teaser why intercultural training

Why Mindset & Intercultural Training?

60-80% of all problems in organisations are due to clash of values, personalities and leadership challenges. 85% of success is about people skills. 

When working internationally or within diverse teams we will be facing cultural differences at some stage. Often talent is not enough as culture gets in the way of being effective. Ever wonder why people have different attitudes towards e.g. time, authority, rules or relationships? Or whether a "Yes" means "I agree" or "I'm listening" in meetings?

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anais Nin

Most of our culture is invisible, yet has a powerful influence on our daily life. The way we communicate and behave is culturally determined. We simply cannot assume that our colleague, client or neighbour has the same world-view, the same values and ethics as we have. Hence, being culturally aware and knowledgable will benefit anyone in today's environment.

Mental Fitness, Growth Mindset and Social Intelligence are crucial for success – to avoid incomprehension, frustration and excessive costs due to the “trial and error” method.

Ensure success in different cultures

  • saving individuals and companies effort, time and money
  • increasing success rate and performance of employees | teams | expats
  • minimising cultural adjustment impact | time

Small investment, great returns

  • the minimal cost of employee development vs the actual cost of losing employees, clients and customers
  • communication barriers cost companies ~$62.4 million per year in lost productivity (USA & UK alone)
  • e.g. an average international assignment cost to company ~ US$ 1 million per year
  • average cost to company for a failed assignment is up to 3 times the investment
  • average cost to company for cultural training as % of total relocation costs ~ 1% (costs vary between 0.01% and 1.44%)

Retaining valuable employees

~90% of executives from 68 countries say intercultural management is their top challenge

The gap | Failure rate*

~70% of international ventures fail due to cultural misunderstandings 
~89% of new hires leave the company within 18 months due to culture fit issues
~79% of potential in teams is lost due to the interaction | value gap
~60% of CEOs claim their managers struggle with diverse clients

failure rate of international assignments
~50% of all expatriate managers fail (either return early or do not reach goals)
~48% of all returning employees leave the company within the first year

Reasons for employee disengagement

~poor leadership
~poor communication | feedback
~lack of recognition
~lack of training and growth opportunities 
~lack of collaboration
~lack of coaching | mentoring 

Reasons for unsuccessful assignments*

~62% due to spouse or family’s inability to adapt
~58% employees' inability to adjust and perform
~34% lack skills to conduct business in the host country

further insufficient selection standards (employee is not suitable for assignment i.e. personality and emotional immaturity or lack of motivation)
~63% have low motivation and interest to interact with other cultures

Due to the significant increase in intercultural education the failure rate for diverse teams and international assignments is on average 20% lower today than during the 1990s. The importance of intercultural work and education is growing. The classic foreign assignment is changing – organisations becoming larger, projects abroad shorter, expats and members of diverse teams must be more flexible, adaptabel and embrace learning... 

* source : McKinsey, WEF, E&Y, KPMG, PWC, EIU, DFA, Harzing (intercultural research), Economist, HBR, LeadershipIQ, 3circlePartners