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Japan Intercultural Consulting Cross Cultural Training
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We currently have facilitators in Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the UK. Profiles of our facilitators can be found here.
Cross Cultural Training for Europeans
Our cross-cultural training seminars for Europeans go beyond business card presentation and chopstick use to provide substantial insights that will affect your business. Our interactive sessions use group discussions, case studies, and lively examples from the facilitator's own business experience to keep the pace fast and stimulating. Our unique 'self-customising' format ensures that each session is tailored to the specific needs of the participants. Our seminars help participants better understand the cultural mindset of their colleagues, and develop practical strategies for achieving business goals together.
"the training met exactly the requirements I had in mind at the outset" Director of Business Development, Sharp Laboratories of Europe.
Working Effectively with Japanese Colleagues -- basic version
Europeans who work with Japanese usually have many questions about how to improve relationships and communication, but no good place to get the answers. This seminar is an opportunity to get those questions answered by an expert who is highly skilled in explaining the intricacies of Japanese business and society. Topics covered include Japanese communication style, techniques for overcoming the language barrier, how decisions are made in Japanese organisations, and how to make meetings with Japanese more effective.
"one of the most useful training courses I have ever attended"- delegate, Sharp Laboratories of Europe
Working Effectively with Japanese Colleagues -- advanced version
The longer one works with Japanese, the more questions one may have about the differences between European and Japanese organisations and work styles. This seminar addresses the needs of Europeans who have worked with Japanese for more than three years, or have completed our basic course. This course goes into more depth than our introductory course, providing new insights and strategies for improving communication and relationships with Japanese. It is taught through interactive discussion of case studies, with topics including differences in goal-setting approaches, the role of the parent company in decision-making in Japanese organisations, and different views of work/life balance issues.
Communicating with Japanese Customers
In Japan, the ways that suppliers interact with their customers can be quite different to those in Europe. Japanese often bring those expectations along with them when they do business here. Understanding Japanese concepts of customer service, and the communication style preferred by Japanese, can help you be more successful in working with Japanese customers. This session covers which characteristics Japanese customers value most in their suppliers, how to market to Japanese, and how to communicate with Japanese before and after the sale.
Effective Business Trips to Japan
Business trips to Japan are important opportunities to interact with headquarters staff, make a good impression, and build relationships. At the same time, because one is on the 'home turf' of Japanese, the expectations to follow Japanese business and social etiquette are intensified. This course discusses what you need to know to ensure that your business trip to Japan is successful, from conducting meetings to socialising in the evenings. Common pitfalls are discussed and ways of avoiding them are introduced.
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Cross Cultural Training for Japanese
The differences between Japanese and European business culture and work style are significant, and can prove challenging for Japanese who are working in Europe. Companies can help Japanese expatriates increase their effectiveness by providing them with training that enables them to understand the European environment better.
All our training programmes for Japanese are presented in Japanese, with bilingual participant materials. Our unique training sessions, the result of intensive development work over the past decade, present information about European culture and business practices in a way that resonates with Japanese audiences.
Working Effectively with European Colleagues
Our basic session for Japanese who are working in Europe, this session uses case studies to present some of the key differences in business culture: communication style, feedback, leadership style, and human resource practices. Throughout the session, participants are coached on how to increase the quality and quantity of their interactions with European colleagues, suppliers, and customers.
Managing in Europe: Performance Evaluation and Feedback
Performance evaluation and feedback are two of the most important items in a European manager's toolkit. Yet in Japan, these have not traditionally been emphasised. Japanese who are in management positions in Europe can benefit from strengthening their skills in these areas. This session uses practice exercises and role playing to help participants increase their confidence giving substantive feedback to subordinates and conducting performance evaluations.
Preventing Sexual Harassment and Discrimination
This seminar is designed to familiarise participants with the social and legal environment affecting business in Europe. It describes key issues that participants need to be aware of, within in a cultural context. This session will raise participants' awareness of sexual harassment and discrimination so that they can react sensitively and appropriately when issues arise in the workplace, and be aware of when assistance is required from the human resource department.
Techniques for Retaining European Employees
In Japan, retention is not a major concern, since most employees stay with the same company throughout their career. Yet, in Europe's increasingly fluid labour market, retention must become a high priority if the company desires a stable, high-quality workforce. This session introduces Japanese managers to the workings of the European labour market, the dangers of high turnover, how Europeans decide whether or not to leave a job, and techniques for increasing employee retention.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management in Europe
Virtually every aspect of human resource management practice is different between Japan and Europe. Designed for all Japanese who hold management or supervisory positions, this course introduces the key concepts of human resource management as practiced in Europe: job descriptions, market-based compensation, salary structures, and techniques for building a strong corporate culture.
Effective Meetings in Europe
For many Japanese, participating in a meeting in English is quite challenging. In addition to the language barrier, the basic idea of what a meeting is for and how it should be conducted are quite different between Japan and Europe. This seminar is designed to help Japanese participate more effectively in meetings with Europeans. The participants are taught how to utilise brainstorming, present their opinions persuasively, speak up when they have lost the thread of the conversation, and clarify a meeting's conclusions.
