Today’s workplace reflects a more diverse society, different cultures, races, religions and perspectives. The key to a vibrant and productive environment is by communicating effectively with your colleagues.

Cultural, ethnic and racial differences are considered, at best, broad strokes and have the potential to exacerbate differences in a society where every small group and even an individual is a culture.  Reliance on traditional, time-honoured messages and approaches leads to the risk of making assumptions about individuals and prevents learning of all complexities that makes each person, each small group unique.

Cross-cultural differences in matters such as language, etiquette, non-verbal communication, norms and values can, do and will lead to cross-cultural blunders.  Understanding and appreciating inter-cultural differences ultimately promotes clearer communications, breaks down barriers, builds trust, strengthens relationships, opens horizons and yields tangible results in terms of business success. 

Increasingly, businesses depend on the ability to communicate effectively across cultures in order to reflect its values to stakeholders, maintain profitability, secure good results and achieve a reputation to admire and inspire.

Through inter-cultural training programmes, individuals, teams and organisations can become more adept and confident in forging these essential connections across cultures.

Blue Tulip Training has conducted training and consultancy sessions:

• in India and Middle East
• with Indian organisations based in, or new to, the UK
• with British organisations who have a significant number of staff from a variety of cultural backgrounds
• with organisations who are international

The training and consultancy support focuses on supporting organisations and the individuals within them, in “bridging the gap”; creating a better understanding of cultural differences, specifically in relation to language, behaviour and attitudes.  All Blue Tulip training programmes are customised to meet the specific requirements of an organisation.  An initial consultation explores areas of concern (with specific case scenarios) and draws out examples of good practice.

Case Study

Karishma, during a group tutoring session mentions that she is planning to go to India for a wedding. The tutor asks whether she is having an arranged marriage. Others laugh. The tutor then says, 'I am only joking of course, but if you need to talk to me about going through a arranged marriage, I am always available'.

Karishma is mortified by this comment and does not know whether this tutor stereotypes her as she is female and Asian or the tutor is genuinely concerned. In all their discussions, Karishma's race and ethnicity had never been discussed.

Karishma questions how appropriate was it for the tutor to ask this question of her. She feels anxious that by making it into an issue with her tutor, she might jeopardise her chance of having the scholarship

Effective communication is about honesty, tempered with judgements about your relationship with the other person, the context of the occasion and the purpose of the interaction. Truth is not an absolute. It is a function of timing, the credibility of the communicator (in this instance the tutor) and the recipient's (Karishma)  interpretation of the communicator's behaviour and motivation. There is a tough maxim, 'if someone misunderstands you, its your fault'.  In other words, the onus is always on the communicator to be understood in the way he or she intends. Quote from Peter Honey