But it wasn’t always so easy. Back in 2007, Erin was working in a remote village in Latin America enjoying her work as a teacher but living an insecure economic situation, paid in beans and rice – and not advancing up any career or business ladders.

A self-imposed intercultural challenge

The bridge between these two contrasting situations was intercultural. Erin set herself an intercultural challenge to immerse herself completely in a culture and a language very, very different from her own. Erin’s chosen country was Jordan, a relatively conservative Islamic kingdom with borders to Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and more. Soon, with her close friend Jennifer, a new goal to build a business was set into motion.

Mission impossible?

The business challenge seemed to embrace the impossible. The mission appeared to ignore the realities. How could two Americans create a business of a kind which had never before scaled in Jordan, where people are openly suspicious of your motivations and earnestly question the soundness of your business idea, where personal connections are everything, and where some familiar bedrock concepts of American business, such as a generally dependable and transparent legal system, were simply not present?

Imported ideas won’t work

Erin’s response to this challenge was a combination of her own methodology and a voracious appetite for insights and approaches from the intercultural field. Within a short time living in Jordan it was obvious that you could not import your home-culture’s model for business success into this country. You’d need a business approach far more rooted in the local culture.

تعلم اللغة العربية

First, Erin invested fully in learning the language at a very deep level. Language skills opened doors and turned acquaintanceships into friendships which in turn opened doors to a world of social connections, a multiplying network of people willing to help a friend or a friend of a friend.

Suspicious activity

Life is rarely so simple, and learning the language aroused suspicion too. In this tense and volatile region of the world, local people may have in mind that there could be foreign spies in the country, and if true, those spies might look and sound like you do. Gaining acceptance here in Jordan would demand so much more than just knowing the language.

Success was not coming easy, but some early wins with her expanding and deepening network of local friends convinced her to continue to strive on the path she had set herself.

Out of the cultural comfort zone

With the help of intercultural literature, Erin trained her eye to see important details of culture in everyday situations. She noticed that other people were not seeing – nor not responding – to those cultural differences.

Erin found a way to stay true to herself while adapting authentically to the culture she was in. As their business grew, Erin began to convert her experience and the collected research from the intercultural field into cultural-competence components at the language centre.

Their Shababeek language centre was gaining a reputation as a forum for facilitating relationships between Arabs and others. The centre’s development model was based on the idea of nurturing students. The service provided support as students gained language skills and passed deeper into authentic intercultural experiences, further out of the comfort zone.

Diversifying the management

Within a year, the business was at a scale and complexity where more local talent was needed in the management. Drawing on famous American entrepreneurial characteristics of hard work, persistence and a “we can figure this out” attitude had taken the founders a long way, but recruiting talented local managers for the business was a game-changer.

Recruitment of staff, which was almost entirely by social media and personal networks could now accelerate and expand access to new sources of talent.

Erin continues to be part of the leadership of the Shababeek language centre and has more recently developed an independent business, CultureDive, which focuses 100% on her intercultural practice.

Stepping back from personal crisis

With the CultureDive brand, Erin is delivering a compassionate service to expatriates who are facing challenges often so intense that their entire expatriate assignment is threatened. “I had seen so many early returns from my expatriate circle of friends” says Erin, “I created CultureDive to ensure that people had a way to step back from crisis when they are hurting on an overseas assignment.”

CultureDive is more than a preventive to expat failure. According to Erin, CultureDive exists to enhance people’s lives as expats. The methodology gives clients cultural lenses, helping them adapt to extreme difference while retaining their own strong sense of self.

“We’re here to help expats thrive”, says Erin. “We know that it is hard to live and work in another culture. When people start working with us, they may feel that they are also surviving on a diet of rice and beans, so to speak. My story, and many other stories like mine are proof that stepping whole-heartedly into a new culture can bring the energy and inspiration which turns your whole life around”.

Erin Reyes is CultureConnector’s Cultural Correspondent for Jordan.

Image credits: Erin Reyes

Looking to the year 2025, Manuela Marquis sees a world where priorities have shifted. New skills are in demand: intercultural competence, virtual collaboration, participative leadership. She founded CrescenTalent to help key individuals and organisations who are already targeting the skills needed in the mid-2020s.

