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CI-CD    Centre for Inter-cultural Development

from cultural orientation to inter-cultural competence

 

Welcome to CI-CD

We’ve specialised for 25 years in researching, creating training DVDs, and providing hundreds of workshops on awareness and skills of Cross-Cultural Communication – skills vital for achieving mutual understanding in all exchanges between people who can speak in English, but who come from different cultural backgrounds. Different cultures strongly influence people’s ways of thinking and styles of communicating: this means skills for  avoiding confusion and damaging misunderstandings, and for building rapport positively across cultures, are vital 

§         internationally, (a) for executives and managers in overseas marketing, negotiating trade agreements, or JV project managing, and (b) for front-line staff in Indian and other Asian contact centres as essential ‘tools for the job’ to meet the expectations of Western consumers and so achieve high levels of UK customer satisfaction

§         domestically, (a) for managers of culturally diverse teams, (b) for front-line delivery of public services (eg NHS; Local Authority Housing, Social Services, etc) and (c) for universities with international students.

This page gives an introduction, with five categories of services to meet such needs. Click on links à for details.

à   Our Approach and Our Range of Cross-Cultural Communication services

à   International Business: training for executives/managers in GENERIC CORE SKILLS of cross-cultural communication, needed in leadership/marketing/negotiating/project managing GLOBALLY

à     International Business: cross-cultural skills for Doing Business in SPECIFIC COUNTRIES. eg INDIA and S. Asia; CHINA and E. Asia; Europe (East, eg POLAND, and West, eg FRANCE, GERMANY, UK as Gateway to Europe); USA

à   Contact Centres in INDIA: (a) Research Article on Western consumer alienation, plus (b) Advanced Language and Culture communication training for CSRs to meet expectations of Western consumers

à   UK PUBLIC SECTOR: Local Authorities, NHS, Universities – communication skills needed for managing a culturally diverse workforce, and for delivering front-line services to diverse clients/ patients/students

à   Training DVDs and videos on Cross-cultural Communication

Our Approach

Much ‘cultural training’ comprises little more than awareness/orientation, with tips about ‘body language’ and ‘business etiquette’ based on dated, abstract generalisations about cultural differences, drawn loosely from the fields of anthropology and/or sociology. By contrast, CI-CD offers a competencies approach – moving on from such ‘cultural awareness’ to develop the practical strategies and skills for communicating successfully across cultures: skills distilled from the most relevant academic field, applied sociolinguistics. Our unique documentary training DVDs show case-studies of international negotiations, project management meetings, or UK front-line delivery of public services. They bring to the training room the power and credibility of real-life evidence - not over-simplified, stereotypical drama scenes with actors. By watching authentic interactions at work, managers and front-line staff see instantly for themselves how unwitting cross-cultural misunderstandings occur: the vital first step to developing the skills for successfully communicating across cultures – whether at home or abroad.  

Feedback from hundreds of client organisations shows overwhelmingly that this is the approach busy managers and front-line staff, under constant pressure to make things happen immediately, really appreciate.

Our range of services

n   consultancy and customised workshops for managers in International business and in UK public services

n   front-line staff training for contact centres in Asia, especially India, in service delivery to Western consumers

n   workshops for front-line staff in NHS and local authority services to ensure equality of access and treatment  for culturally diverse communities / patients

n   bespoke documentary training DVDs/videos, made to full broadcast standard

n   conference presentations using our unique documentary video evidence

n   induction for newly arriving international students at UK universities – tackling ‘culture and study shock’ 

n   training for university staff and VL inputs for courses in Linguistics + in International Management

We provide independent evaluation reports of our training for International Business, Public Services, NHS.

International Business: core skills for global managers

Skills for all business interactions involving people from different cultures, eg

n   Conducting international Executive Meetings (face-to-face or virtual), to reduce misunderstandings and/or cultural tensions, and improve creative problem-solving

n   Preparing executives/managers (and families) to adapt culturally for successful expatriate assignments

n   Managing Joint Ventures competently across cultures: in Recruiting, Performance Appraising, Training, Mentoring, Trouble-shooting, Motivating, Conducting team meetings, Change managing.

n   Receiving foreign business delegations and tourists/visitors to UK: avoiding all-too-common mistakes

à  see CICD international services (including introductory briefings on What are the generic core skills of cross-cultural communication needed for operating globally).

International Business: skills for specific countries / regions

  Customer Service for Contact Centres in INDIA: to see Research on consumer alienation, plus communication training to help front-line Agents/CSRs to gain Western consumer confidence and high C Sats, click on

à Customer service in INDIA: Research Article and Advanced Intercultural Communication (AICC)

   Doing business (marketing, negotiating or JV project managing) in S. Asia: INDIA (and/or PAKISTAN):

à   Preparing for Doing business in INDIA

   Doing business in E.Asia: CHINA (and/or VIETNAM, JAPAN, KOREA, THAILAND, INDONESIA):

à   CI-CD Services for relating cross-culturally to CHINA

à   Preparing for Doing business in CHINA

  Preparing for Doing business in EUROPE, eg, FRANCE - GERMANY - POLAND - SPAIN - ITALY - BALTIC STATES – SCANDINAVIA - UK as ‘Gateway to Europe’; also Doing Business in USA. Click on

à   Doing business in EUROPE

UK Public Services: Government; Councils; NHS; Voluntary sector

n  Cross-cultural skills for managing a diverse workforce, to meet the requirements of Race Relations Act

- Recruitment Interviewing across cultures

- Performance Appraising across cultures

- Team leading across cultures - conducting effective problem-solving meetings; reducing team tensions;       motivating teams positively 

- Handling Grievances and/or Counselling across cultures

- Risk/Impact assessing for diverse cultures, to meet statutory duties under Race Relations Amendment Act   

n  Cross-cultural communication skills for front-line staff, to ensure equality of access in service delivery, to meet specific duties under the Race Relations Amendment Act in NHS, local authorities (Housing/Social Services, Inclusion Units), police, legal services, inter-agencies, voluntary sector

- Training to equip front-line staff to provide user-friendly user/client/customer/patient care across cultures

à  For UK public services: (a) Managing diversity (b) Cross-cultural communication in front-line services   

University applications of cross-cultural communication

n   For university tutors, pastoral, support and administrative staff needing to attract international students; meet their needs

n   For Visiting Lectures in courses of International Management; Health professions; Socio-linguistics

à    CI-CD services for Universities

n   For newly arriving international students: induction sessions for adapting to culture, study and language needs. And for meeting the social and study skills needs of Chinese students specifically

à  CICD: Attracting Chinese students

Our training DVDs / Videos

à    List of our DVDs / Videos for training awareness and skills of Cross-Cultural Communication

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