This seminar is designed to help Japanese gain a better understanding of their American colleagues’ behavior and gain skills for improving communications. A full outline of the contents is below.

We will use interactive techniques to make the session as lively as one of our live sessions. And indeed, we have been finding that Japanese participants can be more likely to ask questions in an online setting.

This is a full day session, which will deliver the full contents of our usual in-person sessions.

Session contents:

Thinking about Culture

●      Cultural tendencies vs. stereotypes

●      Why do misunderstandings occur?

●      Avoiding the pitfalls of cross-cultural communication

Case Studies: Communicating with Americans

●      Dealing with the language barrier

●      Communication style

●      Understanding American direct communication style

●      Being direct while also being nice

●      Hints on phrasing

●      Conversation topics to be avoided

●      Good conversation topics

Case Studies: Leadership Style and Verbal Direction

●      American “football coach” model vs. Japanese “karate teacher” model

●      Leadership in the U.S.

●      Qualities of leaders desired by Americans

●      Verbal direction in Japan and the U.S.

●      Techniques for giving direction

●      Contrast of American teaching/learning style and Japanese teaching/learning style

●      Feedback techniques

Specific Cultural Challenges

●      Risk avoidance and speed of decision-making

●      Process vs. results orientation

●      Understanding the U.S. labor market and employee expectations

Blending American and Japanese Styles

●      Common problems encountered by Japanese affiliated companies in the U.S.

●      Factors that Japanese companies need to be careful about

●      Symptoms of employment friction

●      Potential negative effects of employment friction on the company

Key Skills for Effective Communication　

●      Coping with the language barrier

●      If you are working with translators

●      5 C’s of cross-cultural communication: clarity, consistency, context, confirmation, conflict avoidance

●      Including Americans in information flow

●      Example of a negative practice

●      Social activities as a group

●      Increase the opportunities for communication

●      Be approachable

Instructor:  Yoshi Ieda

Further details, registration and payment on Eventbrite.