Speaker 1: Let's take a look at the increasing demand for cross-cultural competence. Walk into any organization today and you'll see cultural differences. Demand for cross-cultural competence will only increase among organizations and governments around the globe. Consider the dizzying array of forces that currently affect organizations worldwide. Organizational strategies must be designed to make the most of national advantages as leaders locate critical aspects of their value chains in the most optimal location for sustainable competitive advantage. And the rise of terrorism and fanaticism has incited culture class the world over, creating a dire need for effective cultural understanding and communication. Government companies are marketing and selling to the ever more diverse customer. Their products must appeal to all sorts of different tastes, and service and knowledge-based solutions must be sensitive to cultural differences. Leaders, managers, and HR departments must hire, develop, and manage to lead the globally-based multicultural workforce thanks to growing levels of migration and partnering. These trends are affecting every kind of organization that competes today. Cross-cultural competence development enables all kinds of people to be more effective amid cultural complexity. Individuals can improve their capabilities in cross-cultural competence, develop personally or professionally, and learn how to better work and live in an increasingly diverse world. Cross-cultural competence is best learned through experimental activities, where the mind and body are engaged together under the supposition that experience is the source of learning and development with academic knowledge. The development of global competence is a journey with no end point, an evolution, not a destination. This is true for everyone regardless of position or role. Developing cultural competence in individuals also represents a cultural change for an organization. A cross-cultural competence knowledge base can be informed by many different resources. There are theories, concepts, research, and facts from multiple dimensions of cross-cultural management, including awareness, skills, values, and practices. Research can be conducted from real-world-based case studies, stories, exercises, simulations, and discussions with cross-cultural specialists working with individuals and organizations around the world. Knowledge is also gained from personal and professional experience developed from scholars, educators, consultants, global business leaders, and world travelers. We can explore each of these resources to gain a deeper understanding of cultural competence development best practices. Take a building block approach to developing cultural competence for individuals as well as organizations. Trainers should create action plans to guide ongoing development of global competence during and after development workshops. Training should integrate global competence theories, related cases, reflections, exercises, as well as assessment tools. Imagine you need to prepare to deliver successful cultural competence development experiences. You would need to set up a learning environment to help you cultivate cultural awareness and develop trust. Your goal is to encourage participants to initiate their own cross-cultural competence journey. It's important to understand the changing global business environment and how and why diversity is growing in organizations. You can use stories to frame the ongoing need for cultural competence and the challenges that might be involved. Cultural competence development may also shift a personal focus to an organizational one, exploring the often untapped values of global competence, bringing to organizations the ways in which people around the globe are similar and different. The cultural competence journey must explore dimensions of culture and the nature of prejudice and bias, and provide numerous tools for self-examination of cross-cultural awareness. Unpacking culture includes understanding the complexity of values in cross-cultural environments, the challenges arising from conflicting values, and the need for values alignment. Leaders and managers require skills to manage multicultural teams, motivate and inspire people who are culturally both similar and different, and learn how to effectively lead, coach, and mentor people in diverse environments. Individuals can cultivate a cross-cultural mindset and experience lifelong learning.