ALL CAREER LEVELS COURSE
Reducing Cross-Cultural Tensions
Annette Gisevius, Sherifa M.B.E. Fayez
Annette Gisevius, Sherifa M.B.E. Fayez
Non-conventional methods and how to implement them
OVERVIEW
This techniques-focused course is designed for those seeking to lower tensions and improve cooperation and performance when working with diverse (national culture, age, gender, etc) stakeholders — especially in team or group settings.
Using a combination of interactive and reflective approaches, you’ll both participate in sample activities of the methods shared, and then have meta-level discussions about the processes and pedagogies behind them in order to be able to adjust and apply them in your own work.
*By request, this course has been extended to be a 2-day workshop so that participants have more practice and feedback time on the techniques shared.*
Whether in the workplace, classroom, community or elsewhere, establishing conditions for effective group dynamics is a key responsibility for many of us, yet we may neglect to consider this crucial aspect of our roles.
And, identity differences among would-be team members may seem to add challenges rather than benefits when we think about building a sense of shared collegiality and collaboration especially across cultures.
Participants in this course will learn how to reduce cultural tensions and more explicitly establish success-enabling space(s) in which groups or teams can operate by acknowledging and intentionally designing for the diversity —whether apparent or “hidden”— among them and how to do so using disarming, creative and “serious play” approaches.
Emphasis will be placed on how to dismantle miscommunications and/or tensions and conduct such group-forming when working within short timeframes.
You will learn how to use targeted, unconventional approaches and establish purposefully-designed settings that embrace the differences (national cultures, ages, faiths, backgrounds, professional roles, etc) found among team members as advantages rather than challenges. Doing so can help build teams with a greater shared sense of inclusion and, as a result, effective performance.
In this course, you will learn how to help yourself—and those you work with—so that you/they can better:
- Understand key underlying principles that allow for more effective team-building for heterogeneous groups (national cultures, ages, faiths, professional roles, backgrounds…)
- Create a highly engaged, constructive team atmosphere and spirit as a base for trustful collaboration when working with groups with diverse members
- Adapt team-building activities to embrace team-member differences/diversity as a means of fostering inclusion, belonging and reducing cross-cultural tensions
- Experience very interactive, creative, and fun (as appropriate) learning techniques and approaches
Upon successful completion of the program, you will receive a Certificate of Participation listing 12 contact learning hours.
This course uses a combined interactive and reflective approach in which you’ll both participate in sample activities of the methods shared, and then have meta-level discussions about the processes and pedagogies behind them in order to be able to adjust and apply them in your own work.
This course is for you if you are a trainer/multiplier/educator/consultant who
- Supports clients that have increasing levels of (hidden) diversity yet have not intentionally designed team-building approaches that acknowledge and realize the benefits of intergroup differences,
- Wishes to incorporate nontraditional (playful, creative, innovative) methods as a means of reducing cultural miscommunications into your work with learners/clients
- Works with teams that may need to form or shift rapidly yet perform at high levels
You should already have at least a preliminary understanding of and experience with —either through your own work or participation in ‘training for trainers’ type programs— team-building, training and (adult) learning best practices.
Contact us at info@iddifferences.org if you have questions about the suitability of this course for your circumstances.
COURSE TYPE
All Career Levels
DURATION/DATES
2 days/8-9 July 2024
TARGET LEVEL(S)
New or Experienced Trainers, Educators & All Professionals focused on group interactions
TUITION FEE
€995
includes certificate from the University and the Institute
Prof. Annette Gisevius
Annette Gisevius (Professor, Karlshochschule International University and Head of Training for InterCultur, gGmbH) is a master trainer, content designer, certified coach and professor who brings serious fun plus interactive learning methods and creative arts to intercultural competence development for adults and youth. She specializes in lively trainings that use everyday cultural artifacts in innovative ways to make abstract concepts tangible and engage learners in useful daily and lifelong practices.
Having pioneered programs in Germany, Brazil and Malaysia, plus designed and run 12 intercultural trainer certificate courses and collaborated with intercultural gamer Thiagi, Annette’s focus is on cultural awareness, cultural conflict styles and experiential learning in non-classroom settings, as well as civic engagement and service learning.
Sherifa M.B.E. Fayez
Talented trainer and leader of Egypt’s longest-running nonprofit dedicated to intercultural learning for youth and adults, Sherifa Fayez’s work as an educator aims at lifting the veil of the pervasive reductionist perspectives on the Middle East and promoting active global citizenship as a practice in everyday settings.
Sherifa has led AFS Intercultural Programmes Egypt since 2004, served on faculty at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communications (US), the Qatar Institute for Intercultural Communications (Qatar) as well as the Intercultural Trainer Academy (Germany), and directed initiatives throughout the Middle East, Africa and Europe with partners such as USAID and American University in Cairo. She has served on the AFS Global Board of Trustees and other international education taskforces and committees.
“Practical applications of approach backed up by proven science.”
“Please schedule more sessions with them.”
“Both Annette and Sherifa are knowledgeable and fantastically skilled. But most importantly they are a great team. And that role modeling of a great team is an amazing extra takeaway from the course!”