Targeting change in the real world

CrescenTalent is beginning a major initiative to make coaching the trigger to change. Coaching, according to Manuela, goes far beyond skills. “The concept of coaching is fundamentally different to training” says Manuela. “Skills may be activated or developed through training, but the target of coaching is direct change in the real world. This is a solution to the oldest problem of training: transfer from the classroom into work.”

Research-based intercultural coaching

Manuela follows published research on business competences. “The World Economic Forum in 2016 was a particular turning point in my thinking,” she reflects. “Since then, the WEF and other organisations have produced important trend data on current developments and predictions about business skills. We are starting to face the realities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is why I am in collaboration with other intercultural coaches and consultants who want to offer a constructive response to that challenge.”

IMC-coaching, Ceran, ICF, SIETAR, CrescenTalent, ICF and SIETAR

Manuela’s connections to several leading networks mean that she can exchange and develop ideas with fellow professionals from the widest variety of cultures and industries.

IMC, or Intercultural Mobility Coaching is the network of professional coaches with expertise in communication and international management. Ceran is a large training organisation providing intercultural training and consultancy services, with a particularly large community of intercultural consultants. CrescenTalent is a consultancy founded by Manuela. The term crescent originates in the Latin word crescere, which means “to grow”. CrescenTalent focus on developing talent, creating bridges of understanding between humans to boost performance and thus increase competence in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous VUCA world. CrescenTalent help businesses to adapt to organisational and technological change in an international environment. The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the world’s largest organization of professionally trained coaches, where Manuela is actively engaged in organising international events for the members in Paris. Finally SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research), an association for interculturalists, is another inspiration for Manuela.

“Teamwork and collaboration come naturally after working in an American corporate environment” says Manuela “and independence and agility are essential to my business. As the founder of a specialised consultancy firm, we need to be agile in order to conduct change-management fast and effectively”.

Serious intercultural business at Disney

Manuela’s intercultural journey began when she left her native Germany at the age of 20. After some time in hotel and event management in London, Cannes and Luxembourg, she took a role at Disneyland Paris, in their giant conventions business. “Opened in 1992, Disneyland Paris was at first known for its theme parks but not for the convention business. An internal training was organised to explain the difference to the employees as the clients’ expectations were totally different. ”

From her position in Disney’s business event management, Manuela soon found herself managing multi-lingual, multi-cultural teams with similarly diverse clients where all the normal challenges of international business are heightened: integration and diversity, high-profile, quality-conscious, on-schedule delivery of complex projects, layers of national and organisational culture, fast-paced formation of new teams, and a focus on recruiting and developing talent locally and internationally.

Training for a multi-cultural business environment

“Disneyland Paris was a good school for me” says Manuela, considering her ten years in the business-convention field. “With guests from all over the world, we dealt with every possible kind of intercultural interaction. But in our business, hierarchy was the cultural difference we experienced most sharply. I moved into training and became fascinated by the concepts and the pedagogy. Training methodology has a big impact on success.”

In harmony with changes in technology

After leaving Disneyland Paris, Manuela trained as a professional coach, got an ICF Certification and dived deeper into the blending of skills and technology. “Today there is less expatriation, more virtual collaboration. This often divides the generations and different individuals on a team. A personalised approach is important to achieve results.” Manuela enjoys getting hands-on with technology and works creatively with teams to implement new tech and establish successful working practices for online collaboration. “These are becoming essential intercultural skills” she suggests.

Measuring the impact of coaching

“My clients, who are often executives, Directors, VPs or HR people, have always had a clear view of what to expect from intercultural coaching”, claims Manuela. These clients often want their employees to listen to outside views, to get a new perspective through a non-judgemental coaching dialogue. “They want increased self-awareness, to find bridges to other people and work better together. In short, intercultural collaboration skills.”

“With technology, today diagnostics can be done very easily. We can very efficiently do “before- and after” -studies.” Many HR departments among Manuela’s clients need help converting their goals into metrics. “There is much more interest now in measurability, but it is surprising how many top leaders recognise the importance of soft-skills and do not demand a data-driven approach to coaching.”

