Globalism, multiculturalism, and diversity
are buzz words in today's business climate.
Yet few people truly understand the ways in
which they impact how we communicate,
interact, and co-create with others. Our
cultural values,
behaviors and communication styles are often
misinterpreted when working across cultures
and can lead to frustration at best to lost
business deals and partnerships in a worst
case scenario. Developing a deeper awareness
of how culture affects your communication
style and how other cultures' communication
patterns differ is one of the key elements to
working successfully across
cultures.
In this session, Julia Gaspar-Bates, M.A.,
will give CNN's participants the opportunity
to apply innovative approaches to
communicating with people from different
cultures, using techniques such as
improvisation and imagery. She will guide
participants through a series of fun and
interactive exercises that will allow them to
cognitively recognize cues when their
personal communication style may be helping
or hindering their relationship with others
and creatively develop techniques to
communicate-even when they are not familiar
with the cultural norms-that they can apply
in real-life contexts.
Julia Gaspar-Bates is a certified
cross-cultural trainer and consultant and
linguist who has lived and worked in or
traveled to more than 40 countries. She is
president of Intercultural Alliances and
regularly designs and delivers seminars for
executives, educators, and entrepreneurs to
reduce the challenge of working across
cultural barriers. Her seminars are peppered
with personal anecdotes of cross-cultural
communication encounters she has had over the
years. Julia is on the adjunct faculty at The
George Washington University and on the
executive committee for SIETAR's (Society for
Intercultural Education Training and
Research) Washington DC Chapter. Julia can be
reached at
jgaspar@interculturalalliances.com or
301-356-4230. Her website is www.interculturalalliances.com.
For directions, go to the CCN
website or www.clevelandparkclub.org
