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Intercultural management in ideas and innovation management

Your ideas and innovation management in international teams may be successful. Very likely, it could be more successful. You would like to know how? Then you need to understand why.

Few tasks in management are depending so largely on the staff’s willingness to cooperate, contribute and take part, as is the case with ideas-management. In different cultures, people tend to have very different values and ideas of what an own opinion, an own thought might be worth, and when to talk about it, in what way, and to whom.

In order to understand your colleague’s and your staff’s requirements, worries and viewpoints when it comes to developing and proposing ideas, you need to know in the first place why it is that one’s freedom to express ideas depends very largely on the culture that has shaped a person. The fact that we always get some suggestions and that we do not see any problems, does by no means imply that there wouldn’t be obstacles. This refers to generating ideas, to communicating them, to content and to setting.

Either your teams at home are being composed of people from different cultures. They may be very productive – or not. Would you really know why? Do you know how much potential you may be losing because of cultural barriers? How can you respond to cultural differences in your team and turn them into a motor for ideas?

Or your teams are working in other countries – be they mixed or only composed of locals. Will your well-established structures for incentives work abroad? Why does copy-and-paste of what works at the headquarters so often not bring the desired results elsewhere? What do you have to take into account, in order to even benefit from cultural differences?

Preparing idea managers to professionally avoid intercultural pitfalls is only the first of various steps in order to become sustainably better at ideas management. Another important step would be the best possible communication of your goals, means, incentives and expectations, according to the local culture. In order to conceive the best possible surrounding for getting good ideas, you need – as still another step – to understand what could locally foster or hinder the generation and expression of ideas. Understanding better the world in which your local staff works, allows you even to connect ideas-management with other goals such as recruiting, keeping and developing personnel.

The question: It is hardly or not measurable how much potential we do never achieve in the international management of ideas due to cultural differences, because there are no metrics for the courage to speak out openly or to describe concrete proposals. All we know for sure is that there is lots of potential. Do you want to raise that treasure?

The training: This course makes you acquainted with fundamental structures of well working international ideas-management and with the habits, values and ways of perceiving and judging in the most important cultures, you deal with. Each training is dedicated to one cultural area. Together with a well-experienced senior-trainer, there will be a native of the culture we talk about in order to answer your questions as to behaviour, values and incentives.

The language: The course can be taught in English, German, Spanish or French. Speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Arab can be invited as co-trainers.

The venue: We will locate the course at an attractive venue or a venue of your choice. In-house-courses are possible.
The focus: Each training focusses on one area only. There are only very few general cooking recipes. We offer trainings for China, Japan, South-East-Asia, USA, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Arab countries. Other or more specific regions upon request.

Your benefit: Attractive locations, up-to-date scientific input, the joy of thinking and analyzing, authentic case studies, local representatives of the country/region that is in focus, and the opportunity to discuss confidentiality your own challenges.

Ideas Global supports you when you face intercultural challenges - with professional preparation and realization of IDM projects and roll-outs, making sure your international management does not turn out to be a risk but a success factor.