Read Charlene Solomon’s article in MOBILITY magazine, “International Assignments: Then & Now”.

RW3 CultureWizard

Brian Hults of Newell Rubbermaid (VP of global organizational and people development) cited CultureWizard in Talent Management magazine.

Here is the relevant excerpt:

Newell Rubbermaid, which has employees in more than 70 countries, requires its vice presidents and above to go through its Working in a Global Matrix program to help those leaders build skills they need to be successful in a global environment.

‘The program allows leaders to learn how conflict can be used to reinforce relationships within the organizational structure,’ Hults said. ‘[It] helps them understand their personal leadership style and how that can both help them and hinder them when working internationally. They can then use these insights to help them make adjustments in how they lead to be more effective outside of their home country.’

Further, every employee can access free of charge the CultureWizard, an online tool that provides an array of information about a country’s population, culture, economy and other stats. ‘It gives them an opportunity to learn a bit about the culture and the people that they’re seeing before they go into a country,’ he said…

By taking proactive steps to identify and develop the next generation of global executives, organizations can march boldly into today’s uber-competitive business battlefield.

Click here to read the full article. Thanks, Brian!

Interested in improving your Russian business skills? RW3′s Sean Dubberke contributed a cultural profile of Russia, including strategies for successful business, to MOBILITY magazine this month. Click here to read it online.

RW3 CultureWizard

RW3 CultureWizard has established a Twitter presence to connect directly with CultureWizard site users, clients and anyone interested in global business and cross-cultural exchange.

The CultureWizard Twitter feed will include articles posted on the CultureWizard Blog, tweets and retweets of links to interesting content, responses to our followers, and musings that we’d like to share with the CultureWizard community. Much of this content will be unique to our Twitter feed, so be sure to follow us @culturewizard!

Read insight from Michael Schell, RW3 CultureWizard CEO, in an HR Executive article by Andrew R. McIlvaine titled “The Risks of Foreign Managers”. Here is a blurb describing the article:

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s recent arrest stirs up a glaring concern: Should U.S. employers be on the lookout for troublesome — and possibly criminal — behaviors of managers coming from overseas to work for their organizations? Absolutely, experts say.

Schell offers specific advice to foreign-born and foreign-trained managers working in the US.

The workplace structure at foreign companies tends to be more hierarchical than in the United States, says Michael Schell, CEO of RW3 CultureWizard, a consulting firm in New York, and author of Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset. This hierarchy can result in foreign managers feeling entitled to treat subordinates more or less how they wish, he says.

‘When foreign managers come to the United States, they need to learn what the culture of the U.S. workplace is and the rules here; otherwise, people will get sued,’ says Schell.

What is your perspective on this issue? We welcome any comments or questions.

RW3 CultureWizard

Read Sean Dubberke’s article, Middle East Culture Redux, in the June issue of MOBILITY magazine. The following blurb describes the article:

The Middle East is a vast region encompassing a multitude of distinct cultures, dialects, and attitudes toward business with the West. Dubberke addresses those issues and examines important elements of Middle Eastern cultures: communication, relationships, and rules, as well as how these cultural characteristics affect business practices. He also examines how to successfully interact with Middle Easterners.

RW3 CultureWizard

Kai Falkenberg, Editorial Counsel and blogger at Forbes, writes about how she completed RW3′s WorkingWith China course on CultureWizard to prepare for her first trip to China where she’ll be attending the 2011 Stellar International Women’s Leadership conference.

Falkenberg points out how helpful the WorkingWith China course was and how cultural understanding will play an important role in the success of the conference itself.

Read her article on the strategies for success she learned from the e-Learning course.

Falkenberg writes:

I learned that I should expect more inference, indirectness and subtleties in conversations. The flow of information may not be linear so active listening is more critical. And to preserve “face”, its important to avoid openly criticizing or correcting others. When confrontation is necessary, I learned, using an trusted intermediary is preferred.