Effective Communication in the Manufacturing and Technical Environments
Japanese technical personnel who are sent to Europe for short term or long term stays have much to share with their locally-hired colleagues. Unfortunately, the language barrier and cultural differences can get in the way of effective communication and technology transfer. This seminar is designed to teach Japanese technical personnel practical English that they can use on the manufacturing floor, including techniques for teaching and giving direction to European colleagues. Exercises during the session help ensure that the learnings will be retained and can be applied immediately. The session also covers key information about European culture that Japanese technical personnel need to know in order to develop good working relationships on the shop floor.
Successful Manufacturing Management in Europe
The basics of good manufacturing practice are the same throughout the world. However, Japanese who come to Europe to work in manufacturing facilities here are often puzzled by the different attitudes and customs of European workers. This seminar will explore how such cultural differences can be addressed in order to create a high-performing manufacturing facility in the European environment.
Managing European Engineers
Engineers are a key group in any company engaged in high tech or manufacturing activities. In order to ensure effective technology transfer, it is important that European engineers feel comfortable with their work environment and relations with Japanese colleagues. This course is designed to give Japanese managers insight into the mindset of European engineers, which tends to be quite different from Japanese engineers in many key respects. Armed with this knowledge, Japanese managers can work to achieve improvement in the retention, job satisfaction, and productivity of their European engineers.
Orientation for New Arrivals, focusing on Lifestyle and Cultural Adjustment
Being comfortable living in Europe greatly impacts how successful an employee will be at work. This course is designed for expatriates who have recently arrived in Europe, and gives them information that will help them make a smooth transition. In addition to focusing on how to get off to a good start in the workplace, this session also discusses issues outside of work including school and community interactions. A module on culture shock and stress management is designed to help prevent severe transition difficulties that could have a negative impact on work activities.
Orientation for Spouses
Japanese spouses are frequently overlooked when companies are planning cross-cultural training, but in order to ensure that the family makes a good transition to life in Europe, training for this group is important. This session focuses on issues relating to schools, lifestyle, handling emergency situations, and interactions with neighbours and the community. Because many spouses have not honed their English skills, or had as much international exposure as their partners, they can particularly benefit from this kind of training.
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Team Building
Our teambuilding sessions are designed to help Japanese and European counterparts enhance communication and mutual understanding. Conducted bilingually, they provide a space in which there is a high density of communication, enabling the group to make significant progress on sensitive and complex issues in a way that is efficient and has impact. Our teambuilding sessions are designed to be culturally comfortable for both Japanese and Europeans and to achieve active participation by everyone in attendance.
Achieving Cross-Cultural Collaboration
This 1-day session uses case studies as a way to jump-start dialogue between Japanese and Europeans about the cultural issues that impact their work. Through direct interaction and discussion, participants gain a better understanding of their colleagues' viewpoints. A 'space' is created where cultural issues that are difficult to broach during the daily routine can be discussed in an open and carefully-facilitated environment. Participants leave this session with important insights about cultural differences, concrete strategies for improving their relationships, and an enhanced sense of camaraderie.
Executive Teambuilding with Action Planning
This 1 to 2 day session is designed as an intensive offsite activity for executive teams. It begins with our unique Group Mirror activity, which surfaces the group's key issues in a culturally comfortable way and examines their roots in cultural differences. Then, the group prioritises these issues, and works together to develop action plans for addressing them, including 'projects' to make specific improvements and 'customs' that involve changing interaction patterns on an ongoing basis. At the end of the session, the group will have a concrete plan for improving how it works together. Longer sessions also include exercises that enable the group to examine both cultural differences and individual personality differences to increase mutual understanding, trust and teamwork. These sessions can be customised to address specific situations such as post-merger integration, leadership changes, or changes in company strategy.
Developing a Hybrid Culture
This activity is appropriate for an executive team that wants to define its company culture and values, or for divisions, departments, or other work teams that want to create a blueprint for how they will work together. This activity is based on the idea that the most successful operations of Japanese firms consciously choose to combine the best aspects of the parent company culture with the best aspects of European business approaches. The participants go through a process that helps them identify what factors they believe are most important to ensuring their company's success, with the end result being a definition of their company's culture that can be shared throughout the organisation.
Mission Statement Development
In this session, participants engage in an interactive process to create a mission statement for their firm that reflects the values of both Japanese and Europeans. Since many Japanese are unfamiliar with the mission statement development process, this session addresses why mission statements are important, and how they can be used to ensure that the entire company is moving in the same direction.
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Executive Coaching
The management and leadership style of executives is frequently the key determinant of successful business operations. This is particularly true in the European operations of Japanese firms, where the tone set at the upper level of the organisation impacts the ability to meet cross-cultural challenges. However, few senior executives are able to spend the time to attend formal training programmes, and such programmes may not address the specific issues faced by those in senior positions.
One-on-one executive coaching is a focused way to meet the training and development needs of an organisation's executives. Short, targeted sessions make the most effective use of an executive's valuable time.
The content of coaching sessions is determined by the specific needs and interests of the executive. They may include:
- Strengthening leadership and management skills
- Honing techniques for coaching, counselling, and assessing subordinates
- Polishing presentation and oral communication skills
- Developing strategies for handling sensitive cross-cultural and interpersonal situations
- Sharpening written communication techniques
- Clarifying organisational goals and the most appropriate methods for achieving them
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