Que se passe t-il quand 400 professionnels de l’interculturel se retrouvent en un même lieu? Ils apprennent, écoutent, échangent et s’inspirent mutuellement - pour encore mieux accompagner leurs clients. 4 coachs du réseau Intercultural & Mobility Coaching - IMC-Coaching (Jimena Andino Dorato, Caroline Pensier Filis, Manuela Marquis et Eva-Maria Hartwich) ont saisi la belle occasion du congrès Sietar Europa 2019 à Louvain en Belgique. Notre compte rendu a paru sur le blog d’IMC-Coaching.
This Congress in Leuven, Belgium was THE PLACE TO BE for more than 400 intercultural practitioners from all over the world. We listened, learned and exchanged. We got inspired, energized and connected. We ate waffles, drank Belgian beer and danced.
This year’s focus was “Building Dialogues on Diversity” with great keynotes, TED style talks, panels and workshops on socio-political concerns, recent research, leadership practices, digital learning, unconscious bias, Diversity & Inclusion challenges, neuroscience providing a way forward for inclusion and working across differences, and many more fascinating topics.
Thanks to SIETAR Europa for making it happen. Thanks to my dear colleagues for the great exchanges we had. We continue to put our energy into embracing differences as a force of positive change.
Keeping the memory of the great joint event in Basel alive a little longer... The idea of this ICF and Sietar event was to build bridges between coaches and interculturalists and create a mutual learning experience.
I am very pleased having delivered this workshop together with my colleague Veronica De la Fuente ACC ICF. Many thanks to our wonderful audience and the ICF Basel Team and Christiane Kosub, PCC for their warm welcome.
A unique opportunity is coming up next Thursday, 27/09, in BASEL: ICF and SIETAR Switzerland host a JOINT EVENT: Exploring the impacts of culture in coaching settings & the impacts of coaching in intercultural trainings. Veronica De la Fuente ACC ICF and myself will guide you through an evening workshop full of insights, examples and hands-on tools. For everyone working in international and multicultural contexts.
Find out more
Come, learn, exchange with us and REGISTER HERE
Ensemble avec les coachs d’IMC-Coaching, nous avons participé à la journée découverte de la méthode VaKE, conçue à l'Université de Salzbourg, qui privilégie la collaboration entre pairs, les valeurs et l'adoption de perspectives multiples - un outil flexible et particulièrement utile pour le développement des compétences interculturelles. Merci à Jimena Andino Dorato, Bénédicte LEGUE, Grazia GHELLINI, François Brossard et Frederique Brossard Børhaug pour cette journée riche en partages, apprentissages et rencontres à Paris.
I was pleased to do a workshop on behalf of Sietar Switzerland in Zurich. After an energizing congress in Lugano, the participants and myself were thankful for another insightful learning and sharing experience. We explored the driving forces of our behaviors, and applied the Square of Values and Development, a model developed by the German communication psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun, to intercultural contexts. We agreed it helps to raise awareness for supposedly opposing values, paving the way for making a step towards each other to co-create and co-work constructively.
« Succès collectif grâce à l’intelligence culturelle » - Congrès Sietar à Lugano
Cinq membres d’IMC Coaching ont participé au premier congrès organisé par Sietar Suisse (Society for Intercultural Training and Research) à Lugano. Un évènement avec plus de 80 participants venant de 16 pays différents riche en apprentissage, rencontres, échanges, inspirations et antipasti.
Nos coups de cœurs :
Prof. Christoph Barmeyer et son approche de Management Interculturel Constructiviste pour répondre à la question : Comment gérer les défis interculturels afin de pouvoir bénéficier de la diversité dans une organisation ?
Sur notre liste de lecture pour approfondir : « Intercultural Management - A Case-Based Approach to Achieving Complementarity and Synergy », Barmeyer /Franklin, Editions Palgrave Macmillan
Les nouveautés sur le sujet de la « Diversité et Inclusion » – une réunion-débat avec des perspectives différentes :
Le rôle des RH dans le développement de la diversité culturelle dans les organisations
Perspective «globale» : comment respecter et intégrer la culture locale en respectant une approche plus holistique qui permet d’aller au-delà des stéréotypes et de créer des meilleures pratiques
Perspective académique : préparer les professionnels de demain à développer un état d'esprit global liant réflexion et action
Perspective leadership : préparer les managers et dirigeants à l'intelligence émotionnelle et à l'intelligence interculturelle
Prof. Yih-Teen Lee nous a proposé un nouveau cadre de réflexion autour de la complexité de la notion d’identité culturelle, en contrastant les besoins de « cultural adaptation » et « cultural bridging» et en soulignant la nécessité pour les global leaders d’un regard plus introspectif, plus nuancé, faisant les liens avec la psychologie polyculturelle et la définition de SOI. Son projet de recherche autour du «Comprehensive Global Acculturation Model» avec les étudiants de la IESE Business School de Barcelone a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt et donné naissance à un groupe Mastermind avec plusieurs coachs IMC.
