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CI-CD    Centre for Inter-cultural Development

DVDs / Videos for training in skills of Cross-cultural Communication

We deploy a unique library of our own DVD/video productions - in training for international business; in domestic public services; in university Linguistics/Business Studies, and in Conference presentations.

CI-CD DVDs are ‘gold dust’ visual aids for training or teaching. They have powerful credibility, showing only real people in documentary evidence of cross-cultural interactions at work, not actors in simplistic and/or stereotypical scripted drama. They thus bring the full impact of real-life exchanges to the training room, as case-studies for use as triggers for training discussion and for developing intercultural communication skills in business or in public services, or as raw data for analysis by tutors of linguistics and international management studies.

We also create custom-made training DVDs, made to full international broadcast standard - but at one-fifth the cost.

Training in awareness and skills of Intercultural Communication is vital 

Internationally, for identifying and repairing cross-cultural misunderstandings (virtual or face-to-face) in

§         doing business eg, marketing, negotiating, joint project managing or receiving visiting delegations

§         executive team meetings, to resolve tensions, to gain innovation and better ‘ownership’ in problem-solving  

§         training offshore customer service agents/reps to relate well to UK consumers and achieve better C. Sats

Domestically, for UK Public Services, NHS and the Hospitality Industry, to

§         fulfil UK Race Relations Act in conduct of recruitment and appraisal for a culturally diverse team / workforce

§         fulfil UK Race Relations (Amendment) Act in providing user-friendly services for culturally diverse clients / users / patients, ensuring equality of access for BME groups in NHS, public services and HE

§         equip managers and front-line staff in Hospitality industry to welcome tourists from abroad 

§         manage cultural diversity: including in recruiting, appraising, performance measuring, conducting team meetings, grievance handling, motivating, counselling across cultures

For Universities

§         as ‘raw data’ case-study teaching materials for courses in applied socio-linguistics

§         as real-life case-study interactions for analysis in courses of Business/Management studies

§         in staff training to meet the cultural and study adaptation needs of  international students

Using DVD visual aids

The DVDs/Videos listed below are selected from over 100 on cultural diversity produced and/or directed by John Twitchin, broadcast by BBC TV and by SBS Channel in Australia. Currently Director of CI-CD and Diversity Works Ltd., he was for 25 years in charge of all management training output of BBC TV.

They are rooted in applied socio-linguistic research, made in close collaborative consultation with world leading authorities Professor John Gumperz of University of California at Berkeley (1, 6, 7, 13, 14 below) and Professor Celia Roberts of King’s College, London (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 below). All have manuals for trainers/tutors setting out subject background and more analysis than on-screen; recommended ways to use the DVDs interactively with group exercises and discussion points; handouts; action checklists; resources.

John Twitchin is UK’s longest-experienced specialist trainer in Cross-Cultural Comunication at Work. He has conducted workshops for UKTI, 40 global companies, 40 local authorities, 35 NHS Trusts, 96 colleges and universities. He has written over 50 publications. He is a founder-tutor of UK’s only formally accredited post-graduate course ‘MA in Intercultural Communication’ (Business Studies, University of Bedfordshire).

1.  Crosstalk    

30 mins. Globally, the introduction to cross-cultural communication most widely used in universities, in UK public services, and in international business. Shown many times by BBC TV, it is the BBC’s longest-selling training film.

It illustrates South Asian cultures in case-studies of customer service, public service advising, and job recruitment interviewing, with analytic commentaries by Professor John Gumperz and Professor Bhikhu Parekh.

Crosstalk is a training package, accompanied by a 70-page Trainer’s/Tutor’s Manual, with background, analysis and ways of using the film interactively.

DVDs for UK Domestic Applications of Cross-cultural Communication

2. Successful at Selection (SaS): (2007) 45 mins DVD with manual, directed for Professor Celia Roberts, setting out  skills for recruitment interviewing across cultures (DWP/Job Centre Plus + King’s College). 

3.  Frequently Asked Questions is a DVD and manual companion to SaS, produced by Celia Roberts, addressed to BME groups as job candidates, 2008 (funded by DWP)

 4.  Fair Access: 60 mins DVD (2007) + Training Notes, on Wider Participation in University and Medical School courses for health practitioners. Includes interviewing candidates from overseas (Albanian + Indian). Funded by DoH. 

 

 5.  Recruitment Interviewing Across Cultures  45 mins, with integral 74-page accompanying training manual: case-studies feature South Asian and African-Caribbean cultures. 

 

 6.  Performance Appraising Across Cultures  30 mins., with integral 32-page manual. Features East Asian cultures in appraisal interviews (filmed with Chevron and Bank of America).

 

DVDs 5 + 6: prizewinners of Training Media Awards: "These videos on Recruiting and Appraising across cultures contain appropriate training messages and convey them most effectively. They tackle a subject which has often proved difficult for trainers: they are very rich in terms of content"    (Bryan Rynn, Chair of Judging Panel).  

