Culture Savvy

New Office Leader: “In the past week I’ve used the exercise from your presentation during conversations with three people to help me talk about hidden assumptions.” Department Head: “Every day I write down your three takeaway points and use them to prepare for my day’s meetings.” Team member: “In our cultural values activity my boss and I were always on opposite sides of the room. As a new team member, that was really helpful for me to know.” (From a follow-up team session.) These unsolicited comments came from participants weeks after a recent presentation in the United States on how to lead and work across cultures in their highly diverse and international organization.?We are proud of how these leaders and their teams are putting their cultural intelligence to work! #culturesavvy #culturallyintelligentleaders?#culturalintelligence

Explore Differences with Culture Savvy! This week let’s take a look at different cultural preferences in how we derive energy: Being-oriented cultures enjoy taking a laid-back approach to life and work, while doing-oriented cultures derive enjoyment from being busy and proactive. For example: On your day off do you prefer to have a list of things you want to get done to make the most of your day, or do you prefer to not have a plan and instead see what opportunities arise in an organic way? Divergent preferences for how to get things done can lead to misunderstanding on a diverse team. Culture Savvy can equip your team to bring out the best in both cultural preferences and forge effective collaboration across differences. #culturaldifferences #culturesavvy #crossculturalcommunication

Last week Kelly P?nar Goodwin led a Cultural Intelligence webinar for over 136 participants from around the globe. The insightful questions and active contributions made it an engaging session for all! #CultureSavvy #CulturalIntelligence #AdvancingEnergyTogether

Last week Kelly P?nar Goodwin shared with students at The College of Idaho about doing business internationally!

Explore Differences with Culture Savvy! This week let’s take a look at different cultural preferences in identity and goal achievement: While individualistic cultures focus on personal goals and rights, collectivist cultures emphasize group goals and relationships. For example: In a team project, an individualist prefers independent decision-making and pursuing personal goals through the project, while a collectivist prioritizes maintaining harmony between teammates and consensus-building within the group. These divergent preferences for how to get things done can lead to gridlock and conflict on a diverse team. Culture Savvy can equip your team to bring out the best in both cultural preferences and forge effective collaboration across differences. Do you tend to prioritize goals for yourself or for your group? #culturaldifferences #culturesavvy #crossculturalcommunication

Explore Differences with Culture Savvy! This week let’s take a look at how different cultures prefer to build trust between people: While relationally-oriented cultures value trust-building through emotional closeness and friendship, task-oriented cultures prioritize confidence in each other’s skills and reliability. For example: In a cross-cultural team project, members from a relationally-oriented culture often spend time socializing and building personal connections to foster trust, while members from a task-oriented culture focus on demonstrating their competence and reliability through completing their responsibilities as efficiently as possible. Do you trust through your head or through your heart? When productivity styles aren’t aligned, it can lead to frustration or mixed expectations on teams. Culture Savvy can equip your team to collaborate effectively across these differences. #culturaldifferences #culturesavvy #crossculturalcommunication

This week I have the pleasure of spending four days with Turkish AstraZeneca leaders in our "Etki Alan?n?z? Geni?letin" (Expand Your Influence) virtual training rooms. When I first interacted with AstraZeneca participants from the MEA region last year, I thought I just happened to chance upon an unusually great group, but so far all four of the groups I’ve had the pleasure of engaging with have impressed me. Here are a couple reasons why: - Unlike trainings where people are either reluctant to speak up or feel the session is another inconvenience to add to their schedule, these managers are eager to jump in and engage. The training is relevant, interesting, and valuable to them, and this shows in their participation. - Our first day ends with the question, “what have you learned?” However almost every participant doesn’t just share what they gained, they share a specific plan for how they aim to implement what they learned. But creating an action plan isn’t formally part of our program until the end of day 2! There is no holding them back! The initiative, motivation, and high energy of these leaders inspires me. These aren’t just by coincidence—as I listen to participants I see that there is a culture in AstraZeneca that values and listens to people, empowers them to speak up, and creates motivating learning opportunities. I believe their example holds a light for others to follow. It has been a pleasure to partner with Demet ?a?l?, Smita Saha, Feyza Aysan, and Ayca Isikay and the fantastic learning development by Mind Tools to deliver this outstanding experience. I look forward to continue supporting people together! And thank you to Donald H Taylor for making the initial connection! #learninganddevelopment #partnerships #culturesavvy

Culture is more than Beethoven, Buonarroti, and ballet. “I always thought ‘culture’ meant music and the arts,” a friend once told me. “In fact, we would say things like, ‘oh, he’s not very cultured.’” For her, culture was associated with classical music, classic literature, art, music, and ballet. “It wasn’t until I started studying sociology that I realized culture is much broader than that.” Culture means ways of thinking, acting, and believing that are shared among a group of people. And these shared ways of being separate them from other groups that have their own norms. Yes, this includes nationality, but is much larger than that. Think of people from the north, south, east, and western regions of your own country—do they have their own distinctive traits? Our ethnic backgrounds shapes what we see as “normal.” So do race, socioeconomic status, religion, educational background—the list of cultural contexts goes on and on! Culture is woven into the fabric of who we are.? So to say someone is or isn’t “cultured” is a misnomer.? We’re all cultured.? We’re just cultured into different contexts. (And I’ll reserve a discussion on how “cultured” when used in the sense above is equated with exclusively western classical arts for a post of its own!) #culture #context #culturesavvy

“Awareness” and “perspective” are two words that show up most in this week’s audience feedback on our sessions about cultural awareness and unconscious bias at work. “It brought awareness to my perspective.” - Manager “I learned how to prevent unconscious bias from causing harm at work.” - E. S., Architect “Personally, this will help me to slow down and not make judgements in situations where I have bias.” - N. S., Lawyer “I discovered that I need to have a broader perspective and better differentiate between facts and interpretations.” - Tuba Contact us for enjoyable and productive sessions that help your people work effectively across differences! #unconsciousbias #culturalawareness #culturesavvy #speaking

Last night Kelly P?nar Goodwin shared with members of TOBB Women Entrepreneur Boards from around the country about unconscious bias and intercultural communication. Thank you to all our participants for your enthusiastic contributions and positive feedback. ** Kelly P?nar Goodwin, dün gece ülkenin d?rt bir yan?ndan TOBB Kad?n Giri?imci Kurullar? üyeleriyle bilin?siz ?nyarg?lar ve kültürleraras? ileti?im konusunda payla??mda bulundu. Tüm kat?l?mc?lar?m?za de?erli katk?lar? ve olumlu geri bildirimleri i?in te?ekkür ederiz.