Ute Clement - (Germany)

Meeting people from other cultures always seems to be interesting. Entering working relationship differences in communication styles, problem solving, decision-making, values, volumes of voices, and table manners will draw our attention and areoccasionally perceived as disturbances.We tend to primarily pay attention to differencesin (team) meetings, workshops and working relationships with international colleagues.If we stay focused on these differences, a problem trance arisesquickly and it will become harder to detect the similarities. However shifting the focus on the common ground and common goal of the participants is essential for a successful collaboration.Studies have shown that international teams, either producing below-average results or, if they succeed in harnessing the differences, above-average ones,are creative and come to exceptionally successful solutions.How are decisions made How is leadership perceived Such attributes are clustered in a cultural bound way whichwe will be unraveling in order for them to be open again for new perceptions.Starting from various situations, we want to show in the workshop how the application of relevant cultural dimensions creates an attitude of mutual interest. We will experience differences as a shared resource to show how teams can be more solution-oriented. The attitude towards differences we are aiming for is; „Oh, that s different, tell me more about it...