7.  Counselling and Advice Across Cultures   50 mins, with integral 32-page manual.  "Fly on the wall" case-studies from public advice services, featuring South Asian cultures.

8.  Attitudes to Islam  45 mins, with 48-page training/teaching manual. Examines misunderstandings through eyes of European non-Muslim teachers and health workers working in an Islamic society – and how they apply their insights in schools/public services back in UK.

9.   Evidence Unseen  30 mins, with 56-page trainers’ manual, made originally for training of magistrates and police. Includes interactions illustrating common misunderstandings when young people of African-Caribbean background are involved in formal interviews.

10.  Developing Empathy 30 mins, with print manual. Made for training of doctors/health practitioners. Directed for Professor Celia Roberts of King’s College, London on skills for clinical interactions with patients ‘difficult’ because of personal attitudes or differing cultures.

11.  Doing the Lambeth Talk is a related film and notes by Professor Celia Roberts for GPs/PCTs interacting with culturally diverse BME patients. 

12.  All in the mind  30 mins, made for the MOSAIC series, with manual. Sets out issues and practice of intercultural psychiatry. (Made in collaboration with NAFSIYAT.)

13.   Worktalk:  4 films with trainers’ manual on skills of cross-cultural communication in business and industry:

§         Asians on the Shop Floor

§         Singh 171

§         Fred Barker goes to China

§         Tain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it

14      Man Alive: multi-cultured talk swap  50 minute documentary with training notes. Cross-cultural communication      

involving S. Asian cultural backgrounds.

15. Teams and Meetings  40 minutes training DVD directed for Dr. M. Byrne on handling diversity overlaps of gender and culture.

DVDs for International business applications of Cross-cultural Communication

17. What Makes You Say That? - Cultural Diversity at Work  Series of 3 videos x 60 mins each, directed for Dr Margaret Byrne (www.ugmconsulting.com), Australia’s leading cross-cultural consultant. Funded by Telstra and Westpac. Broadcast many times on SBS TV Channel, Australia.

 

§         The Business Advantage of Cultural Diversity 

§         Asian Encounters: Managing and Business Negotiating in Asia 

§         Success in Meetings involving people of different cultural backgrounds 

Filmed in Asia (Hanoi, Jakarta, Semarang, Sydney, Melbourne) this series includes unique film of cross-cultural business negotiations and joint project meetings in major telecommunications companies, involving Australian, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese managers. 

For example, Western technical and engineering staff are seen mentoring and problem-solving with local colleagues in Vietnam; intercultural project management team meetings between Western managers with Japanese and Indonesian colleagues, filmed in Indonesia. Practical guidance on working inter-culturally is given by ambassadors, academic specialists and long experienced negotiators in Asia. 

What makes You Say That? was reviewed in People Management, journal of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD):

“These are unusually powerful videos. They are long, with three hours of documentary footage from which a trainer can select. They present authentic material about behaviour abroad that will be new to many viewers. They encourage managers to see cultural diversity as a resource that adds value, rather than as a problem - a rich resource to improve an organisation’s international scope and give it flexibility.

The video evidence especially demonstrates the pitfalls that await culturally naïve Westerners who try to do business in Asia. It discusses business behaviours and the consequences when two parties fail to understand each other in meetings for marketing or negotiating.

The video series provides enough material for a two-day workshop on diversity issues in management development. It is admirably supplemented by a practical handbook.”

18.  Also directed for Dr Margaret Byrne at www.ugmconsulting.com in Australia: 3 x 45 mins documentary training videos on the effects of both Gender and Cultural differences in the workplace. Funded by Australian Federal Government; Telstra; Westpac Bank. Again with full training manuals in support.

§         Diversity and Leadership

§         Teams and Meetings

§         Virtual Teams, Virtual Management

Includes full coverage of a videoconference between a British manager in Hewlett Packard with project team members of Indian and of Chinese background in Singapore.

 

19.   Intertalk  3-part series on pan-European plurilingual education in schools and colleges (including Luxembourg,    

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Irish Republic, UK).  For British Council, BBC TV; funded by European Commission.

 

Related DVDs for Equal Opportunities/Managing Diversity training in UK

20. Equal before the law? 45 mins, with 130-page Manual

Explains UK race discrimination law, with case-study of an Employment Tribunal hearing.

BBC film made in collaboration with employment law specialist Tamara Lewis, Central London Law Centre (CLLC). Features Lord Browne-Wilkinson; Professor Bob Hepple; Tribunals President Goolam Meeran.

21. Recognising Racial Discrimination at Work  40 mins, with Manual. Illustrates preparation for conducting the case above. Made with CLLC.

à   contact us for details of availability of DVDs and Training Manuals

à   for Diversity Works DVD/Video full titles list

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