Proposal for workshop at SIETAR conference
1. Title: Building trust in international teams
2. Abstract
Most people instinctively see trust as an essential but elusive ingredient in the
productivity of teamwork in general, and international teams in particular. Research
also indicates that high levels of trust correlate with innovation, competitive
advantage, greater support for change and increased productivity in virtual teamwork.
It also indicates that developing trust in international contexts is complicated by
cultural differences in the criteria for trusting others, often embedded in the roots of
language itself. Despite these challenges there are remarkably few tools or training
courses that focus on developing trust internationally. This may be due to the fact that
trust is perceived as fragile, complex and delicate and certainly not tangible enough to
be open to a clear path of development. In this session we will challenge the idea that
trust is neither definable or developable in an international business context.. We will
explore the issue of measuring and developing trust in international teams, drawing on
our experience of developing and using a tool called the 'International Trust in Teams
Indicator'. This on-line questionnaire-based process is based on a highly researched
set of 10 international trust criteria and aimed at real international teams, including
remote ones. In the session we will run an interactive session to explore the issue of
trust across cultures before introducing the tool and its use in a number of real client
projects.
3. Presenter information
Nigel Ewington
TCO International Diversity Management
Email: n.ewington@tco-international.com
Website: www.tco-international.com
Phone: +44-1223-370039
Skype: nigelewington
Address: Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX
SIETAR membership – yes. SIETAR Europe
Presentations; Vienna and Berlin (both together with David Trickey)
4. Session length and Format:
A: Workshop: 90 minutes
5. Biography of presenters:
Nigel Ewington is a Senior Partner of TCO International Diversity Management, and
a director of WorldWork Ltd. He specialises in helping organisations and their people
to optimise the success factors of working across cultures. As well as speaking five
languages, Nigel has personal experience of living and working abroad in such
diverse cultures as China, Bulgaria, Finland, Congo and Italy. As well as working on
in-house programmes for specific companies, Nigel set up the Diploma in Intercultural Management in partnership with University of Cambridge Programme for
Industry. Nigel has acted as inter-cultural advisor and materials developer for a new
training video entitled ‘A World of Difference: working successfully across cultures’
published in Dec 2003. He is also co-designer of WorldWork’s The International
Profiler and its accompanying International Competency Set.
As co-founder of TCO, David Trickey has built up over 15 years experience in
managing the human dynamics of cross-cultural cooperation, communication and
management. A British national who has lived in Italy for over 12 years, David has
worked as the project leader for international development projectsboth inside and
outside Italy. He is a regular faculty member in cross-cultural management in seven
MBA programmes in the UK and Italy as well as in TCO’s joint venture Diploma in
InterCultural Management with The University of Cambridge. A regular presenter at
intercultural conferences, his main research interests include trust building in teams
across distance and culture as well as defining and measuring international
competencies. He worked with Nigel as inter-cultural advisor and materials developer
for a training video entitled ‘A World of Difference: working successfully across
cultures’ published in Dec 2003. He is co-designer of WorldWork’s ‘International
Trust in Teams Indicator’
6. Target Audience
Level of experience: All
Areas of professional interest:
Training
Business/corporate
Global Diversity
Communication/dialogue
Intrapersonal Dimensions
7. Equipment and Audio Visual Requirements
LCD projector
Flip chart
Screen
8. Room size and set-up
Desired number of participants: no limit
Classroom style
9. Session Description
The core theme of the conference is about understanding the opportunity factor in
exploring cultural differences. Trust is a factor in international business that is often
perceived as an intangible barrier rather than a source of reconciliation and
development with strong cultural roots. However, recognising that the Italian partners
in an international team may have assumptions about trust (based on shared beliefs
and sense of long-term relationship) which differ from their Anglo-Saxon partners
(whose need for trust may be more rooted in the strength of words, values and skills)
enables both sides to work towards reconciliation. This session is designed to explore
the international cross-cultural aspects of issue of trust as key factor in the
effectiveness of international teamwork.
