«I've been resisting the transformation! And to think I wanted to transformto the others!»- Tchouang-Tzu

The question submitted for consideration here is the followingcarries two assumptions. According to the prethe question of why has been resolvedread. Indeed, it is imperative to have dug upundermined the objective of intercultural training the way in which the debend it. If the reason for the training is not clear, theand shared, the means of its implementation are implementation may lack coherence.and suffer from a lack of commitment. of the participants. This will seem like an evito anyone who knows that it is pointless to mobilize forces without a strategic vision.

However, more than ten years of cross-computer training have beenthe company have shown that the objective of the is often no more accurate than "avoid misunderstandings"», «getting our messages across», «to understand each other better"or"work better together». These requests concern two types of organizations that, although starting from opposing positions, come together on the spectrum ofintercultural immaturity: on the one hand, those who arediscovering the international and who, due to a lack of experience , do nothave a clear idea of the intercultural challenges they will be facing; on the other hand, those who have agreat international experience, but who were born On the other hand, those who have a great deal of international experience, but who for along time glided over the interculturalapproach with acultural overhang anda preconceived notion of excellence, whichmanifests itselfinparticular through the will toimpose practices that are necessarily considered better thanthose of foreign partners . In one case, the demand for training ininterculturality comes in the"soft", in thesecond case in the "hard", in other words after misunderstandings ,tensions or conflicts .

When responding to calls for training tenderswhen defending an intercultural proposal.but also when we talk informally.with international players, we can understands that the objectives of the cross-computer issuesturels are in fact rarely defined, or simple to define.default mentto make up for a situation conflict that has been going on for one, two, three years. years, or even more than a decade[1].The popular adage that prevention is better than cure has never been truer than in intercultural relations.When the need to integratecultural links (in relations with hierarchy,teamwork, decision-making, project management, transfer ofknow-how, communication, etc.) intointernationalprojects is stressed, it is clear that this is not the case.), some managersstillask,without going any further,"Buthowmuchdoesit cost?without going any further into the question: "But how much does it cost?", without asking what is the cost ofintercultural incompetence. As they focuson very short-term economic objectives, forgetting that they oweperformance to the people on the ground, they missthe definition of intercultural objectives.

Conquering intercultural maturity

Knowing why training in interculturality requires maturity which unfortunately often comes as a result of difficulties orof chess. When Renault and Volvo were planning to merge... in 1993,the one-It never came to fruition, undermined by differences of opinion.and financial disputes, but also by misunderstandings between the parties.that seem to make the two cultures irreconcilable. hencetreprise. The Swedes, who appreciate a hierarchical distance very moderate, are hurt by the autocratic reactions of their French colleagues. For them, a good manager is before a whole facilitator, while it is the expertise that is pute in before at Renault. For their part, the French are annoyed by a decision-making process that requires a long process for the Swedes.us of consultation with a view to reaching a consensus which, on a faiths reached, can no longer be questioned. If the Swedes have a strong collective commitment to the decision to take the lead in this area.consensus decision, their weakness is a lack of commitment to theanque flexibility once the action is launched, which weakens their course of action.aadaptation when the environment has changed and would require to redirect the original decision. The French, on the other hand, have weakness a lack of commitment to decisions «from above"...but are far more responsive than the Swedes...to adjust to the changing environment.ent complex operations. In the absence of an explanation of the practices and adaptation of the most divergent ones, of the parteof different countries often end up not being able to meet their needs. see more than differences between them. However, if we forgetie that we are more similar than different, how can-we communicate and work together? When Renault does alliance with Nissan six years after the failure of the merger with Volvo, the feedback from the 1993 failure will be used to helpr lesson so as not to repeat the same mistakes, as they arelles were due to the lack of anticipation of cultural misunderstandings-The illusion that belonging to the same cul(automotive engineering) was enough to do in so that both would cooperate without difficulty.lté, to the outbreak of cultural rivalry born of the judgment of value carried by each other.The current setbacks of the head of the Renault Nissan alliance shouldnot obliterate the fundamental work that was carried out at the very beginning of the rapprochement between thetwo companies to prepare the best possible cooperation between theFrench and Japanese .Immersions in each other's professional contexts havebeen organized in order to discover the respective working methods and to developinterpersonal links between them .But it is not enough to know each other and develop empathy to work well together. Workshops were set up to identify themeaning and practices associated withtheconcepts mobilized in each one's professional context in order toidentify common points and divergences (for example: howis adecision made? what are the qualities of a good manager? how are satisfaction and dissatisfaction expressed?).Where divergencesemerged, the French and Japanese explained themselves and defined common practicestogether , sothat in this process no onerenounces oneself by becoming the other, but that on certain subjects, each takesa step towards the other .

