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Management across
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I think it would be an excellent idea !
When asked what he thought of Western civilization
Mohandas Karamchand GANDHI, known as The Mahatma
Indian political leader
1869 – 1948
Mohandas Karamchand GANDHI, known as The Mahatma
Indian political leader
1869 – 1948
In anthropology, a culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. Of course, different cultures imply different ways of expressing emotion, of positioning woman in society, of reacting to hierarchy, etc.
Most of the times, the difference of culture is perceived as an obstacle to communicate, to build something in common, to succeed in a project.
But sometimes, it may be perceived as something positive: a strength, an opportunity to benefit from a new vision, a mutual enrichment process, a complementary approach; why not splitting the workload, according to what makes us so different : our economy, our expertise, our perception.
Most of the time, it is the way we perceive and we consider people that makes the difference...
Our added value:
• To facilitate personal and professional communication between people from different cultures
• To encourage mutual comprehension and reciprocal respect by supporting acknowledgement of what constitutes ones cultures.
Illustration
ContextSorbonne UniversityChallengeWithin the framework of a voluntary mission for the Phenix programme, a training was organised on time management across culture to 40 underprivileged high-potential young people, coming from different cultures.MethodologyFirst, the group was split in 5 subgroups, representing the world and its 5 civilizations according to ‘ethnologists’ usual classification (African, Arab, Asian, Slavic and Western civilisations). Participants had to chose according to their ‘spontaneous’ preferences. Each group had to work on the concept of time and to make a presentation of it: what is ‘time’ for them, is it something significant or not. Any argumentation should be illustrated by proverbs, stories, from traditional to real ones.Then, the consultant made a presentation of the concepts of space and time from an historical point of view. Then, time management was discussed. Some practical tools were shared in order to increase their personal effectiveness. At the end of the session, each participant had to engage himself/herself for a better time management, using some of the proposed tools. This was an individual work, then challenged by someone else in the group (work in pairs). Result__ • Understanding what diversity and adversity really mean. Time was a pretext to deal with the difference of culture. This gave each one the opportunity to think on ones own references, to awake ones curiosity, to be aware of differences of perception, to respect different perception of a word.__ • Using some tools of time management. This was the pragmatic and useful side of the story. -> Each participant gets because she/he gives ! Exchange of views is essential to put oneself in somebody's shoes. Regarding intercultural management, what is specific always prevails over what is general, what one has experienced always prevails over prejudiced one can be. |
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