Many companies claim Global capability, but in practice delivery needs to take culture into account. This needs the resources of a specialist.
Like many men of my age I’ve been faced with the choice of whether to embrace middle age, or fight it. For what it’s worth, I’ve decided on the latter.
So far this has been restricted to binge exercising – intense bursts of activity followed by longer periods recovering from injury.
Recently, I returned to running, an activity I enjoyed in my teens and twenties. Actually, the term may be mildly self-deceptive, jogging is more accurate. I decided to bring some science to bear and got a pair of highly unusual and esoteric running shoes. I won’t bore you with the details save to say they’re called Vibram Five Fingers, and for me at least, they seem to work well.
They look pretty strange however. I’ve had them a while now, using them in the US, UK and this summer in Chamonix. What’s been interesting, has been the reaction from passers-by. Americans seem genuinely interested. They engage in conversation about where I got them and ask questions: do they work, where did you get them, are they comfortable? Brits are different. Here the most frequent reaction is, pointing and a certain amount of good-natured mickey taking. In France, either no-one noticed, or there was a cultural imperative to look the other way. Incidentally you can form your own view at www.vibramfivefingers.com.
This is hardly an exhaustive sample. But these three different reactions: engagement, scepticism and polite indifference, go some way to illustrate the nature of cultural differences. In the training business, it’s critical to understand cultural differences. We spend our days introducing people to new ideas and or new ways of working. Sometimes, these ideas seem challenging, difficult or even unworkable from the participants’ point of view. We need to respond to these reactions and channel them, to enable learning and ultimately, behaviour change to take place. And when we are doing this on an international basis it’s particularly important to identify these and respond to them appropriately. What works in Paris, Texas is very different from Paris, eh, France. This may seem obvious, but it’s why the best Global Training providers do much more than translate; they culturally adapt their approach to ensure the effective transfer of learning.
Needless to say, the research and resources needed to do this properly mean that genuine global providers are a very small sub-set of the overall number of training companies.
So If you are interested in global training, may I suggest you focus your attention on this particular group. It will greatly increase your chance of securing the outcomes you deserve.
Meanwhile I’m off for a pre-run stretch. Next stop: vegetable juicing.
Mike Hawthorne, Managing Director
achieveglobaluk
mikehawthorne