Diversity of objectives, diversity of training

But managerial practices do not exhaust the reason of the training in interculturality. The why is available in a wide variety of objectives that lead to how spec-fiques. Thus, when a French administration is astonished to fail to make the case, within the European Commission, its safety standards in a particular type oftransport even though she, she said-she, the "best record», she decided to rethink her approach by rebalancing the compéThe technical skills of its officials through the development of thent of soft skillslinguistic, relational and cross-cultural. Finally, it raises the question of its objectif influence and the complexity of carrying it out in an environment that ison-multicultural training. Thus, training in interculturality will focus on the objective, not the other way around.

Other examples show how the diversity of the objectives depends on the diversity of intercultural situations. A atThe company wishes to apply the same policy in favour of thea diversity in all the European countries where it is impleplanted. This identical approach meets with a lot of resistance.It then defines a need for intercultural trainingtobetter understand gender parity, the promotion of juniors, theenhancement of seniority, the place of disability inthetargetcountriestobetter understand the cultural reasons fortheproximity and gaps with its European policy and identify what needs tobe adjusted and what should constitute the common base.A major telecoms group offers employeestheopportunity to give French language courses to theirforeign colleagues . Inorder to support them, it defines a specific training need concerning the taking into account of cultural factorsin theteaching of French.Another company is going international and has recently integrated expatriates into itsFrench headquarters. However, faced with the increase in sickleave and the resignation of several foreign employees,it is wondering about the link between psychosocial risks andthetensions that can arise due to certain cultural misunderstandings.She therefore organises workshopstofree up speech and to identify the intercultural challenges involvedin thediscomfort felt by foreign employees.She was surprised to discover thatittakestheBritish andAmericans more thana year to integrate into the French company, compared to six to eightmonthsfor theChinese and Indians.This was the first step towards exploring the culturalfactorsto be taken into account in order to better support these impatriates, and therefore to better manage certain psychosocial risks.

This last example should alert us to the fact that the trainingThe intercultural approach is not an intellectual relaxation that can be achieved through the use of a variety of methods.i aims to satisfy our curiosity for other cultures. It should rather be conceived as a form of management ofs risks, the common denominator under which its different purposes. This is all the more obvious when the interculturality concerns safety issues. What about-it the effect of taking cultural factors into account when it it is to train employees in areas where a high level ofte reliability is required, as for example in nuclear or aeronautics? Let's take the case of French instructors from ENAC in charge of training airline pilots for three years.years. In recent years, certain promotions have been essential to the success of the company.Chinese, due to the explosion of the air transport in their country[2]. But how do you form this public to piloting skills and aviation safetywhen it expresses a very high degree of deference to the institution.avoids pointing out errors, favours harmony from the relationship to the expression of a divergent point of view, showsDifficulties in adapting the knowledge learned to the diversityted of situations experienced? The instructors realized that it was necessarymilk for an average of one year to develop in these apprentices communication style, an explicit communication style, a relationship to the moderate hierarchy, a decomplexed error relationship, or a ability to contextualize stored information. To do so bythey had to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and the points learning situation, grasp the influence of the influence that the to have the Chinese education system on their mode of reasoningneunderstanding relational levers and the relationship to thetoThe Commission will continue to work with the Member States to adjust their training programmes accordingly.ction.

1] While Air France and KLM are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their merger in April 2019, the intercultural tensions between the French and Dutch have never been so exacerbated (differences of opinion). the relationship to the hierarchy, the style of communicathe conduct of meetings, management skills-management skills, evaluation interviews, etc.) according to an in-depth report.ternal confidential, made public on 18 July 2017 by the site internet of the Dutch TV channel Een Vandaag.

[2] According to Boeing's forecast announced in a communication-press release of August 27, 2018, China will have to recruit over the next 20 years more than 128,000 pilots of line.