Intercultural Project Management

Which challenges does this course help with?

In an intercultural work environment, people from different cultures have different beliefs and values and they solve problems in different ways. Despite the great opportunities arising from diversity, these differences are a source of conflicts in international teams, which can endanger projects. Our Intercultural Project Management course helps align differences in the team with the overall project goals while at the same time, embracing diverse thinking and problem solving.

Course structure

a) Project Management Skills

Dependent on the team's project management skills, we will provide training on theories about project management adapted in a way that the people from the local culture learn most effectively.

b) Intercultural Communication Toolbox

Our trainer will provide you with tools and tips on how the project team can better communicate and solve problems within the team with active involvement from all team members.

Training topics:

• Definitions, Models, etc. in international project management
• Goal definition across cultures
• Phases of a project and differences in execution and leadership across cultures
• Communication in the project team
• How to criticize across cultures?
• And more

Intercultural Business Communication

Communication Challenges in an Intercultural Team

Miscommunication starts when the original meaning of a message transmitted by the sender is not "decoded" by the receiver in the way it was intended. We have the skills to code and decode messages in our own culture, but these skills are unlikely to be successful in cross-cultural communication. Why?

• The use of a foreign language limits our abilities to express and to understand
• We unconsciously use formulations like in our home culture
• Non-verbal communication differs across cultures in a way we are not aware of
• It is more difficult to understand from a person from a different culture whether or not a message was understood

The solution

Intercultural Business Communication Training helps your team to better understand people from a different culture by understanding the peculiarities of the own culture's communication style compared to others. The training also gives team members easy to use tools to better solve cross-cultural misunderstandings. 

Training program:

• Understanding communication models
• Structure of international project teams
• Formal and informal roles in intercultural teams
• Intercultural business communication styles in direct encounters
• Intercultural business communication over the phone
• Written intercultural business communication
• Differences in the use of means of communication across cultures
• Communication across hierarchies in comparison (Vietnam & ?)
• Communication in team meetings
• Conflict resolution