Cultural Awareness Training in Australia

Why is cultural awareness training important?

As the country increasingly looks to diversify its international footprint in order to help further grow the economy, there will be and increasing need for cultural awareness training in Australia.  The ability to work effectively and seamlessly with colleagues, clients and other stakeholders around the world will be one of the key defining skills of the next generation of leaders across a range of different sectors because without developing a high level of cultural fluency within this cadre, Australia will never attain its global potential.

Cultural awareness is not really about issues like ‘how do you give a business card in Japan’ or ‘should you address a German colleague by their first or last name.’  Cultural awareness training looks at the culturally driven psychology of a business contact from another part of the world and how that contrasts from the culturally driven psychology that you might take into any given transaction.  In order to maximise the opportunities in any cross-border scenario people need to know where the similarities and differences in approach to business are likely to be found because the similarities are where the bridges can be built and the differences are where the challenges are likely to be found.

Cultural awareness training can both help build international bridges and help avoid profit-sapping mistakes.

Why chose Global Business Culture?

Why should you choose Global Business Culture to meet your cultural awareness training goals in Australia?

Global Business Culture has been delivering cross-cultural training around the world for the past 20 years.  We have delivered training in every continent across a wide-range of sectors at every level of an organisation from C-suite down.  So – we have lots of experience in this area (and we only deliver cultural training, so we are not setting out to cover lots of other areas as well.)

However, it is not because of our twenty years of experience that we think you should select us as a provider.  The reason we feel we can deliver cross cultural training which will make a real and immediate impact in your business is because we address this topic from a non-theoretical perspective.  Global Business Culture consultants have not simply read a few books on the topic and then set themselves up as experts.  Global Business Culture consultants have been there and done it; they have years of active international business experience and can relate that experience to the interaction between culture and commerce.

Our aims are quite simple.  We want to help you work more effectively across the barriers of culture, geography and language and thereby improve the effectiveness of your cross-border operations.

Which international markets should you focus on?

Australia has focused a lot on the China market as a purchaser of commodities and other products and China will always remain a key market.  The rise of China as a global superpower, the incredible size of the China market and its relative geographic proximity mean that China will continue to be an international market which simply cannot be ignored.

However, as China moves up the value curve and its consumers become ever more discerning it will become much more that a commodity destination.  China has an appetite for increasingly sophisticated products and services and selling into these types of areas will demand a deeper understanding of the Chinese mindset.  This is where targeted, practical cultural awareness training can be really helpful.

In addition, India is very much the up-and-coming market.  With over 1.3 billion consumers, India has an infinite appetite and an infinite need for goods and services.  There is almost no sector which is not looking for new products and services and every region of the country is crying out for infrastructure development.  If you are not seriously considering India as a potential market, you should be.

Yet India is notoriously tricky.  Even with the multiple reforms introduced by the Modi administration, India is not easy to penetrate without significant research and knowledge.  You can’t afford to miss out on the potential of India, but you also can’t afford to do India badly because it can drain your resources very quickly.

To succeed in India, you need to understand the Indian mindset and the way business works over there.  Detailed research around competitors, market readiness, competitors and commercial structuring is vital – but so too is cultural awareness training and that’s where we can help.

We’ve highlighted China and India in this blog but there are lots of other potential markets which also need to be understood from a cultural perspective.  Just because the Brits and Americans speak the same language don’t assume that the business culture is identical to that of Australia.

How is cultural awareness training in Australia delivered?

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to cultural awareness training and therefore we have developed a number of different approaches to meet the demands and geography of Australian clients:

• Live classroom training: A great many of our training seminars are run in-company at the client’s premises.  Having a group in the same room enables much better interaction and is helpful in the facilitation of case studies and group discussions.  We also find that delegates love to learn not only from the facilitator but also from their peers
• Webinar-based training: Many organisations have colleagues working in multiple locations across the length and breadth of Australia and webinar-based training sessions are a great solution to the problem of working with remote teams.  Webinar sessions need to be shorter and the objectives need to be very clearly defined in advance but can produce fantastic results.
• Digital learning: Global Business Culture has developed a unique cultural awareness digital learning hub which is a great addition to any cross-cultural training programme.  More information on this hub can be found below but the key point about the hub is that it allows learning to continue long after the delivery of classroom or webinar-based training programmes.  People are able to refresh their insights and add to them by accessing the hub at any time from any internet enabled device.

Global Business Compass

Global Business Compass is an online cultural awareness training platform which is a great learning tool for geographically dispersed organisations who can benefit from improving the overall levels of cultural fluency within their employee-base.  The platform answers some key strategic questions which we are frequently asked by clients:

• How can we deliver training across multiple locations?
• How can we ensure consistency of message and delivery?
• How can we track who has been through the learning process?
• How can we provide ongoing learning support after any initial face-to-face training?
• How can we deliver this training in a cost-effective manner?

Global Business Compass answers all these questions for clients in Australia.  It is packed with e-learning programmes, videos of global experts, country-specific culture profiles, blogs and much more.

We’d love to be able to demo the product for you.

Cultural Awareness Training in Australia

Jude is an expert in leading remote, global and outsourced teams, with a rich background in the global resources sector. She specialises in workforce strategies, including in-house, outsourced, remote and hybrid arrangements.

As an author, Jude shares insights on creating efficient workforce structures for optimal results, focusing on customer and employee experiences, building adaptable workforces, and fostering the right behaviours. Her publications, including “Offshoring or Not-Sure-ing” and “How Matrix Organisations Work,” are testament to her willingness to share her knowledge and support leadership behavioural development.

Read more about Global Business Culture in Oceania.