Workshops and trainings that develop cultural communication competence.
About Workshop #1
Cultural Self-Awareness for Connected Teams and Viable Organizations
Fresh, non-polarizing, and developmental approach to diversity and inclusion.
Why Cultural Self-Awareness?
While it might seem ordinary on the surface, cultural self-awareness is an extremely important subject that opens the door to dealing with differences in more intentional and successful ways.
Cultural self-awareness is the necessary starting point for understanding cultural interaction. Without cultural self awareness, we risk communication misunderstandings through projecting our own assumptions about reality and culture (ethnocentrism) onto others.
Developing beyond ethnocentrism allows us to better understand others, improving our communication with colleagues and clients.
Meet the Facilitators
Amanda Grelock
Lead Consultant and Facilitator
Ryan Peters
Lead Facilitator and Coach
WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING
👇🏼👇👇🏽👇🏿
Innovative DEI Work
The intercultural approach to DEI develops individual perception (sensitivity) to cultural difference and promotes adaptive communication. As a result, participants will be better equipped to communicate and coordinate across cultural difference. Rather than focus on teaching “what not to do” (bias, prejudice, micro aggressions, etc) our work compliments traditional DEI approaches by focusing on “what to do”. This ultimately leads to increased intercultural competence, consciousness, and organizational viability.
Affirming and Inclusive Workshop
This workshop includes, yet goes beyond race and gender to explore the nuance of cultural identity. It challenges stereotyping and, most powerfully, gives individuals the opportunity to share their own identities/cultures with the group. As a result, participants will experience each other in more complex and connected ways. It’s an interesting, accessible, and even fun topic for most groups, whether or not they are multi-cultural or mono-cultural. It’s appropriate for organizations of all political positions, from progressive to conservative.
Meets Strategic DEI Objectives
Ethnocentrism- experiencing one’s culture as the center of reality- is at the root of racism, and creates the conditions for exclusion, dehumanization, and injustice. Therefore, by focusing on reducing ethnocentrism by promoting ethnorelativism (experiencing one’s reality as just one of many viable realities), DEI goals will have a better chance at being achieved. Furthermore, this workshop establishes the foundation for exploring more “advanced” topics like cultural adaptation, race and racism, cross-cultural conflict resolution, and deriving innovation from diversity.
Team Building Workshop
While we think we know our team members, often it’s mostly superficial. In reality, we’re all individuals with multi-layered identities, even at work. By offering chances for participants to identify and share their cultural affiliations, group members can get to know and connect with one another more genuinely. These leads to connecting over similarities while also understanding differences. As facilitators, we are skilled in creating an inclusive and accepting environment, giving individuals the freedom to share (or not), as they wish.
Leadership Development Training
Culture is something most of us take for granted. Yet, when explored through a constructivist perspective, culture is a rich and fun topic. Participants will explore their own culture(s), ultimately leading to more self-knowledge. This creates a more complex understanding of their identity, promotes self-acceptance, and increases confidence- all important for good leadership. Further, by approaching culture in the way we do, we develop contextual thinking, a key leadership skill important for good decision making and more.
Theory-Backed Training
This workshop has been designed with Intercultural Development Theory in mind. This ensures the information presented is unlikely to be polarizing yet still be effective in creating climates of respect for diversity. Based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (IDI Assessment), this workshop develops participant’s understanding of culture as it relates to their identity and “otherness” before proceeding to more complex concepts (leveraging diversity for innovation, meta-coordination across culture, systemic racism, etc) in future workshops.
Live: Online or In-Person
FAQs
Why cultural self-awareness? Why intercultural development?
Intercultural development, which includes cultural self awareness, is the key for developing interculturally competent individuals and viable organizations. Intercultural viability is the probability that a group can successfully adapt to unknown future changes in social environments, changes that include new combinations of diverse people who are expected to collaborate, integrate and innovate (source).
How does this fit with our organization’s goals?
This training workshop is ideal for organizations interested in developing team rapport and team communication. It’s also appropriate as a standalone diversity and inclusion (DEI) trainings for teams of all experience levels because we can adjust contexts and examples for the specific group. Ultimately, it will help people communicate better, think contextually, and better adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Is this “training workshop” lecture-only or participatory?
A training workshop is a combination of both training and workshop elements. It involves teaching specific perspectives and knowledge while also incorporating interactive and participatory activities. This blended approach fosters a more comprehensive learning experience, enabling participants to actively engage with the material and apply their insights, ideas, and learnings.
What else do you offer?
This workshop, Developing Cultural Self-Awareness for Connected Teams and Viable Organizations, is the first in a series of three workshops designed to develop and support intercultural viability. We also offer consulting, coaching for individual employees and leaders, and strategic plan development and consulting.