Intercultural Competences

Intercultural Competences

An organization’s cultural diversity is its source of innovation. Cultural diversity inspires collaboration and holds great potential for new business opportunities and organic growth. At the same time, cultural diversity also challenges employers, managers, and leaders because it entails that employees have different perceptions of procedures and hierarchies. The key to unfolding the full potential of a culturally diverse staff is intercultural competence. We at Anaphora have broad experience in intercultural competence training in international organizations and turn your multicultural staff into one agile entity.

Developing Intercultural Competences

Multicultural staff hold great potential for an organization. Research has shown that cultural diversity enhances innovation and team productivity from within. To embrace this potential, a team needs to be sensitized and trained to understand cultural differences and turn them into strengths. This is possible when precise communication is given despite the coexistence of different cultures and languages. Intercultural competences are therefore among today’s most important soft skills. They are based on the skill of understanding different perspectives and procedures, reacting competently, and using diversity to the team’s advantage. These skills come with experience and the right mindset, and they can be learned and trained in workshops. For teams to become agile, innovative, and productive.

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Intercultural competences are highly demanded soft skills in the working world. They enable team members and talents in international settings to understand cultural differences and use cultural diversity as a source of creativity and innovation to unfold the team’s full potential. In a lively speech based on research and practice, our experts give insights into the hot topics of intercultural communication and show how cultural diversity can become a true enrichment.

Each multicultural team works under different conditions and has its own challenges to master. There is no universally valid solution that works for each and every team. With a critical and experienced view from the outside, however, it’s possible to find solutions and create opportunities for your employees to feel at ease and collaborate productively. Competent consulting may include everything from capturing and assessing the current situation to training your staff in the area of migration, communication, and inclusion.

For multicultural teams, it is often difficult to manage the challenges that emerge from the coexistence of different cultures without support from the outside. The key to achieving this is interculturally sensitized communication. Support the internal collaboration of your staff with enhanced intercultural communication. In our workshops, we show your team how to use diversity to its advantage and unfold its full potential with intercultural competences.

Leading Multicultural Teams

In international Switzerland, leaders face increased challenges. Multicultural and multilingual teams have a variety of different perceptions of collaboration, hierarchies, and communication. For example, how are tasks, proposals, or feedback best communicated in multicultural teams? Interculturally competent leaders communicate with precision, embrace diversity, and use it to enhance the team’s spirit and productivity.

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Leaders of international teams face increased communicative challenges. The presence of different languages and cultures in a team not only makes communication more difficult, but also affects the perception of hierarchies and the way how tasks and proposals are given. Our experts reveal eye-opening insights into how multicultural teams collaborate and how this can be fostered thanks to interculturally competent communication.

Each team has individual strengths and weaknesses. For multicultural teams, in which communication may be challenged due to the presence of different languages, highlighting strengths is particularly difficult and important. With an experienced view from the outside, it is easier for leaders to detect strengths and focus on them. Develop with us an effective strategy for successful communication and collaboration in culturally diverse teams.

Leaders of multicultural teams face increased challenges due to increased diversity. Misunderstandings and also conflicts are frequent and hinder smooth collaboration. Prevent such problems by sensitizing the managers of your multicultural teams to potential challenges. In individual coaching, we train your managers in house in honing their intercultural leadership skills and transforming multicultural teams into agile, productive teams.

Cultural Coaching for Expats

Expats have become an integral part of many innovative and international companies. At the same time, Switzerland counts as an unpopular destination for expats world-wide because integration here is hampered by cultural and linguistic challenges that make it difficult to build meaningful relationships (Expat Insider 2020). The right communicative and intercultural competences, however, make it possible to resolve these challenges and turn the relocation to Switzerland into an enrichment for employers and expats alike.

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Expats have become an integral part of many innovative and international companies and organizations in Switzerland. Yet studies have repeatedly shown that cultural integration remains a major challenge after relocating to Switzerland. This is due to the country’s high linguistic and cultural diversity. We know Switzerland from a personal, educational, as well as professional perspective and provide lively and useful insights into the reasons of these challenges and possible solutions. For your expats to feel at home and unfold their full potential.

Ensure your expats feel at ease from the outset for them to be able to contribute to team performance. We know Switzerland, its languages, cultures, as well as the local corporate and educational environment and what it means for expats. We advise you on site or individually to enable your expats to work efficiently and feel at ease in Switzerland.

Relocation to Switzerland and the integration into the local team is demanding and requires flexibility and adaptation on behalf of the expat. Working with a well-informed and motivating coach helps handle this task more naturally and contributes to expats being able to unfold their potential and envisage a longer stay in Switzerland. Our coaches not only provide a refreshing and hands-on look into the expat challenge, they also guide your expats with tips and advice for them to master relocation to Switzerland in less time and see it as a personal enrichment.

Our Experts

34 1 e1654638550147

Dr. Danae Perez

Ethnologist and Linguist

Danae Perez is a versatile language expert with vast experience in both research as well as the corporate world and a contagious passion for languages and people. She holds a PhD in linguistics and specializes in intercultural and interdisciplinary communication. She has been teaching adults in the area of intercultural competences for two decades and advises companies, charities, NGOs, and educational institutions. Danae Perez has the rare gift of quickly grasping the essence of a message and putting it into the right words to facilitate communication between people, cultures, and disciplines.

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Dayron Carrillo-Morell

Cultural Scientist

Dayron Carillo-Morell is a cultural scientist with experience in adult education, cultural management, and marketing. He advises clients regarding cultural challenges and teaches courses in intercultural communication and collaboration in the area of migration. In addition, he engages in journalistic projects and publishes articles and podcasts with international teams. Thanks to his broad experience in different sectors and countries, he knows the challenges of intercultural communication and migration first-hand and from different perspectives, and he is very much aware of the situation of minorities.

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Get in touch with us for a free consultation.

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Mauro Moretto

Managing Director