The Basic Techniques Useful in Any Intercultural Context

Given the vastness of the field, we prefer to provide a first view of the areas and tools for solution, and then go into the examination of the different tools. Applying the tools to each individual intercultural situation (three of the over twenty listed) would require an entire book dedicated only to the specific situation. This volume lays the foundations for each general situation, leaving the consultancy with the tasks of adapting them to individual cases.

The basic techniques useful in any intercultural context are:

• empathy and active listening: understanding in depth the behaviors, attitudes, emotions, thought systems of the interlocutor;
• multi-level listening dynamics: the ability to disaggregate the multiple components of the message, to keep the communicative distance – and therefore the margin of misunderstanding – between the interlocutors “short“;
• search for sharing of values ​​and results, win-win approach: evaluation of the “impossibility of not understanding each other” on some issues to build a win-win approach, in which both interlocutors can benefit from the negotiation. Starting from the consideration that in order to ask for a lot, one must worry about giving a lot;
• grounded, experimental and role-playing approach: to test in the field, experiment and refine one’s communication strategies before putting them into action in situations of no return;
• macro-cultural awareness: understanding the macro-foundations of the culture with which one interacts;
• analysis of the context: understanding the intentions and goals of the interlocutor, the desired arrival point, the scenario in which he moves and how this affects him;
• flexible negotiating platforms and adaptive lines of action: building flexible negotiating spaces in which to be able to move;
• micro-cultural awareness: understanding the cultural dimension hidden and not very evident in the manifestations of the culture of our interlocutor;
• diagnosis and stratification of the communicator: disaggregate the multiple components of messages to understand which messages are attributable to the culture of origin of our interlocutor, which to his individual personality, which to the role played and which to other contextual factors;
• emotional centering and removal of the psychological background noise (Mental Noise): prepare to negotiate with a spirit of analysis, attention, free from prejudices; knowing how to free oneself from physical and psychological stress, in order to give the best possible negotiation performance.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com 

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• Website of Studio Trevisani Academy For Business Training, Coaching e Mentoring, in Italian
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L'articolo Tools and Methods for Intercultural Negotiation Effectiveness proviene da Dr. Daniele Trevisani - Formazione Aziendale, Ricerca, Coaching.