In a typical 5-10 session coaching series, Manuela targets business transformation. She concludes “During one coaching series we can find the strengths and weaknesses in the team and put them on a path towards solving the challenges of international business they decided to address.”

Careers are habit forming. Many of us go deep and become specialists. We grow roots into a certain professional field as our everyday ties to our work strengthen. We get paid (reward), we surround ourselves with the people, objects and tools of the work (reminders) and we get good at what we do, in some ways so good that we can do parts of the work automatically (routine).

Rewards, reminders, routines inside the comfort zone

After twenty years in the language-training business in Italy, the rewards, the reminders and the routines had grown very strong for Lara Statham. The easy path, the most likely scenario, was to continue the status quo careerwise.

Seeing a path into something new

Lara Statham
Providing a range of intercultural training and coaching for companies and individual executives, Lara is based in Turin Italy. Her specialist interest is UK-Italian cultural interaction.
More on Lara Statham

For Lara to recognise the real possibility of change, something dramatic was needed. The drama was delivered by the economic disruption of the 2007- global financial crisis, which hit Italy hard. As a chaotic economic situation brewed around her, Lara realised that she had an opportunity to make a dramatic change in her own professional life. Her future would not be the status quo. She needed a new path.

By 2017, Lara’s professional transformation was complete and we in the Argonaut team were delighted that she joined as a Cultural Correspondent for Italy. We heard her story and asked her to share some insights for other people considering a move into the fascinating field of intercultural competence development.

Ramping up the culture

Cultural factors and business advice were already a part of Lara’s work in the language business, but they were not the focus. She worked with senior managers, building their capacity for using the English language. As the years passed, she increasingly taught her clients how to communicate effectively, participate in meetings, write powerful text, and negotiate in English. The goal of the training was analysis and proper use of language.

Cultural competence for free

Her clients expected language training and paid for improved language skills. So, as Lara says “for my clients, getting stronger intercultural competence was a nice extra which did not appear on the invoice”.

The first step in Lara’s transformation was recognising that some building blocks of an intercultural career were already present in her language teaching role and her qualifications as an educationalist. She decided to go further in the intercultural business consulting, and took a teaching post at the University of Turin’s Department of Economics. Language was still the focus. The lessons were structured around analysing grammar, but the context for her newer clients was very much about getting new skills for better business results.

Widening the focus

Lara was starting to talk business with business leaders. Her own business as an independent language training provider in Turin continued in parallel, but Lara’s interest in the business impact of cultural competence just grew.

I didn’t wait to be lucky. I worked hard to create every new relationship

You’ve got to love it

A career switch would not be easy. It requires commitment, passion, energy and perseverance. Lara considered her options. It was not hard to see that intercultural consultancy would be a rich source of professional interest.

But intellectual curiosity into cultures is not enough. Lara also considered the format of intercultural coaching, training and consultancy. How would it feel in practice?

“I get so much satisfaction from working on a one-to-one basis with my clients” says Lara. “And small groups too. I am able to stay in contact with my clients, see the impact. It is so enriching to hearing about their successes after our training.”

Testing the idea

Becoming an intercultural coach and consultant felt like the right move to Lara. But what would other people think? She decided to find out. “I sounded people out about the idea, people I knew who knew me. They immediately backed me. Through dozens of conversations with business insiders, my vision crystallised and my ambition solidified. I would do this.”

Lara joined got involved with internations, joined international clubs, expat women’s groups, started to “network like crazy”. In each new scene, her new career path got warm approval.

Beginning a transition

Things seemed to move fast, because Lara was detaching herself from the routines, reminders and increasingly also the rewards of her first career.

But indeed, this was a transition, a gradual shift. The only step change was in ambition and orientation. Practical changes came more slowly.

In her language and communication skills training, Lara rapidly dropped out the grammatical nit-picking. She focused more on the context of communication, extracting insights from different kinds of work situations face by her clients.

The original language-culture balance began to reverse. Increasingly, language came as the bonus for customers (English is usually the language of Lara’s trainings).

