50 Activities for Achieving Cultural Competence

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The Cross-Cultural Forum

WernerDraegestein,IMD,Inc.

Toronto,Ontario,Canada

andMackieChase,CentreforInterculturalCommunication

UniversityofBritishColumbia,Canada

Purposeandlearningobjectives

“The Cross-Cultural Forum” is an exciting and stimulating exercise that helps create a

generalized picture of a particular culture without the danger of stereotyping the culture by

one facilitator or one cultural representative.

It provides members of one culture with an opportunity to meet a number of representatives

from another culture in small discussion groups. It will allow participants to informally

exchange information and ideas, create an understanding, and check assumptions through

guided questions and answers on such issues as

• the workplace

• employment

• business communication

• education

• relationships

• family

• society

• hot issues

• sports

• leisure

Overview

The Cross-Cultural Forum provides members of one culture with an opportunity to meet and

understand representatives from another culture. It will allow participants to informally

exchange information and ideas and check assumptions through questions and answers on a

number of timely issues:

• The Forum consists of three 40-minute sessions and a 15-minute coffee break midway

through so that participants can mingle between the rotations. Each discussion group will

meet with three different guests.

• A debriefing session for guests and participants follows the rotation session.

50ActivitiesforAchievingCulturalCompetency

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This activity is suitable for any organization in which two distinct cultures must interact.

To demonstrate how this activity works, we will use the example of German and American

interactions. The Germans are the participants and the Americans are the representatives.

Targetaudience

This activity is suitable for organizations where two distinct cultures must interact. It is for

groups of any size. To demonstrate this activity, we place it in the United States. A group of

sixteen German visitors are participating in a weeklong cross-cultural program. Throughout

this exercise, we refer to the German members as the participants and the Americans as the

representatives. We have facilitated it with groups as small as 12 people and with groups of

more than 100 people. The challenge with bigger groups is to find enough interested

representatives and extra facilitators to take care of the logistics.

Time

Set aside a half-day for the session. In our example, three discussion groups of four German

participants each will meet with three American representatives in three 40-minute sessions

or rotations. Plan a 15-minute coffee break after the first two rotations. A debriefing session

of about an hour for representatives and participants will follow the final rotation. For best

results, we propose to work with a maximum ratio of five participants to one representative

per discussion group. Assign facilitators to circulate at the beginning of each rotation in order

to troubleshoot.

Materialsandenvironment

• Letter of invitation to participants (see sample)

• Name tags for staff, participants, and representatives

• One copy of Handout 1, “Question Preparation Sheet,” for each participant

• Handout 2, “Rotation Guide for Participants/Representatives”

• Sample Letter 1

• Ample space. Generally, you will need to evaluate your space requirements carefully, as

each group will generate a fairly large volume of noise while speaking. Try not to have

more than three groups in one room. Each group should be numbered so that

representatives and participants can easily find their group. There should be enough

distance to afford the groups some privacy and to keep the noise level down. For each

group, place five chairs in a close circle with space to enter or leave the circles. Do not sit

groups around tables, as it will create a communication barrier.