The objective of the session is:




explore the issue of trust in international teams
introduce a new tool which identifies and measures trust
look at the use of this tool in a client project
discuss in a plenary some open issues about trust-building and the use of
Western-based methodologies
We will start by introducing the central paradox of trust as a commonly recognized
area of tension in international business which receives little explicit development
focus from consultants in the cross-cultural world and beyond. We will then explore
the benefits of a development focus on trust by looking at what research says about
the advantages of higher levels of trust – greater competitive advantage, increased
productivity, more innovation and greater support for change. Here we will distribute
to the audience sources of research on the advantages of trust in an international
context.
We will then explore the issue of trust in teams through a 10-minute group-work
activity where the audience will imagine that they are ‘trust doctors’ and share
together the symptoms they may expect to see in teams where there are low levels of
trust. The results of this group work will be pooled in the plenary
They will then in different groups take a future 10-minutes to share the specific
challenge that teams might face when they are cross-cultural and remote. Again the
results of the group work and specific experiences of the audience will be pooled in
the plenary. The feedback from the audience will act as a springboard for
commissioned by Airbus which reveals why it is harder to trust in an international
context.
With the challenge of trust fully aired in the audience, we will then go on to spend the
second half of the presentation to present the research David Trickey has conducted
into international trust criteria and challenge of different assumptions about trust
across cultures. We will link this to the work of researchers such as Jarvenpaa on the
need for ‘swift trust’ in remote teams, and the challenge that this may provide in a
cross-cultural context. We will present the International Team Trust Indicator (ITTI)
which is an on-line questionnaire-based tool that is designed to address this challenge
by identifying levels of trust (including the cultural trust ‘deficit’) within any given
team or workgroup. We will finish by introducing a consultancy project conducted
with a global IS team in an automotive company where the ITTI was integrated into a
broader consultancy-led team building process. Here we will share the benefits of a
structured framework for exploring a key issue that impacts on team productivity but
often remains hidden. We will also share some of the challenges we faced in raising
an issue that had not been previously discussed in the team.
In the last 10 minutes we would like to open some of the key issues raised within the
presentation to the audience for discussion:



How culturally sensitive are the criteria included in the ITTI?
Is the process of getting information and categorizing analytically through
questionnaires an intrinsically Western approach, and thus invalid in an
international context?
How can we as intercultural consultants support our clients with concrete
suggestions to close trust gaps?
10. Presenter biography
Profile of Nigel Ewington
Nigel Ewington is a founding partner of TCO International Diversity Management
whose mission is to support international organisations with learning and
development solutions that accelerate their ability to respond to the complex
challenges of cultural diversity. As well as speaking five languages, Nigel has
personal experience of living and working abroad in such diverse cultures as China,
Bulgaria, Finland and Italy.
Since setting up TCO in 1989, Nigel has been involved in providing a broad range of
solutions for organisations in the area of managing cultural differences. These
solutions have included seminars in inter-cultural awareness, facilitation for
international teams and preparation for international partnerships with partners from
unfamiliar cultures.
Recently he has been responsible for:
-
providing leadership training in ‘valuing diversity’ for Chief Inspectors and
Commanders in the Metropolitan Police Service
facilitating an international team-building programme for Senior Managers in
Volvo from Holland, Belgium, UK and Sweden.
facilitating a two-day Task Force for the re-launch of Nivea Bath Care in
France
moderating a team-building workshop for the Global IS team in FCI
Automotive
designing and running a case-based three-day workshop ‘Communicating and
Convincing in International Teams’ for all International Brand Managers in
Beiersdorf AG
As well as working on in-house programmes for specific companies, Nigel set up a
Diploma in Inter-cultural Management in partnership with University of Cambridge
Programme for Industry. This has been through five editions with Nigel as Course
Director, and has also been run in-house with the ENI energy company in Italy. Nigel
has recently acted as inter-cultural advisor and materials developer for a new training
video entitled ‘A World of Difference: working successfully across cultures’
published in Dec 2003. He is also founding partner of WorldWork Ltd and codesigner of The International Profiler and its accompanying International
Competency Set.
