where individuals have highly similar issues to deal with. Coaching will take place with Iain McCormick who may also draw on other individuals from the relevant culture in question e.g. Germany, Korea or Japan. The length and number of sessions will be driven by the nature of the problem that needs solving.

The programme has four aims - to have participants demonstrate:

• a high level of interest in the programme
• a high level of learning that could be directly applied on the job
• an increase in personal productivity as a result of the programme
• an increase in organisational productivity as a result of the programme

Typical results from this programme are:

• average level of interest in the programme rated 8.4 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• average level of learning that could be directly applied on the job 7.8 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• impact on personal productivity 7.0 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• impact on organisational productivity 8.2 out of 10 (10 being highest)
• participants were asked if they would recommend the programme to other individuals or organisations. The level of recommendation on a ten point scale (10 being high) was 9.0.

Comments included:

• Excellent review of organisational culture parameters.
• Great cross cultural comparisons with information contrasting head and heart cultures e.g. Japan versus Germany.
• Information highly applicable to current work situations. It was great to be able to discuss existing work situation during this meeting.
• Extraordinary programme
• Excellent grounding covering some thought provoking areas. Very relevant and interesting. Look forward to next stage
• Doing the exercises really reinforced the issues involved with cross cultural awareness.
• Enjoyed understanding about the head and heart aspects of different cultures. The programme really makes a lot of sense.
• Interactive and engaging.

For further information contact Iain McCormick on +64 (0) 9 575 4499.