Global R&D Teams | Vienna & Switzerland | 6 Face-to-Face Workshops | 60+ Participants

A global organisation undergoing significant transformation engaged me to deliver a series of interactive cultural awareness workshops for R&D teams based in Vienna and Switzerland. The teams worked across multiple countries and cultures, at a time when organisational change was increasing pressure, uncertainty, and the potential for misunderstanding across global teams.

The Challenge

During periods of change, cultural differences often become more visible — particularly in how people communicate, give feedback, build trust, make decisions, and manage disagreement.

The organisation wanted to strengthen collaboration across global teams by helping employees better understand:

• How cultural preferences shape behaviour and communication.
• Why misunderstandings occur despite positive intent.
• How pressure and uncertainty can amplify communication challenges.
• How leaders and teams can adapt more effectively across cultures.

The Approach

I designed and facilitated six face-to-face workshops introducing participants to The Culture Map by Erin Meyer and its eight cultural dimensions. The sessions combined practical teaching, real-world examples, facilitated discussion, and reflection exercises grounded in participants’ everyday work experiences.

Key focus areas included:

• Communication styles: low-context vs high-context communication.
• Cross-cultural feedback and evaluation styles.
• Disagreement and conflict across cultures.
• Decision-making, trust, and leadership expectations.
• Persuasion styles across cultures.
• Cultural awareness during transformational change.

A strong emphasis was placed on helping participants first recognise their own cultural lens, assumptions, and default behaviours before exploring how colleagues from different cultures may experience the same interaction differently.

Key Themes Explored

The workshops explored how communication and behaviour often become more automatic under pressure:

• What feels efficient in one culture may feel abrupt or unclear in another.
• Directness and clarity are not always the same thing.
• Communication is not only about intent — it is about how the message is understood.
• Different cultures persuade and structure ideas differently.
• Open disagreement can strengthen relationships in some cultures, while damaging trust in others.

Participants also explored practical strategies for:

• Managing cross-cultural misunderstandings.
• Giving feedback across cultures.
• Encouraging healthy disagreement in global teams.
• Adapting communication style to different audiences.
• Building team agreements and communication norms during change.

Outcomes

The workshops created a shared language and increased awareness across teams navigating complex global collaboration during organisational change.

Participants left with:

• Greater self-awareness of their own cultural assumptions.
• Practical tools to adapt communication and leadership approaches across cultures.
• Improved understanding of how culture influences trust, disagreement, and decision-making.
• Increased confidence navigating multicultural collaboration during times of uncertainty and transformation