Virtual Training – Effective Intercultural Interactions between German Corporation and Australian Partners 

2023 – 2025 Manufacturing and Infrastructure Industry

Challenge

The client holds a contract with the Australian Government and operates through a local subsidiary in partnership with several Australian organisations. We were initially engaged to support the predominantly German executive team in working more effectively within Australia’s multicultural business environment.

The brief was to build understanding of differing cultural management styles and workplace practices, and to help leaders recognise behaviours that may negatively affect motivation, inclusion, and collaboration. Following several culturally challenging interactions between German management and multicultural Australian staff, the executive team sought practical strategies to address these issues from a leadership perspective.

Following the initial executive workshop, we were engaged to deliver the same training framework to a diverse range of Subject Matter Expert (SME) teams within the subsidiary, with each workshop tailored to the specific intercultural challenges faced by that team.

• One executive workshop focused on building intercultural competence for leading professionals from culturally diverse backgrounds.
• Eight SME team workshops focused on strengthening intercultural competence within a German-managed organisation with culturally diverse leaders and staff.

Interventions for both target groups:

1. Participants completed a Training Needs Analysis to identify their challenges, experiences, and expectations for each workshop.
2. Virtual workshops were delivered in small groups to encourage interaction with the facilitator and between participants. Executive and SME cohorts attended three sessions of 2.5 hours each.
3. Participants completed self-assessments to identify their preferred ways of working, including work practices and communication style profiles.
4. Participants also completed the Intercultural Readiness Check to assess their current level of intercultural readiness, followed by action planning to strengthen capability.
5. Participants submitted training feedback, and summary reports were shared with the organisation and relevant contact people.

Results and Learning outcomes:

Increased cultural awareness to recognise and understand differences

• Participants deepened cultural understanding through multiple-perspective thinking, including recognising cultural bias, stereotyping, and ethnocentrism.
• They explored both the visible and invisible dimensions of culture.
• Critical thinking exercises helped participants recognise the impact of cultural behaviours in the workplace.
• Participants mapped culturally influenced practices across leading, decision-making, communication, trust-building, disagreement, and evaluation, and practised bridging skills to close identified gaps.
• They mapped their current level of intercultural readiness using a validated self-assessment and identified practical actions to build the competencies needed to bridge cultural gaps effectively.

Following the executive workshop, the client chose to extend the program to all SME teams. The project ran across 2023 and 2025, with a total of nine workshops delivered.

Feedback of participants

Online training feedback forms showed a 100% positive response to the question: Your overall rating of the training workshop: 36.4% “very good” and 63.6% “excellent”.

Some of the written comments:

• Thank you. Your professionalism, patience, dedication, and insightful guidance throughout the program were Your flexibility and willingness to adapt to our evolving needs, and those of the participants, were truly commendable. The program as a whole was an enormous success, and the content and topics covered will significantly enhance our cultural awareness, interactions, and communication. We are confident this will strengthen our relationships going forward.
• The three sessions were fantastic. The trainer did an excellent job encouraging participants to interact, answer questions, and share feedback. Her stories and real-life examples of workplace misunderstandings and how to overcome them in practice were especially insightful.
• Although I usually find online training challenging and prefer in-person sessions, the trainer was an excellent facilitator and highly knowledgeable, which made the online experience much more comfortable and worthwhile.