HR as Global Change Agent: Managing Workplace English Across Multiple Cultures Simultaneously

It is easy to presume that when we are all speaking the same language, communication happens naturally. Yet in today's multicultural workplace, many factors (such as cultural presumptions, accents, unconscious bias, perceived tone and speech delivery) can prevent messages from being received as intended when native and non-native English speakers interact. Both groups use English differently without realizing it; this leads to their sense that communication has occurred, but as George Bernard Shaw said, “The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” This session is designed to raise awareness of these communication challenges and provide strategies to HR professionals so they may act as facilitators and change agents, ensuring effective, inclusive communication at all levels of the organization and across multiple cultures simultaneously.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how the use of English in the workplace can lead to misuse, misinterpretation and presumption of intended meanings.
• Apply a model to strengthen and improve communication effectiveness and ameliorate communication gaps—internally/externally, at individual/team/organizational levels, and across multiple cultures.
• Learn pragmatic ways to leverage workforce diversity through improved relationships and inclusiveness.
• Accelerate team creativity by using a culturally-neutral facilitating approach to enable change and lead to improved results.