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These days, due to increasing diversity in the workplace, it is very difficult to have a conversation about civility without talking about culture at work. Since 2009, Civility Experts has been offering training in culture, diversity, generation, and gender differences through it’s culture training arm, The Center for Organizational Cultural Competence (COCC) www.culturalcompetence.ca.  In 2017, the Center (COCC)  will be merged with the Civility Experts Inc. brand. This is in part due to the Culture Coach Certification program being approved as validated credential in June 2016 by the International Civility Trainers’ Consortium.

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Sample Culture at Work™ Workshop Options

Each session is a half-day and can be expanded to a full-day. Sessions may also be combined.

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1. Building Bridges: New Cultural Frontier at Work

Our modern workplace is forever changed. Global economic and demographic forces have altered the workplace landscape more rapidly than expected, and many organizations are simply not prepared to venture into these new cultural frontiers. As the range of cultures represented in our colleagues, clients, and suppliers increases, real and perceived differences emerge along with challenges that can impact our relationships, productivity, communication, and the bottom line. However, when understood and effectively harnessed, this diversity enables us to work toward common goals and contributes to growth and innovation. By building our cultural competence, we can bridge cultural challenges and learn to better understand ourselves and others, to prevent and rectify misunderstandings, to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries, and to successfully cross over to the new cultural frontier at work.

After attending this session, attendees will be better able to:

  • have a strong understanding of the current economic, demographic and social realities Canadian businesses face and learn how they will impact how we work
  • understand the nature and role of culture in their workplace
  • identify benefits of building cultural competence – to themselves, to their teams, and to their organization
  • review general legal and regulated issues related to culture at work (included in full-day session)
  • consider success stories of organizations that have successfully built bridges to address cultural challenges
  • start a conversation about next steps towards building bridges in their own organization
  • co-create an action plan for building cultural competence at work (included in full-day session)

2. Cultural Competence – Navigating a World of Differences©

With labour pool shortages looming in almost every industry sector, employers are increasingly reliant on recruiting and retaining immigrants and internationally trained professionals. This necessary influx of diversity in our workplaces creates an opportunity to embrace and build on the wealth of experiences, histories, customs and perspectives of others. But, to reap all those benefits, we need to be able to set aside our fears and biases and embrace change. To effectively retain diverse employee pools, organizations must reach beyond cultural awareness and consciously choose to build cultural competence.

Culture Coach® Janet Desautels shares insights and practical information to lead, participants through engaging self-assessments, interactive exercises and lively discussions that will boost their ability and confidence to navigate differences at work.

After attending this session, attendees will be better able to:

  • Recognize how the current immigration demographics impact your organization
  • Differentiate between cultural awareness and cultural competence
  • Identify workplace conditions that can hinder cultural competence
  • Examine 4 keys to creating a workplace where cultural competence grows (included with full-day session)
  • Choose respectful language that shows you value others
  • Be attentive to gender, generational, and culture-based differences in work style and motivation
  • Have a stronger comfort and knowledge level in communicating and interacting with people of multiple cultures in the workplace
  • Build specific knowledge related to the top 4 cultures represented in your workplace (included with full-day session)

3. Diversity at Work- Leveraging Differences

Government sources suggest that by 2020, most workplaces will have up to 15 cultural backgrounds represented in their work teams. When we consider that there may also be 4 generations as well, it’s easy to understand why communication is becoming increasingly complicated. Navigating constant change, cultural differences, gender, and generational issues in busy, stressful workplaces can sometimes be difficult. To manage and adapt effectively, it is absolutely essential that we build organizational social capital beyond cultural awareness. Boosting your cultural competence, recognizing demographic trends and understanding that simply acknowledging differences isn’t enough, can increase your success at work, and improve your interpersonal relationships in diverse settings.

After attending this session, attendees will be better able to:

  • Assess personal and organizational readiness to adapt to pending workplace and demographic changes
  • Have a strong understanding of the current immigration demographics and trends and how they will impact how we work
  • Understand what “cultural competence” is and how it impacts business practices
  • Begin to acknowledge personal biases, values, and assumptions and learn how these relates to cultural awareness
  • Increase organizational cultural competence and build cross-cultural communication skills
  • Review 4 core competencies required to build cultural competence (included with full-day session)
  • Foster respectful communications and civility in the workplace generally, and with diverse groups specifically

4. Setting Your Workplace Culture Compass™

The face of the Canadian workplace is changing. Statistics suggest that by 2020 almost 100% of Canadian Labour pool growth will be New Canadians. Progressive businesses understand that in order to compete locally and nationally they need to prepare for these changes. This interesting and practical workshop assesses current organizational culture using the Cultural Compass Assessment Tool™, analyzes the outcomes and offers strategy and techniques for setting your workplace culture compass for success.