Exposé du contexte migratoire actuel en Europe par Joe Kearns. Durant cet atelier, nous avons pu prendre conscience du potentiel besoin d’accompagnement en interculturalité des associations et ONG européennes œuvrant auprès des migrants. En effet, en France, si nombre d’entre elles proposent à leurs bénéficiaires une aide administrative et des cours de français dans le cadre du «Contrat d'Intégration Républicaine», il semble aujourd’hui important de donner à leurs actions et pratiques une dimension interculturelle. Une orientation pertinente pour IMC-Coaching dans le but de soutenir ces organisations dans leurs missions.
La possiblité de tester en exclusivité le nouveau jeu trilingue anglais, français, arabe « Diversophy® Migration Game » - un jeu pour faire connaissance, apprendre l’un de l’autre et résoudre des malentendus éventuels.
Matthew Hill nous a inspiré avec de nouvelles idées marketing pour encore mieux promouvoir notre métier de coachs interculturels.
Apprentissage par les émotions et l’expérience – Samuel van den Bergh nous a présenté les éléments clés d’un bon processus d’apprentissage ainsi que les jeux de Thiagi pour des formations riches et à grand impact.
Merci Sietar Suisse. Ciao Lugano. Nous reviendrons volontiers.
Article paru également sur le blog d’IMC-Coaching.
Les cinq membres de Intercultural & Mobility Coaching - IMC-Coaching qui se sont retrouvés à Lugano: Veronica De la Fuente ACC ICF, Andra Morosi, Caroline Pensier Filis, Deborah LALLOUETTE-MAYZOUE et Eva-Maria Hartwich.
Nurturing Diversity for Societal Advancement, Creativity & Innovation
“Over the years, the intercultural field has revisited the notion of culture and the impact of different norms on human exchanges, focussing on the issues impacting intercultural interactions.
In parallel, the drive towards uniformity for the benefits of globalisation has clearly shown its limitations and the positioning of man at the centre of the ecosystem we occupy, demonstrated its incoherence with sustainability.” (Sietar Switzerland)
Over 80 interculturalists from various countries listened, learned and exchanged successfully and happily on SIETAR Switzerland’s First Congress in lovely Lugano. Thanks to Anne-Claude Lambelet and the SIETAR Switzerland Board for this inspiring congress!
This is the topic of my interactive WORKSHOP next Wednesday, June 6th in ZURICH on behalf of SIETAR Switzerland. Join us and get to know a powerful and easy-to-use coaching tool and learn how apply it for yourself and multicultural settings.
Read more and REGISTER HERE until June 3rd
In an interview for Sietar Switzerland, Arjan Verdooren told me more about this newly published book by him and Edwin Hoffman – for all those interested in intercultural communication and new food for thought:
An Interview with Arjan Verdooren By Eva-Maria Hartwich
What started your interest in intercultural issues?
It’s difficult to mention one specific experience, but I guess it had to do with how I grew up. I was raised in a suburb of Amsterdam with people of over 150 nationalities. In primary school, I was at one point the only pupil with at least a partly Dutch background (my father has Indonesian roots). My ‚culture-shock’ came later when I realised that this situation was not normal for many other people. What this taught me is that you can always find commonalities with people, no matter what their backgrounds are. And that differences between people are not necessarily tied to nationality, ethnicity or religion. Since then I’ve also spent quite some time abroad (i.e. in Mexico and in Sweden, where I live nowadays), but my perspectives on interculturality haven’t fundamentally changed.
I studied communication at university, and that is where I first learned about the study of intercultural communication and diversity. At that time, an intense public debate had started about multiculturalism and globablisation, and I realised this was a topic that I found both personally and intellectually compelling. I ended up working as an intercultural trainer for KIT – a knowledge center in Amsterdam – for over ten years. A year and a half ago I moved to Sweden, which gave me the opportunity to write a book.
Diversity competence – Cultures don’t meet, people do is the title of the book that you co-wrote with Edwin Hoffmann. What motivated both of you to write this book?
Several things contributed. First of all, we felt there was a need for a book with a modern approach to culture and interculturality that was theoretically grounded but also provided practical guidelines. A lot of the literature is either quite theoretical or very practical, and we hoped to bridge that gap somewhat.