Becoming an interculturalist: to do list

While there are successful self-taught interculturalists working in the field, Lara is not one of those. After her firm decision in 2011 to begin a career change, Lara dived into research in the field. Her university base was an excellent place to begin. She feasted on books from the founding fathers and mothers of the field, to latest academic articles. She continued to network into the business and participated in remote learning and as well as classroom training.

“A lot of reading was necessary for the transition. The courses gave me some additional new skills, such as coaching and business analysis. One of the most satisfying parts was my systematic programme to build my own intercultural network. I created contacts in other countries, formed bi-lateral partnerships between Italy and UK, travelled a lot to China. My new connections generated projects, and helped convert my career transition from idea into reality.”

But I didn’t wait to be lucky. I worked hard to create every new relationship and to generate every new intercultural project.

After 20 years inhabiting the same language-teaching role, it was fun to introduce myself in as an interculturalist. It was so refreshing to assume a new professional identity.

7 talents of interculturalists our customers want

When organisations invest in intercultural training, they look for the best people to deliver the experience as trainers, coaches or partners in development programmes. How well do your talents match those which top organisations are seeking? How much do your customers know what you have to offer?

Still outside the comfort zone

The start was energising, and her current work is highly motivating for Lara, but there has been a tough journey in-between.

“The transition was difficult on a personal level, letting go of my background as a language trainer. I had to challenge myself to think and act in new ways. I adopted a different approach, with more business focus. Creating the new habits was tricky. I had to develop a new kind of offering, write different kinds of proposals, change my identity and represent my projects in new ways.”

“For a long time I needed to remind myself every day to drop those old habits. There was financial pressure to reach new customers and allow the old sources of income to dry up. I did the whole thing in a period of economic downturn.”

The rewards of being a cross-cultural coach

Nowadays Lara loves her intercultural work and takes pride in the successes achieved with her clients.

“Of course, people are so much more willing to engage when we are talking culture than previously when we focused on the finer points of English grammar.”

Switching from teacher to coach/consultant has removed the hierarchy from her interactions with clients. Lara notices how her new role has levelled things out. Her clients are more open to discussion. She can sense that people feel they get more value in her intercultural training.

“Now my customers understand that they can be brilliant communicators with somewhat limited language skills. The keys I give them are the insights from the study of culture. What makes an effective communicator or an inspirational leader in a foreign country is very likely different from the qualities expected in your own culture.”

The change has happened. Intercultural training has gone online. And there is more change to come. Argonaut met Béatrice Rivas Siedel, an intercultural coach and trainer based in Paris and member of Terres Neuves Network to get a trainer’s perspective on the rush into e-learning.

“For years not much happened, except for a few early adopters running pilots and low-profile projects” says Béatrice. “Some big organisations had online self-study tools for intercultural skills, but trainers were able to continue training in traditional ways. That’s all past now. Today clients and employees expect to learn online – at least partly.

We are training in a period of complete transformation lasting just a few years

Béatrice is a leading part of the trend in her home market, France. She tracks the development through industry reports, including the IFTS survey. “The trend towards digital learning is happening at rate of around 7% per year. We are living in and training in a period of complete transformation lasting just a few years”.

“That feels like a step change, and we’re noticing it”, says Béatrice. “These trends have hit intercultural training too, and it’s a shock for those trainers not ready or able to adapt.”

What trainers can do

Béatrice believes that further change is inevitable. “The end result must be that trainers incorporate technology deeper into their work. Trainers will find their own unique path which suits them and their client base. I’ve told the story of My breakthrough moments as an intercultural trainer in a recent blog post here.”

Being part of the discussion

We asked how trainers can take a bigger role in the e-learning revolution. “Trainers also need to have a louder voice in this transformation. They have valuable expertise in how learning happens.” Béatrice lists the three groups who could benefit from hearing the insights and getting support from the trainers.

Opening the conversation about e-learning with

• training providers who engage trainers
• clients who have the organisational needs
• employees who participate in training

“They are all on the same journey into technology-enabled learning.”

New training methods in practice

While talking and listening are important, Béatrice says trainers also need to experiment with change. One area is to build solid expertise in facilitating virtual training sessions. Béatrice has shared eight actions for trainers switching to virtual training.