NOTE: This is an assessment workshop, delivered as a half-day session. After the session, the client is provided with an outcomes summary and recommendations for ongoing customized training. Session can be expanded to a full-day in which case the 4 conditions for building cultural competence and 4 core competencies for becoming culturally competent will be addressed.

5. Cross-Cultural Communication for Better Productivity

Personal bias, environmental factors, situational conditions, communication barriers; there are countless reasons that interpersonal relationships are difficult to manage. In an environment of cultural diversity, the dynamics between people and teams becomes even more complex. But at work, we need to work together effectively to get the job done. Respect, team work, and collaboration are essential. This takes communication and understanding. In order to understand others, we need to understand ourselves. This workshop explores perceptions, assumptions, and bias and offers strategies for building cultural awareness, respect, and communication in the workplace.

After attending this session, attendees will:

  • have awareness of their own personal style and worldview
  • understand how culture is relevant to the workplace
  • examine their own attitudes, biases, perceptions and stereotypes
  • see how a “values share” can impact cross-cultural communication (included with full-day session)
  • learn how culture affects communication
  • consider the psychology of cultural communication- included in full-day session
  • apply strategies to build cultural awareness and respect
  • develop skills to communicate better across cultures

6. NEW – Working around the World: Business practices and workplace culture

If you travel for business or if your organization interacts with organizations around the globe, fostering respect and understanding the business etiquette and culture of those you work with makes good business sense. For this workshop, you choose 4 countries of interest, and the experts at COCC will prepare a tailored workshop about the business practices and workplace culture of those countries. (*To allow for appropriate customization time, this session must be booked a minimum of 90 days in advance of desired training day)

7. Canadian eh! Fitting into the Canadian Workplace Culture

Starting a new job can be an adjustment for anyone, but for New Canadians including Internationally Educated Professionals, fitting into a workplace where the nuances of communication are not included in the company policy manual can be especially difficult. This session – intended for an immigrants and New Canadians audience, hi-lights aspects of workplace culture such as: nonverbal communication, elements of rank, gender issues, social expectations, workplace dress and decorum and other organizational culture subtleties that are specific to most Canadian workplaces.

8. Building a Culture of Connectedness™

In a world where a click of a button creates global business opportunities and workplaces are increasingly more diverse, forward-thinking companies recognize that respecting our differences while focusing on what people all over the world have in common is the first step to improving business communication and overcoming demographic obstacles. Understanding that we are all ultimately focused on the business priority and making efforts to connect in a human, high-touch way builds long-lasting business relationships.

Join Canada’s Civility at Work™ Expert, author, and entrepreneur Lew Bayer and learn best practices for creating a culture of connectedness. Topics covered include: 7 ways we’re all the same, and general information on how different cultures handle some of the basics of civility in the workplace including: greetings and introductions, corporate and personal gift-giving, multi-cultural dining, guidelines for interacting and communicating during meetings and negotiations, professional attire and gender and other sensitive issues.

9. Building Capacity in Multi-Generational Workplaces

People resemble their times more than they resemble their parents” ~ Arab proverb.

There are at least 3 and in many cases 4 generations represented in most workplaces in almost every occupation, and in every sector. By understanding the expectations, experiences, and perspectives of co-workers and by addressing some of the issues that arise in multi-generational workplaces, we can reduce stress, increase productivity, build relationships, and impact the bottom line. The objective of this interesting and relevant workshop is to enable participants to be able to:

  • Describe the four generations: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y/Nexters).
  • Recognize influencers in each generation.
  • Identify potential “hot buttons” in mixed generational work teams.
  • Adopt strategies for leveraging generational differences.
  • Apply best practices for recruiting, retaining, and managing performance of a multi-generational workforce.

Topics covered in this session include:

  • Generational concepts and demographics.
  • The values and expectations of each generational group.
  • Generational work styles and impact in the workplace.
  • Engaging and motivating each generational group.
  • Recommendations, Application, and Insights.cew-title-separator

Ask about our 2-day Culture Coach® Trainer Certificate Course and our Distance Trainer program.

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Culture Coach™ Certificate Program

Is your organization interested in recruiting and retaining a skilled immigrant workforce but you don’t know how to do that? Do you need cultural information, protocol or business etiquette details to help you increase your international market share? Or do you need training tools and programs to help new employees transition to your workplace, e.g., English as Additional Language or multi-lingual training materials? The Culture Coach™ Certificate Program gives you tools and resources to manage diversity and foster effective cross-cultural communications in your workplace — as well as cultural competence, civility, or social intelligence training.

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