Diversity, Inclusion & Global Business

Understanding unconscious bias and cross-cultural conflict styles results in return business, new markets and effective organizations.

With the increasingly global economy, one of the most critical business skills today is managing and working across racial and cultural differences. Managers must be able to manage a diverse workforce in order to be qualified to manage, let alone be an effective manager. We are becoming a multicultural society with permeable borders, and conducting business inside and outside of the U.S. has dramatically increased the challenges faced by today’s professionals.

Impacts of Diversity

An increased focus on diversity has affected nearly every profession and industry.

  • In business, the best MBA programs teach global business skills such as managing cross-cultural conflict and cross-cultural communication, team building, sales and negotiation. Hiring and retaining managers and employees from diverse backgrounds is essential to reach diverse clients and expand your client base.
  • In medicine, every medical school in the U.S. teaches cross-cultural medicine due to the rapid influx of immigrants and the large number of Americans traveling the world and contracting exotic infectious diseases. Hiring and retaining providers, managers and employees from diverse backgrounds is essential to reach diverse patient populations and bring in new patients.
  • In education, administrators, teachers and communities engage in courageous conversations around race and cultural diversity to address unconscious bias in the outcomes gap. The pool of teachers and administrators could better reflect the diversity in our populations.
  • In sports, college and professional teams recruit players from diverse American backgrounds and from the recent influx of international athletes. Sports team leadership and ownership remains primarily Caucasian, which results in communication and equity issues.
  • In law and the justice system, leading law firms are working to diversify the profession to better represent diverse clients and to eliminate bias in the courts and legal system. The Minnesota Supreme Court, Minnesota Court of Appeals and senior Minnesota state judges are taking steps to eliminate bias in their court decisions through elimination of bias training.
  • In government, federal managers and administrators are working with diverse local, national and international populations and organizations. They need skills such as managing cross-cultural conflict and cross-cultural communication, team building, sales and negotiation. Hiring and retaining managers and employees from diverse backgrounds is essential to reach diverse populations and expand the client base.

Enhancing Diversity, Inclusion & Global Business Skills

Organizations can receive the training their managers and leaders need to build cross-cultural management skills. Some of the programs we have provided our clients over the years include:

  • Cross-Cultural Communication
  • Understanding 10 Core Cross-Cultural Value Differences
  • Managing a Diverse Workforce
  • Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce
  • Understanding and Resolving Cross-Cultural Conflict
  • Managing Virtual Teams
  • Global Leadership
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Addressing Subtle Bias: From Microinequities to Microaffirmations
  • Cross-Cultural Negotiation
  • Attitudes Towards Differences
  • Global Business Skills

For more information about preparing managers and executives for international success, please contact us.