What employees can do

Completing a training programme which is 50%-100% remote can be a great experience as a learner. Here are some of the opportunities which Béatrice encourages her training participants to consider:

• Take advantage of asynchronous learning, which is learning which you can fully schedule, where you are not required to be in a live call or live session with the trainer or others. Make a schedule which suits you in terms of pace, time of day, length of session, your physical location.
• Get to know your own learning style, and make sure you benefit from that, especially if the trainer is remote or if you are working alone. For example, if you are visual and kinaesthetic (using movement and touch), then draw and write. This helps you learn better as you watch video or read content. Do no not allow yourself to take the role of passive recipient of knowledge and skills. Be an active e-learner.
• Get regular feedback: use the tests which are often built into the online learning platform, participate in games, ask the trainer and co-learners to give you feedback
• Repeat and review. Many people learn lasting skills and get lasting knowledge by repetition or returning to material with fresh eyes. Reviews and repetition are great for memory.

What training providers can do

Béatrice proposes that training organisations re-think their business models, in dialogue with their customers and with their trainers. “Some trainers are not convinced. They worry that as e-learning rises, the quality of human interaction falls. There is scepticism and criticism. Here in France, we may express our opposition openly. Often trainers fear that F2F trainings will disappear.”

Some training providers have successfully involved trainers in piloting new models, based on blended learning approaches. “Training providers should empower trainers to design the training structure to fit customer needs.” Béatrice points to one model which already becoming a classic blended learning training structure:

one remote asynchronous module → then live F2F → then social media

But many different structures are possible. “We are moving out of the era when clients come to training providers for a rigid model or fixed approach to training design,” Béatrice continues. “Although training providers need to build their brand and the unique advantages of their approach, they should also reserve creative space for the trainer to construct the learning around the precise needs of the client in each case.”

Innovative intercultural training providers

Terres Neuves, part of the Ceran group, is one example of an innovator in this area which gets good feedback from Béatrice. “They are working with the Argonaut team to provide training for consultants, and support when clients and trainers adopt new techniques.”

“Training providers like Terres Neuves can give opportunities for trainers to acquire new skills necessary for success with e-learning. Key skills for trainers are:

• leading virtual meetings
• using technology in face-to-face training sessions (and know when not to)
• remote mentoring, use of chat rooms for longer-term processes with clients
• content creation, starting with blogs, video interviews and so on.”

Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear.

Béatrice notes that training providers have an important role in getting permission from the client to mix synchronous and asynchronous learning. She adds that training providers can make sure that trainers have access to technologies, even something as simple as social media, which is often a great module to complete a training or to enable continued involvement.

“One of the most significant decisions a training provider must make, is the decision to licence learning technology. They will need a good learning management system with good tracking, so the client can find out what’s happening.”

What clients can do

Most of Béatrice’s clients have a learning and development strategy which includes increasing the use of e-learning. They are already on track to boost the use of technology in their employees’ training. But intercultural training is rarely the first area to get investment or to see change.

“Clients can achieve benefits in intercultural training too”, says Béatrice. She highlights some advantages and obstacles that are relevant for intercultural training too.

• Seek flexible training designs, both to control the cost and to find a better individual fit for the employee or group
• Promote the possibilities to employees
• Demand, review and use tracking data about the training, to influence the design of future trainings

Reduce or remove these obstacles for training companies:

• Investment in platform: opening corporate Learning Management Systems for intercultural training, or accepting the platform costs in external intercultural training provider solutions
• Investment in content, including industry-specific and company specific case-studies, shared in e-learning format
• Investment in training skills of in-house and freelance trainers; this can also happen at no cost for example by including external consultants in internal e-learning training courses for trainers and L&D managers

100% face to face is never best

Béatrice has become a convinced advocate of blended learning. “100% face to face is never best, just like 100% e-learning can never be best” she says.

Allowing employees some asynchronous learning time will always beat a seminar or course which is scheduled according to people’s calendars. “In asynchronous learning, you can learn at your own pace and use the synchronous (live or face-to-face) sessions for inspiration, energy, creativity and emotional experience. The Mix is more efficient than 100% face to face.”