WorkingWith China provides practical advice for professionals in any field on being effective with colleagues, customers and virtually anyone you may interact with in China.

For more information on the WorkingWith series of country-specific e-Learning courses, and the other countries available in addition to China, please write us at info@rw-3.com.

RW3 CultureWizard

In “The Power of Virtual Teams,” an article our EVP, Charlene Solomon, wrote for this month’s Mobility Magazine, she explores why global virtual teams are one of the biggest workplace challenges for all HR professionals in 2011.

What is most troubling to you about being on a virtual team? Where do you find yourself struggling, and how do you help your colleagues succeed on global, virtual teams? Is cross-cultural misunderstanding an issue at your company?

RW3 CultureWizard

In “The Cost of Ignorance,” an article in Diversity Executive magazine, Nikravan explores why “Miscommunication and a lack of cross-cultural understanding are two main barriers organizations face when it comes to working globally.”

Nikravan interviewed our EVP, Charlene Solomon, to understand RW3 CultureWizard’s best practices for teaching culture to global teams, which we achieve primarily through electronic methods.

“Best-practice companies are preparing in advance and making plans,” said Solomon. “It doesn’t mean you have to change your beliefs; it just means you’re more aware of other people’s belief systems.”

She also refers to “pull” technology in the learning context: “It’s important to deliver information to adult learners in bite-size pieces for the depth of knowledge that [an] individual learner wants at the appropriate time…”

What have you found to be the most effective way of learning about doing business effectively in other countries? Is trial-and-error a process your managers expect you to go through, or do you find preparation and review of best cross-cultural practices valuable?

RW3 CultureWizard

An article in Human Resource Executve, Confronting Sexual Harassment in India, details the incidence of sexual harassment directed towards women in the IT and BPO industries.

Nearly 9 in 10 female workers have witnessed some form of workplace sexual harassment, according to a survey of IT and BPO employees. And nearly three-quarters of the time, the perpetrator was the victim’s manager or supervisor.

RW3′s Charlene Solomon provides insight into the cultural factors at play in the Indian workplace:

The social taboos against public displays of sexuality also discourage frank talk about sexual harassment, [Solomon] adds. ‘Sexual harassment is the elephant in the room — it’s not below the radar, but people feel it’s inappropriate to talk about it…Women in India will not come forward easily [to report harassment] because they do not want to be seen as challenging authority and creating disharmony in the organization,’ she says.

To more effectively deliver messages regarding sexual harassment policy, Solomon says “It’s better to err on the side of giving too much education on the corporate policies against harassment. And for the male employees holding positions of authority, it’s important to remind them — consistently — that the company will not tolerate sexual harassment by anyone.”

We’re interested in hearing your experiences. What have you seen or heard in the Indian workplace? How else would culture impact the HR responsibility to make the organization aware of policy and ways to bring harassment cases forward?

RW3 CultureWizard

Read an article by Charlene Solomon and Sean Dubberke of RW3 CultureWizard, titled “Awakening Giant: India’s Burgeoning Workforce”, which is featured in this month’s Mobility magazine. Below is a synopsis from the editors.

As multinational organizations increasingly make strategic use of educated Indian talent, at the same time they are aiding in the development of many of India’s industries. Dubberke and Solomon write that to truly appreciate the country’s global importance, and to understand the scope of India’s activities in the marketplace, one must first be able to successfully engage and collaborate across cultures.

RW3 CultureWizard

With a title like “A Distressing Virtual Reality: 40 Percent of Dispersed Teams Underperform,” Chief Learning Officer raises awareness of an issue that potentially affects many of us. RW3 CultureWizard’s Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010 is the base of the argument targeting virtual work as something we must learn to be good at, and not something we can easily compare with face-to-face interaction.

Click here to read an article in ASTD’s Training + Development magazine about RW3 CultureWizard’s Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010—The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams.

Learn about the shortcomings of virtual work, and how to support virtual teams with the training they need to succeed despite the lack of context face-to-face interaction provides.

