Overview

This online simulation teaches participants about the difficulties in cross-cultural communication and managing global teams. Communicating via chat, teams of 4 or 5 participants race against the clock to prepare a VC presentation. Participants are assigned the role of a native English speaker or a nonnative English speaker at their organization. The simulation constrains the ways in which the native and nonnative speakers can interact, and the resulting experience replicates communication patterns in real globally diverse and distributed teams. As their team struggles to collaborate, participants experience first-hand how communication challenges can interfere with work goals.

Description

This simulation illustrates how much can be lost in translation between people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Ideal for courses in Organizational Behavior, International Business, Business Communication, and Leadership and Teams. Participants play this simulation synchronously, so each class (section) should be set up with its own coursepack.

Key Learning Objectives

Experiencing the communication challenges for both native and nonnative English lingua franca speakers & experiencing emotions associated with being assigned to a disadvantaged group.
Introducing the concept of perspective-taking.
Introducing the concept of ‘mutual adaptation’ as to manage differences.
Learning practical skills on how to communicate with foreign colleagues.
Learning leadership skills on how to better manage the flow of cross-cultural interactions.