Béatrice comments that cross-cultural training providers dominate her industry, and they can be drivers in our industry’s tech revolution.

It will happen anyway

She sees no threat to innovative trainers or training providers. “Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear. I would say the reverse. When a trainer can use remote training techniques, it moves the face-to-face part to a higher level.”

For Béatrice, the surest way to preserve face-to-face training is to incorporate digital learning. “As trainers, we can remove the PPT, and make our sessions truly interactive and experiential.”

The zero hour came at an e-learning exhibition in Paris. I have always been professionally curious, but until 2015 I was an outsider to the technologies that are transforming our industry. For a few hours on that day a little over two years ago I had stepped into a foreign culture of geeks, LMS providers, gamifiers, community moderators, MOOC developers, e-mentors and techies.

boring, incomprehensible, technical

My honest reaction was that this e-learning world is boring, technical and incomprehensible. It is also the inevitable future of my profession, so walking out of the exhibition centre I decided that I must understand this revolution. I saw that it had something to offer my intercultural work. I knew that I had to master this new way of training and learning.

Self transformation, year three

So began my two-year transformation. And it continues. I am learning every week, enhancing knowledge and practice, but I am no longer in catch-up mode.

The technologies have become more familiar. The new approaches are still energising and sometimes experimental, but they are now inside my expanded comfort zone.  The world of e-learning is no long boring, technical or incomprehensible to me.

My journey to becoming a blended-learning trainer

Having made my decision to adopt technology into my training, I first wanted to experience online learning myself, in the role of learner.

Walking in the learner’s shoes.

I chose a programme run by the excellent ISTF, the only organisation I found who really train trainers in the new learning technologies, and offer that training 100% remotely.

Getting the concepts clear

I began to understand the culture and the terminology. Basic concepts like synchronous and asynchronous became clear, and their relevance to training design and training delivery.

Acquiring knowledge in a positive cycle

I learned how to design learning scripts for different formats of training, facilite group sessions and structure blended learning courses

I learned how to use my voice, how to move, how to adjust timing, how to set up exercises and much more.

Entering the culture

Nothing was off-limits. I tried every technology and explored every technique. I got to know the terminology and the buzzwords. I joined the e-learning culture that had seemed so foreign at the expo in Paris. I grew a genuine curiosity in anything e-learning.

Open to influences from unexpected directions

I made sure I had not become trapped in an e-learning bubble. I accepted ideas and influences from other directions too. My approach was always interdisciplinary. I absorbed latest ideas and proven models from

• digital learning
• cross-culture
• working styles research
• principles of training
• design
• nature

I established the intercultural afterwork meetings with a few fellow professionals in Paris. Every month or two I got to exchange ideas, approaches, cultural information with my peers, keeping an open mind to other ways of working.

Looking after yourself

All this self-development sounds like too much, right? Well, you can develop a long way in two years, but the road ahead continues. I am not finished yet. I never let the vast world of learning technologies put me under unhealthy pressure. I did not become overloaded. I integrated all my professional self-development into my working days. Saturday and Sunday remained work-free zones.

Looking after your customers

Working with innovative technologies demands an open attitude to experimentation. But I did not want my customers to pay the price of failures resulting from inexperience. I never used a technique or technology I had not used on myself. I was the first to suffer and remove poor-performing elements from the training programme. I became the tester, and more convinced of the value of the approaches with did work well.

Intercultural training goes digital, a trainer’s perspective

Digital learning will not make face-to-face training disappear, says Béatrice Rivas Siedel in this interview with Argonaut. She gives her view as a trainer deep in the digital learning revolution about what we can to do take every advantage. Her insights are relevant for trainers, training providers, client organisations and the learners themselves.

Two breakthrough moments

Two moments stay vividly in my memory, when I recognised that something had changed. I saw that I had progressed to be not only a participant, but a driver of the e-learning revolution.

In France we like to first get the concepts clear, then bring the ideas into practice. In this case, I did the reverse. I built my experience gradually, adjusting my approach, trying new things at a small scale. I was copying, learning, using models, following guidelines.

