What happens when a group of people from different cultural backgrounds come together with one common goal: to better understand each other and build bridges between cultures?
I recently had the opportunity to find out.
I travelled to Hamburg to take part in the Intercultural Trainer Academy (ITA Trainer), an intensive and inspiring training experience that gave me the opportunity to explore intercultural communication not only from a theoretical perspective, but through practical exercises, discussion and personal reflection. And being surrounded by people from different cultural backgrounds made the experience even more meaningful.
Beyond cultural differences
One of the things I found particularly interesting was exploring the difference between preferences, patterns and stereotypes. We all have our own ways of communicating, making decisions, giving feedback, dealing with time, approaching relationships or managing disagreement. Sometimes these differences are influenced by our cultural background. Sometimes they are simply individual preferences. Understanding the difference is essential. Because the risk of intercultural work is to replace one stereotype with another. “People from this culture are like this.” But cultures are not made up of identical individuals. The challenge is learning to recognise cultural patterns without putting people into boxes.
Conflict, values and perception
We also explored conflict management, values and perception. What one person considers direct communication, another may perceive as rude. What one sees as flexibility, another may interpret as a lack of organisation. What feels like a normal way of expressing disagreement to one person can feel uncomfortable or even confrontational to someone else. The behaviour is the same.
The interpretation is different.
And often, intercultural misunderstandings happen not because people have bad intentions, but because they are looking at the same situation through different lenses. Learning to recognise those lenses is an important step towards better communication.
Learning through practice
What made the training particularly valuable for me was the practical dimension. Through practical exercises, discussions and reflection, we explored different aspects of intercultural work and had the opportunity to experience differences rather than simply talk about them. Being in a multicultural group was an essential part of the learning process. We all came with different experiences, professional backgrounds and cultural perspectives, but we shared the same objective:
to build bridges between cultures, strengthen intercultural relationships and open our minds to difference.
And perhaps this is one of the most important lessons I am taking away from Hamburg: Intercultural competence is not about knowing everything about every culture. It is about being curious. It is about questioning our own assumptions. It is about understanding that our way is not necessarily the way. And, most importantly, it is about learning when to adapt.
Another step in my journey
This training is an important addition to my professional journey.
After more than 20 years working in international business, living in different countries and working with multicultural teams, I have experienced first-hand how cultural differences can influence communication, collaboration, leadership and relationships at work.
Today, I am bringing together that experience with my work in coaching, intercultural communication and intercultural consulting. My goal is to help professionals, managers and international teams navigate cultural differences with greater awareness and confidence. Because working across cultures does not mean making everyone work in the same way. It means creating the conditions for people with different perspectives to understand each other, adapt and work better together.
And this is just the beginning
My experience in Hamburg has given me new tools, new perspectives and, above all, new questions to explore. So I have decided to share more of this journey here. This is the first of a series of articles about intercultural communication, international work, leadership, expatriation and the fascinating — and sometimes challenging — reality of working and living between cultures.
Because building bridges between cultures starts with one simple thing: being willing to look beyond our own point of view.