Building cultural awareness through training
So what can be done? One solution is to have a company’s employees attend a workshop designed to help them recognize both obvious and not so obvious cultural differences between them and those they interact with outside of Finland. They will come away from this session equipped with the necessary tools to ensure they can communicate clearly and effectively with someone of a different nationality.
Tailored content and flexible length
These workshops can be tailored to an organization's particular needs and can include, for example, a session focusing on how Finnish communication styles are interpreted by other cultures. Employees would then be introduced to new concepts such as communication norms and attitudes and learn how they contribute to what is called a cultural gap. And depending on the organization's requirements, the workshops can range from a morning or afternoon session made up of short interesting lectures to a more in-depth 2 day program. These longer encounters will give a company’s staff the opportunity to totally immerse themselves in theories and examples that explain how culture shapes and influences so many aspects of their working life while working in international teams.
Practical exercises and in-person delivery
Regardless of the length of the program, every session will end with practical hands on role playing and team exercises. These are valuable teaching methods that allow everyone involved to take what they have learned and puts it immediately into practice. And because of the latter it is recommended that most of the workshops take place in person.
