Presenting across Cultures
The room is hushed. You have prepared your ’Elevator Speech’ to perfection. You have an awesome gag to knock their socks off, and a slogan with real punch to round off your “sell, sell, sell” spiel. It went down a treat in Chicago. Five minutes, and these Finns will be convinced.
But things aren’t going to plan. Your listeners are unsmiling, silent, and give no feedback. It all seems to be going from bad to worse, and your voice trails off as you move in desperation to the next slide.
What went wrong?…………………Possibly nothing.
But you can’t be sure. Perhaps you could have toned things down a bit; been a little less over-the-top and more humble, grinned a touch less broadly. On the other hand, your listeners may be aware that it’s different where you come from and have heard the genuine message through the cultural noise.
Sample contents:
- The setting
- Cultural Noise
- Body language – facial; gestures; posture; tone
- Communication styles in different cultures
- Logic or emotion?
- Listening habits
- Audience expectations
- Presentation styles vary in each country
- Two basic styles – reserved and extroverted
- High and low context
- Winning trust
- Which English? (avoid slang, jargon, idiomatic expressions; speak and articulate slowly with various nationalities, e.g. Asian, African speak international English)
All our programmes are based on an in-depth discussion with you, and this description is just an indication. If you would like to talk to us about your needs and get a detailed draft synopsis, please click here.
Cross-Culture according to The Lewis Model
The Lewis Model has been receiving attention in a number of business and academic books recently, as well as in magazines. There are chapters including it in three books out in the near future include:
15/05/2008
Strc prst skrz krk
A sentence in Czech containing no vowels.
Saying
No nation knows itself until it knows its past.

What’s your Personal Cultural Profile?
If you would like to try out CultureActive, our Personal Cultural Profiler, click here for a multimedia introduction and the chance to take your own assessment at the end.