Nigel also contributes regularly to the MBA Programme at the Cheung Kong
Graduate School of Business in Shanghai.
Profile of David Trickey
As co-founder of TCO, David Trickey has built up over 15 years experience in
managing the human dynamics of cross-cultural cooperation, communication and
management. A British national who has lived in Italy for over 12 years, David has
worked as the project leader for international development projects in Alitalia,
Benetton, Generali, Fiat, Electrolux, Telecom Italia, Le Poste Italiane, ENI, NCR,
Oracle, The Bank of Italy, Heinz Europe and Finmeccanica. He is a regular faculty
member in cross-cultural management in seven MBA programmes in the UK and
Italy as well as in TCO’s joint venture Diploma in InterCultural Management with
The University of Cambridge.
Outside Italy he has held seminars on aspects of international management for
McKinsey and Co. Inc, Ruetgers and Bertelsmann in Germany, for Caisse des Depot
et Consignations in France, for Marks & Spencer in Spain, for Nokia in Finland, for
Euroteam in Hungary, for the US pharmaceutical company Allergan in Egypt, for
Heinz in Portugal and for Diacel Chemical Industries in Japan.
Insights into the cultural impact of large scale mergers was gained in his six month
association as a cross-cultural consultant with Alitalia and KLM. David scripted and
directed a number of training videos to build awareness of Italian/Dutch working
styles. However, the reality of international business is that cross-border alliances
have a 50/50 chance of failure. This one was one such case. The learning, however,
was immense.
Over the last four years David Trickey has developed a range of cross-cultural
management programmes for Telecom Italia junior, middle and senior management.
This has included the development of self-study video material to illustrate cultural
diversity in multi-cultural teams. For the last three years he has been the principle
cross-cultural facilitator for the ADEPT programme in Rome and Athens with
representatives from consortium partners from 7 major telecom operators. In Hungary
he worked with the hosts MATEV to deliver Working in a Cross-Cultural
Environment for European telecom managers.
For two years he worked with team leaders of NCR’s Worldwide Business Units to
devise culturally sensitive approaches to internal communication both within
functional teams and in relation to NCR headquarters in the USA. This involved
facilitating a number of international working group meetings as an external
consultant. He is now working on a similar process in Oracle.
The need for improved communication between New Holland’s Italian management
team and their merged partners in Ford, UK, led to a series of executive seminars on
understanding each others’ working styles and The Bank of Italy chose David to
design and deliver a training path aimed specifically to develop the intercultural
communication skills of those involved in international working groups, inviting
representatives from the Bank of Greece, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Spain and
Portugal.
International leadership and cross-cultural integration were the themes facilitated by
David in a pan-European development programme: Leading Partnerships in Airbus - a
series of 5-day international leadership workshops for all Airbus senior management
from four countries.
David has acted as a cross-cultural consultant for Electrolux University programmes
and projects at a European level. This has included facilitating the team building
process for a number of multicultural Sales Units. For Electrolux he has designed and
delivered international skills programmes on presenting globally, international
negotiation, international relationship management and effective international
meetings. He is now acting as the lead consultant on an integration process for
expatriates worldwide arriving in Electrolux-Zanussi.
Each summer David creates and delivers a series of 5-day workshops on areas of
international teamwork for 200 managers in the ENI Group.
Heinz Europe selected David as the intercultural facilitator and consultant to speed up
the integration process of newly formed European Project teams and is now working
with Heinz Europe to develop the international competencies of their 25 most talented
high potentials.
A regular presenter at intercultural conferences, his main research interests include
trust building in teams across distance and culture as well as defining and measuring
international competencies. With Nigel Ewington, TCO’s other senior partner, David
wrote the materials for a new video training package on developing intercultural skills
published in 2003 called “A World of Difference”.
He speaks very clear international English and fluent Italian.