MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In an increasingly globalized world where boundaries no longer hold, leading across cultures can still be quite challenging for even the most seasoned leader. Due to the increasingly international and intercultural nature of businesses, leadership today, therefore, requires the ability to direct and inspire across cultural boundaries.

Executive roles are evolving in response to the needs of companies operating in or dealing on the international stage.

Globalization has brought with it complexities and international systems requiring executives to adopt to modern solutions for the very modern challenges.

The next generation executive must demonstrate business acumen with an outline of awareness to lead entrance into foreign markets, oversee selection, mentorship and guidance of the staff working with foreign partners, negotiate with clients and provide intuitions into potential areas of success or failures originating from intercultural differences.
Intercultural skills are more than ever critical to business performance in different ways. Executives need to communicate effectively with colleagues; build and nurture efficient transnational teams and display strategic and global thinking.

This Intercultural Agility summit focuses on assisting you to address these diversity dynamics in multicultural workplaces as well as cross-cultural interactions, and to demonstrate how to use both methods and approaches to foster a rich working environment and embrace diversity as an advantage as a 21st century Executive.

WHY EXECUTIVES NEED INTERCULTURAL AGILITY?
The world has transitioned and the majority of companies can no longer escape buying, selling or working with people from diverse cultures. Today’s global workforce makes it more important than ever for executives to understand and steer institutions that understand subtle cultural nuances.

The influence of cross-cultural differences on the success of negotiations, overseas assignments and mergers and acquisitions is becoming increasingly evident in international business.  Ignoring the risks of cross-cultural differences is coming at a clear cost for many organizations, a cost that needs to be eliminated.

Success is no longer a question of the size of an organization, it is now more than ever about having the right people with the right skills.  This is especially true in the case of leaders of businesses that transact beyond their borders.  Managing international projects or multicultural teams requires the ability to manage and understand cultural differences between employees and team members, as well as the diverse business cultures that exist across the world.

  • Be more culturally aware of the ways in which your culture has influenced your identity and worldview
  • Acquire a culture-general framework of knowledge that helps you to understand other world views and see the world from other’s perspectives
  • Become more flexible, adaptable and empathetic in your behavior through being able to see from other’s perspectives and respond to them appropriately
  • Adapt your communication style and behavior in a wide range of intercultural and virtual team contexts

SUMMIT OVERVIEW
The summit is targeting institution heads across East Africa with an emphasis on cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity towards the cultural differences and issues that impact on the workplace, allowing them to communicate more effectively across cultures. The in-depth and interactive gathering will combine theory, practice and case studies in equipping participants with skills to enable them appropriately and effectively respond to cross-cultural challenges facing global leaders today.

SUMMIT DETAILS
The summit is inspired by detailed research and in-depth analysis of the skill set gaps in companies operating in a culturally diverse setting. We have structured this summit to address the concerns of executives while positioning them to embrace styles and approaches that celebrates multiculturalism in the workplace. The key subjects to be addressed include:
> Intercultural Reflection through Storytelling
> The application of Intercultural Concepts in the Business World
> Cultural Agility; Is it a piece of a puzzle in Managing Kenyan and African Business?
> Professionals who study abroad are trained for transformation?
> Language, Culture, Communication and Collaboration

APPROACH
Covering 2 half days, the summit through storytelling and exchange will provide a balance of structured input and discussion of case studies, critical incidents and scenarios relevant to participants’ own particular context. The most appropriate training format, content and approach will be discussed with the participants by a team of seasoned trainers in culture and diversity training. The trainers will also give dedicated personalized attention to each participant with a view to addressing all their expectations.

VALUE FOR YOUR INVESTMENT

  • This is not another lecture but an interactive conference on intercultural management. Interacting with people from diverse cultures always provides something new to learn.
  • Increase awareness of your own cultural assumptions and behaviors, plus the potential impact those assumptions and behaviors have when conducting business across borders.
  • Develop methods to adapt your communication and work styles for enhanced effectiveness and productivity in various business contexts (teams, meetings, projects, etc.).
  • Understand how values, behaviors, and attitudes – both your own and those of your business partners/colleagues – are revealed in daily life and work.
  • Sharing intercultural experiences, challenges and solutions in the business realm is golden.  We don’t really see the impact of our culture on our decision making framework unless we bump against the behavior, language, and situations of another culture. We naturally think that everyone else thinks, communicate or behave the same way we do hence we remain engaged to have proper perspectives which are not always aligned to theirs.
  • Understand that being in contact with or experiencing other cultures do not necessarily mean a person is culturally sensitive. You will find out why expatriate executives struggle to align the different cultures.
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