Now I use a different three words for the e-learning revolution:

Rewarding, flexible, refreshing

The Cultural Correspondents are using their deep cultural knowledge, their writing skills and creativity to share their knowledge and demonstrate their professional standing in the industry. That makes it a win for CultureConnector’s users who get great content and a win for its expert contributors who get additional visibility. But the role is demanding and to gain a place among the Cultural Correspondents, you need a few factors.

Here’s what I learnt about making it as a Cultural Correspondent for CultureConnector.

Five signs you could be CultureConnector’s next cultural expert

1. Knowledge of an insider, insights of an outsider. Successful Cultural Correspondents know the history and the latest trends in the culture and much of the detail and variety within it. But to truly identify the relevant issues, they also think like an insider trying to build bridges into the culture.
2. Packaging knowledge into short, powerful texts. Our Cultural Correspondents are great writers. They find the essentials and boil them down into sharp, engaging texts.
3. Fearlessness with challenging tasks. Even with deep cultural knowledge, some writing tasks are not easy. It can demand deep thought and imagination, and sometimes research too. But the key thing each time is to just get started. Writing is iterative: it gets better with every version.
4. Community spirit. Writing can be a lonely task, but usually it gets social too. You need to be in dialogue with your editor and to connect with other correspondents who may have worked on the same task as you. We’re all seeking the same goal, so we’re in a collective enterprise.
5. Understanding the learner. All writers need to write for the reader. That’s especially true when the reader is a busy working person with little time for study but a big need for understanding and context. Experience of working life and training situations enables our most successful correspondents to produce content which really serves the needs of learners.

The rewarding role of a CCCC Cultural Correspondent Community Coordinator

The CCCC title needs shortening, but my experience of the role was not heavy at all. It was my task to help the Cultural Correspondents to get their assignments done. We Skyped and met in informal group sessions which I called virtual coffee tables. We clarified the writing goals and through initial edits condensed the most valuable insights into tight packages of text. I was supporter, assistant, coach, cheerleader, facilitator while at the same time admiring how professional they are.

Our virtual coffee table meetups created a real connection and the feeling of community around the CCs. However, even though we connected using multiple media the fact is that community is not built overnight.

For me the most rewarding aspect of the role is interaction with the correspondents who are located all over the world. Sharing ideas and visions or just simply going through their views about an assignment I felt I always learned something. It is an amazing feeling when you are part of lively network that is truly global.

Get in touch

Get in touch with the Argonaut team if you want to turn your cultural knowledge and writing skills into a business advantage. This could be an important step on your journey to developing and demonstrating the 7 most-requested talents of an interculturalist.

I could see that our Cultural Correspondents welcomed the fact that their knowledge has great value and will stay in demand in the Cultural Correspondent community.

MORE ABOUT JOINING

Soft landing

I came to London for a training with the Argonaut team in spring of 2005. At the time I didn’t know so much about the role of cultural correspondent. It was a pretty informal situation at first. Being a Cultural Correspondent is a voluntary role, but it brings me into collaboration with a great network and enables me to use Argonaut’s cross-cultural assessment with my intercultural training and coaching clients, which is one of the big benefits.

I had already been working in international human resources for many years. Using Argonaut was one of the ways I built my career in in intercultural competence into a specialism.

What Cultural Correspondents do

As a Cultural Correspondent for Argonaut I get a few assignments a year to create a short text on my area of expertise, usually Swiss culture, or to update existing Swiss content. The brief from the Argonaut team and the editorial process are quite structured and straight forward, but there is good flexibility with time, so it fits my schedule well.

This is why

I have a strong business interest, of course, in being deeply connected with a leading tool for intercultural management training. But there are other benefits which may not be so obvious.

I enjoy the assignments we get as Cultural Correspondents. Many of the topics we write about require research, reflection and some comparative knowledge about the aspects which make my own culture unique. The topics are not always standard cultural advice like tipping or punctuality. The topics can give an unusual perspective, such as national heroes or colours or books & films which throw new light on the culture.

I enjoy the learning, the writing and the interaction that’s involved with creating the content for Argonaut. I’m the expert of course partly because of what I know, but also because I am committed to learning more, and sharing that knowledge!