With a wealth of quotes and references from other notable interculturalists, Peter Franklin’s session on ‘Mindfulness: what it has to do with language use in effective international teams’  was ‘education on tap’ and introduced us to many  concepts and models that endeavour to explain what makes effective communication in international teams.

Explaining that the concept of Mindfulness was adopted from the one introduced by Ellen Langer in 1989, Peter then discussed global competencies as discussed by Kuhlman and Stahl (1998).  The main message of the presentation was about how you should consciously create understanding within global teams and that the building of meaning needs to happen on the same ‘construction site’. Other concepts introduced are examined in the book, The Mindful Manager, that Peter co-authored with Jeremy Comfort.

In American culture, generally speaking, a TEAM is seen as a support group that allows individuals to be champions. To a greater or lesser degree, most individualistic cultures have a similar attitude. But what does a ‘team’ and teamworking mean to you?  Can you help me please?

I’ll be lecturing at the end of this month at a conference on High Performing Global Teams and would love to be able to include your opinions. Please leave a comment for me on this blog – all comments greatly appreciated.