Develop the intercultural skills to be an effective global communicator for building partnerships essential to your organizational and personal goals.
State-of-the-art approaches to understanding culture and building sustainable partnerships
This course offers a practical approach to developing intercultural skills for the real world. It includes video lectures with thought-provoking concepts from intercultural experts, stimulating articles, interactive activities, and, for the synchronous group courses, peer review, collaboration, and discussion. It can be taken as a self-paced, completely independent course with automatic feedback, or a course that offers real-time online class sessions supported by independent online activities and instructor feedback.
This course is designed for professionals who seek to…
- Engage effectively in multicultural situations
- Build and maintain relationships and partnerships across cultures
- Improve understanding of the values and perceptions of clients and colleagues from other cultures
- Anticipate behaviors and manage expectations in multicultural professional environments
- Develop the cultural intelligence needed to identify, assess, and adapt appropriately to situations in the target culture.
This course is based on an intercultural communication competence (ICC) model that reflects the consensus of leading intercultural experts. It focuses on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) needed for intercultural competence development.
Knowledge: cultural self-awareness, culture-specific knowledge, understanding of other perspectives
Skills: observing, listening, analyzing, interpreting, relating, communicating
Attitudes: respect, openness, curiosity, discovery, empathy
With a focus on partnership and relationship building and pragmatic approaches to self-reflection and communication, this course is divided into 6 Sections:
Section I: Building a Foundation for Sustainable Collaboration
With an increasing need for collaboration in professions that are global and cross-functional, teamwork is key to organizational success, and communication and connectivity are essential for teams to realize their goals. We begin the course with some foundations for successful collaboration in intercultural teams and groups, first by examining our own goals, evaluating our cultural sensitivity, and exploring trust building and maintaining collaboration at a distance.
Section II: Exploring Cultural Values & Identity
Explore your own cultural values and those of others to build self-awareness and target culture awareness. Understand how our own identity affects how we see a new culture, and learn to shift your perspective to manage interactions in a more culturally informed manner.
Section III: Understanding Cultural Values & Group Dynamics
Use ICC cultural value dimensions as lenses to see deeper into cultural difference in order to adapt appropriately to new situations in the target culture. Formulate a deeper understanding of culture and its components to see culture as situated and variable. Develop skills to respond appropriately in a fluid cultural context.
Section IV: Establishing and Maintaining Relationships & Partnerships
Identify and develop strategies for bridging potential differences in styles or patterns of communication between cultures by frame-shifting and using language to bridge differences and mitigate intercultural conflicts in various situations.
Section V: Creating a Code of Ethics for Engagement
Develop strategies for for personal leadership. Using your own values and beliefs, as well as those of your organization and the target culture, construct a code of ethics that ensures the integrity of your team and your activities in the host country. Conduct a stakeholder analysis for use in the field.
Section VI: Being There: Applying Knowledge & Skills in the Field
Move from good intentions to methods by putting your knowledge and skills to work in the field. Use your stakeholder analysis to engage in structured decision making for professional best practices. Plan for mindful reflection while in the new culture and record your reflections for follow up, sharing, or promotion of your project.
Access the Course Sections
 Section 1: Building a Foundation for Sustainable Collaboration |
 Section II: Exploring Cultural Values & Identity |
 Section III: Understanding Cultural Values & Group Dynamics |
 Section IV: Establishing and Maintaining Relationships & Partnerships |
 Section V: Creating a Code of Ethics for Engagement |
 Section VI: Being There: Applying Knowledge & Skills in the Field |
