CULTURE, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Enhancing interpersonal communication skills

engages us in a curious paradox: the more we go ‘out’ to connect with others, the more we need to know about ourselves, our world perspectives, our values and our assumptions.

Establishing meaningful connection with people also involves finding out about other cultural perspectives, honouring personal values (our own and those of others), and developing an ability to identify our assumptions and test our ‘unconscious bias’. In this sense all communication is at some level ‘intercultural’.

Dialogue Links works with you to look at the complex matrix of national, professional and team cultures that make up your organisation. As inhabitants of the global village this also means taking into account the impact of different cultural perspectives on language, the way we communicate and how we understand each other.

Valuing diversity brings reciprocal benefits – we would all want to ‘be seen’ and valued for the people we are and for the best that we can be. When we do this we act in the best interest of others and our community – and also ourselves! It may be tempting to try to avoid cultural issues for fear of appearing to highlight differences, but diversity is about celebrating and leveraging the difference; not acknowledging the difference risks damage to the individual and as well as missed opportunity for the organisation. As individuals ‘being seen’, being acknowledged and valued for who we are is part of feeling included. This in turn also helps build resilience and optimise personal strengths, qualities and skills.

Dialogue Links invites you to leverage differences and synergies between cultures in your organisation to build resilience, enhance creativity, and realise the full potential of individuals and team to achieve the highest levels of performance.

Recent workshops delivered include

  • Communicating in International English
  • Cultural Intelligence for Culture Change
  • Inter-cultural Communication in the Virtual World
  • Effective Communication in Inter-Professional Teams
  • Building and Managing Multicultural Teams
  • Culture Change: Maintaining Stability, Living with Uncertainty