Cross Cultural communications: what to say and what not to say?

Fons Trompenaars, Dr. Gary R. Weaver, Bagher Fardanesh and Motoo Unno; all of them have one thing in common and that is a passion to demystify and explore intercultural relations and communications and its impacts on our interactions in a multi cultural and global society, day to day lives or business practices and negotiations. I got the opportunity of listening and interacting with them and a host of other intercultural practitioners, during the first day of the 11th Annual Conference on Intercultural Relations: A Forum for Business, Education and Training Professionals held at American University.

For me the main highpoints of the day were the following sessions: key note address by Fons Trompenaars, internationally acclaimed Dutch author in the field of cross cultural communications. With his humorous presentation style, he captured the participants’ attention and spoke about models of communication and dimensions. Next in line, was Dr. Weavers’ simulation exercise called ‘The Mr. Khan’ which looks at cross-cultural communication and analytical skills. It was very interesting to note that how communication barriers and cultural differences can affect business negotiations. We were informed that the contrast-culture simulation was developed in the mid-1960 as a part of a training project commissioned by the U.S. Army to improve the interpersonal communications skills of its overseas military advisors. I have personally become a fan of Motoo Unno, visiting scholar from Meiji University, Tokyo Japan. His presentation on the Toyota hearing reflected on the Japanese values, beliefs and thought patterns. He also touched upon the differences between Japanese and Americans when it comes to conflict handling and negotiation styles. His easy and conversant style of presentation with anecdotes was a great hit among all of us.