Workshop Teambuilding
„In an important development project with Americans and Germans serious conflicts arose after a short
while: “The Americans are not willing to share their knowledge and know-how!†said the Germans. The
Americans, however, saw this completely differently: “The Germans never ask and show far too little initiative.†The
list of difficulties went on and the work climate was poisoned by arguments and permanent conflict in spite of
initial support.
(Schroll-Machl, 1995, S. 203)
Why?
Due to their cultural backgrounds intercultural team members often differ in their ways of working and interacting.
This can lead to diverse expectations and misunderstandings.
Cultural differences can for example occur between the following opposites of values or habits:
- confrontation vs. harmony
- individualism vs. collectivism
- authoritarian vs. co-operative decision making
- direct vs. indirect communication
For whom?
- For a team already working together
- For a team only just starting and forming itself
- For a team working together on a project
- For a team trying to solve its conflicts
- For a team and its new manager
Objective:
To initiate a joint process of learning in order to support getting to know and understanding one another, to
increase the overall effectiveness of the team by enhancing each team member’s contribution.
Possible workshop focus appropriate to each team’s situation:
- Awareness training focusing on the team members’ cultural backgrounds and the
resulting differences in their ways of working
- Finding a joint understanding of the team which is shared by all members
- communication und language problems within the team
- Clarifying the team’s goals and rules for effective co-operation
- Finding ways of dealing with conflict
- Clarifying functions, targets, roles and expectations of each team member
- Integrating a permanent intercultural learning process
Basic organisational requirements:
- Questionnaire based team analysis as well as interviews with the manager and possibly
a representative selection of team members as an important part of the workshop
preparation (individual workshop design)
- All workshop participants belong to the team, if necessary and generally agreed on with
the team a member of HR can join the workshop
- Number of participants: 5 – 15 people, depending on the size of the team
- We recommend a review-day approx. 6 months after the original workshop
Please contact us:
contact@global-bridge.com
Tel.:+ 49 (0)89-590 438 20