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Building Cultural Competence

Countries: Global, India, | Sector: Legal

Overview

A major global law firm recognized that they needed to be able to work smarter cross-border to ensure smooth client relationships and effective intra-team collaboration. The firm has offices in more than 20 countries but has clients from all over the world. The firm wants to ensure that its claim to offer a seamless service across jurisdictions was a reality rather than a catchphrase.

Situation

situation

The firm recognized that the development of greater levels of cultural fluency was essential throughout the firm – not just at the partner level and so training and development initiatives were needed for: • Partners • Associates • Support Staff It was also recognized that there was a danger that offices outside the UK might feel they were being dictated to by the UK and that these cultural issues need to be addressed in all global offices.

Plan

plan

It was agreed that developing a global mindset within the firm was a long-term aspiration and could not just be achieved overnight with a ‘one-hit’ approach – especially as the fee-earners are extremely time pressured. Initially, separate workshops were rolled out in all UK offices for partners, associates and support staff before the programme was cascaded over time to on-UK offices. However, the onset of COVID called for a rethink and the courses were quickly adapted to an online format which allowed for a mix of nationalities and offices at each event. Mixing the offices had not really been possible pre-pandemic for budgetary reasons but this new format has proved extremely successful.

Impact

impact

The firm continues to grow globally – both from an office footprint and client perspective – and these training programmes are viewed internally as a key pillar of the globalisation process. Global Business Culture has been working with this client for more than 5 years to rave reviews

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