RW3 CultureWizard

Listen to The American Entrepreneur radio segment “Crossing That Cultural Chasm: ‘The International Capitalist’ Talks With Two Experts” (be sure to click on the second clip), in which David Iwinski interviews RW3 CultureWizard’s CEO, Michael Shell, and EVP, Charlene Solomon. Below is a blurb from the show’s website:

So how do you take your business global? “The International Capitalist” David Iwinski has some answers, as he takes over the hosting reins on American Entrepreneur Radio to discuss that very topic. He’ll talk with the authors of two of the hottest books on the market when it comes to globalization. First, Charlene Solomon and Michael Schell discuss how to effectively manage when your people are scattered around the globe, as covered in their book, “Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business With a Global Mindset”.

RW3 CultureWizard

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RW3 Survey Finds 40% of Virtual Teams Underperform

New Survey Identifies Areas that Impair Effectiveness of Virtual Work

NEW YORK, NY – May 24, 2010 – According to a study released today, 80% of corporate managers work virtually at least part of the time and 63% are members of global virtual teams. The key factors that impair productivity are: cultural differences, communication styles, time-zone differences, language and a lack of face-to-face contact, according to the Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010 – The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams, conducted by RW3 CultureWizard, an intercultural training consultancy specializing in online intercultural training for global business managers.

Michael S. Schell, CEO of RW3 CultureWizard, said “We were stunned to learn that only 60% of participants on virtual teams considered them to be as successful as they could be. We can’t imagine that this degree of satisfaction would be acceptable in any business endeavor. Inasmuch as virtual teams are such a fast-growing component of business, and global collaboration is critical to success, the organizations with the most effective teams will be most successful. Making virtual work more effective must be top-of-mind for every business leader.”

The survey identifies three challenging areas: time zone and language difficulties, communication styles and cultural differences.

1. Time Zones and Languages: 81% indicated time zones presented the greatest general hurdle to virtual teams, followed by 64% who found language (accents and dialects) to be a barrier.

2. Communication style: 94% said the inability to read non-verbal cues is very challenging, and 90% stated the absence of face-to-face contact interfered with the ability to build a relationship (which is perceived as a challenge facing virtual teams). In addition, 81% said being virtual made it more difficult to establish trust and rapport.

3. Cultural differences: 80% said that virtual teams slowed down decision making, 77% were hampered by different leadership styles and 76% felt the method of decision-making was a challenge.

“Apparently, collaborative technology has outpaced the ability of global virtual team members to work effectively across cultures,” says Charlene Solomon, executive vice president of RW3 Culture Wizard. “Companies need to be aware of the influence of culture on work styles and to develop procedures to assure intercultural effectiveness. They need to establish specific rules for respectful interaction that are already assumed to exist among members of more conventional, co-located teams where all of the participants are all from the same culture. They also need to pay greater attention to team structure and must carefully monitor and adhere to the work rules they have created,” she added.

“The good news is that there is training available to make virtual teams more effective,” concludes Schell. He explained that the new study was prompted, in part, by the growing number of collaborative software options that facilitate virtual work and make it commonplace for teams of people from around the world to work together – often without ever meeting in person. According to Schell, RW3 CultureWizard is using the findings of the survey report to develop and fine tune the components of its Virtual Team Tool – a training initiative to help organizations improve communication skills among virtual team members.

RW3 CultureWizard has made a copy of The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams available online. Please click on the link above.

About RW3 CultureWizard
RW3 CultureWizard is an intercultural training consultancy that specializes in creating online and e-learning facilities to develop global collaboration within its client organizations. Founded in 2001, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, RW3 CultureWizard blends 30 years of experience with technological capabilities into a comprehensive cultural e-university, which provides tailored learning platforms. These include cross-cultural training courses, global and virtual team collaboration, international assignee support, and country-specific information.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information, visit RW3′s website.