Additionally, we really wanted to focus on intercultural interactions in today’s world. A lot of methods and models, explicitly or implicitly, focus on cultural transitions – people moving or travelling to other countries. There is nothing wrong with a focus on cultural transitions, but in today’s world, the context of intercultural contact is often a different one. People meet in ‘superdiverse’ societies with differences between communities and within them, in organizations with people of dozens of nationalities, or while doing business or cooperating in a variety of settings and constellations. In those situations, the challenge is not so much to adapt to another culture but to build connections and set and reach mutual goals.
Last but not least, we felt that a lot of the traditional literature on interculturalism overlooks critical issues in intercultural contact like power and ethics. So we wanted to mention those issues explicitly and integrate them into our approach.
Why do you suggest that intercultural communication should go beyond the simple knowledge of cultures and cultural differences? In what sense can knowledge like this even be counterproductive?
First of all, such knowledge can be helpful, for example by helping you to ‘decentralize’ your own perspective and be more open to others.
But it is of limited usefulness for interaction: We’ve established a difference, and now what? So we need to look at how to respond to challenges, misunderstandings and dilemmas as they occur in encounters. A key question is then: What cultures are we taking into account? It’s widely accepted that culture is a characteristic of any group; cities, professions, generations, etc., all have a certain culture. Hence people are always members of several cultures. So even if we want to focus on interactions between people of different nationalities, ethnicities or religions (which is generally what we do as interculturalists), we should take other group memberships into account.
It can then be counterproductive when knowledge reduces people to their ethnic, religious or national belonging. This leads us to ‘culturalize’ situations and interpret interactions based only on ‘cultural’ explanations. We tend then to stereotype on the basis of a single group-identity, which makes us feel uneasy or even hostile to intercultural contact because these ‘cultural others’ seem so alien and different. (Supposed) cultural differences can even be abused to create us-versus-them scenarios like ‘the Clash of the Civilizations’. So all in all, I think we should be mindful if and how we mention and emphasize cultural differences.
The book describes the so-called ‘TOPOI-model’. What kind of model is this and why do you use it in your book?
This is where I really have to give credit to Edwin [Hoffmann], because he has developed TOPOI, which so far has only been published in Dutch and in relation to Dutch multicultural society. I have been an avid fan and user of his work. Part of the book is devoted to describing and applying the model to international interactions, as well as to interactions in multi-ethnic societies.
TOPOI is different from other models in that it doesn’t describe cultural dimensions or even competencies. The starting point is not culture, but interaction and communication. It describes the different areas of communication where misunderstandings or confusion can arise, and where interventions can be made. We mention different intercultural and cross-cultural theories but ‘translate’ them into communicative situations. TOPOI is based on a system-theoretical perspective that views communication as an on-going process between actors and their environment. This enables us to integrate aspects of power into the TOPOI areas, as well. And last but not least, it is an inclusive model, which means that not ‘cultures’, but people and their multiple cultures and identities, are taken into consideration. Hence the subtitle of the book: ‘Cultures don’t meet, people do’.
On top of its theory, what type of practical examples and guidelines does the book offer that are helpful for interculturalists in their daily work?
First of all, even though we discuss a lot of theory and research in the book, we provide examples and illustrations throughout all the chapters. Many of them come from our own training and consultancy practice. Additionally, there are separate chapters devoted to interventions and case discussions based on TOPOI. And there are study assignments for teachers and lecturers at the end of every chapter, with additional cases and study assignments that will be published on an accompanying website.
Apart from providing such elements and guidelines, it was our aim to describe a certain approach to intercultural communication that helps people relate to interculturality in a different way. We believe our approach can make a significant difference in how all sorts of interactions are experienced and handled.
Arjan Verdooren (1980) grew up in Amsterdam where he studied communication. As an intercultural trainer and consultant at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), a knowledge centre of culture and intercultural cooperation, he worked with a variety of organizations, ranging from schools to corporations to professional football organizations. He now lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he works as a freelance trainer and researcher on intercultural issues. He remains associated with KIT around the development of methods and approaches for training. His book, written together with Edwin Hoffman, is called Diversity Competence- Cultures don’t meet, people do and was released in March.
You can find the book here
The article was published in the Sietar Switzerland Newsletter
NEW DATE for my interactive workshop “How to square values? – Getting out of the box & overcoming different concepts of value in intercultural settings”, hosted by Sietar Switzerland in Geneva on March 19th. Come and join us.
Getting out of the box & overcoming different concepts of value in intercultural settings – Sounds interesting? Feel free to join my interactive workshop on March 7th hosted by Sietar Switzerland in Geneva.
Find out more and register here.
Photo credits: Nicolas Blandin www.nicolasblandin.com
This is the place to be on May 25-27! Collective Success through Cultural Intelligence – Sietar Switzerland organizes its first congress. The objective: to go beyond differences and focus on new perspectives, practices and positive actions in the intercultural field. YES!!!
Are you coming as well? There you go: http://sietar.ch/2018-congress/
