global business negotiations Archivi - Pagina 3 di 3 - Dr. Daniele Trevisani

Power and Conversation

7 Febbraio 2021 Nessun commento

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

Management of Conversational States

As the language “segments the world”, the conversation “segments the group” bringing out the relationships of strength and leadership. If language helps to build the perception of the world, conversation helps to create the relationships of power and leadership within the groups.

It is sufficient that a recall is ignored, to generate an immediate perception in the group on the type of power relations existing and generate a drastic drop in points in the leadership score (degree of conversational leadership of the subject). Let’s imagine the case of A (manager) and B (official), in which A states “I prefer that we do not continue further on this topic”, while B replies “yes, but …” continuing exactly on the subject.

The speech act of A “I prefer that we do not continue further on this topic” is a conversational move that fits within A’s line of communicative action called “assertive management of content and setting my role”. The linguistic act of B “yes but …” is a relational counter-move that can be framed in B’s communicative line of action “I don’t recognize you in the role of content manager and I continue on my way”.

If this mechanism is not resumed and sanctioned, A will immediately lose de facto leadership. The stratification of speech acts, conversational moves and related repercussions produces real leadership not inscribed in company or group documents, a leadership that is created in the daily reality of conversations.

Principle 14 – Management of conversational states

The quality of life in the work groups and the performance of the groups themselves are correlated:

the leader’s ability to grasp the ongoing conversational state (general recognition);

the leader’s ability to grasp dysfunctional conversational states (negative specific recognition), and practice negative reinforcement, intervene to restore functional states

the leader’s ability to grasp positive conversational states (specific positive recognition) and reinforce them.

The leader acts as coordinator, internal animator and controller of communication flows and conversational states, expressing his or her consent or dissent in key moments, for each team member, and exercising assertive control over them.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

For further information see:

In intercultural negotiation

Negotiation Meetings, Conversational Leadership and Conversation Styles

6 Febbraio 2021 Nessun commento

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

Linguistic Acts, Communicative Lines of Action and Conversational Leadership

Each “issue with meaning“, within a negotiation, constitutes a linguistic act. Linguistic acts are always inserted within lines of communicative action and help to establish the type of relationship in progress (conflictual, collaborative, and others). Collaborating, keeping low tones, or clashing, arguing, are lines of action in which specific linguistic acts (such as attacking, or collaborating) intervene. Other communicative acts also take on meaning, for example emissions using non-verbal (body movement, gestures, looks) and paralinguistic (tones, pauses, silences, intonations) systems.

Intercultural Education for a Broader Perception in Negotiation

Let’s look at the more general point first. Within the research on psycholinguistics, Linguistic Relativism has shown how each language segments the world and allows us to see particular aspects. What does it mean that a language “segments the world”? In essence, linguistic categories guide perception, focusing the human mind on specific layers of reality and taking the attention away from others.

Eskimos have over 10 specific words for as many types of snow, and this guides perception through preset categories. Where this linguistic distinction does not exist, snow becomes a unique mental object, leaving the composition of sentences with a description of different types of snow. But still, in the Navajo language there is no word equivalent to the concept “late” (the perception of time is always relative), just as in the Amazonian languages there is no word “snow”; in Mandarin Chinese, a single word (qing) represents various shades of both blue and green.

Linguistic accuracy therefore also depends on the availability of specific categories and vocabularies. Thus, a first work emerges which consists in educating the interlocutor to perceive differences. If an Eskimo wants to be able to make the European understand the difference between the ten types of snow, he will have to associate the word (verbal label) used with some recognizable representation (a photograph, or practical demonstration).

At the same time, in order to be able to negotiate, it is necessary to make the other understand the diversity between his or her culture and our culture. Each of the intercultural negotiators must be available to learn, available to train thanks to the encounter with the other. Negotiation on new products or on projects never implemented before requires a phase of acculturation, which enables the counterparty to orient, understand, and consciously choose within differences that they could not perceive before.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

For further information see:

In intercultural negotiation

Tools and Methods for Intercultural Negotiation Effectiveness

6 Febbraio 2021 Nessun commento

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

The Basic Techniques Useful in Any Intercultural Context

Given the vastness of the field, we prefer to provide a first view of the areas and tools for solution, and then go into the examination of the different tools. Applying the tools to each individual intercultural situation (three of the over twenty listed) would require an entire book dedicated only to the specific situation. This volume lays the foundations for each general situation, leaving the consultancy with the tasks of adapting them to individual cases.

The basic techniques useful in any intercultural context are:

empathy and active listening: understanding in depth the behaviors, attitudes, emotions, thought systems of the interlocutor;
multi-level listening dynamics: the ability to disaggregate the multiple components of the message, to keep the communicative distance – and therefore the margin of misunderstanding – between the interlocutors “short“;
search for sharing of values and results, win-win approach: evaluation of the “impossibility of not understanding each other” on some issues to build a win-win approach, in which both interlocutors can benefit from the negotiation. Starting from the consideration that in order to ask for a lot, one must worry about giving a lot;
grounded, experimental and role-playing approach: to test in the field, experiment and refine one’s communication strategies before putting them into action in situations of no return;
macro-cultural awareness: understanding the macro-foundations of the culture with which one interacts;
analysis of the context: understanding the intentions and goals of the interlocutor, the desired arrival point, the scenario in which he moves and how this affects him;
flexible negotiating platforms and adaptive lines of action: building flexible negotiating spaces in which to be able to move;
micro-cultural awareness: understanding the cultural dimension hidden and not very evident in the manifestations of the culture of our interlocutor;
diagnosis and stratification of the communicator: disaggregate the multiple components of messages to understand which messages are attributable to the culture of origin of our interlocutor, which to his individual personality, which to the role played and which to other contextual factors;
emotional centering and removal of the psychological background noise (Mental Noise): prepare to negotiate with a spirit of analysis, attention, free from prejudices; knowing how to free oneself from physical and psychological stress, in order to give the best possible negotiation performance.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

For further information see:

In intercultural negotiation

Areas of Application of Intercultural Negotiation

5 Febbraio 2021 Nessun commento

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

The Effects of Globalization

Intercultural negotiation is an increasingly pervasive phenomenon due to globalization and the intensification of inter-ethnic, inter-religious, international, business, cultural or social relations. Remaining in the business field, the cases in which intercultural negotiation becomes more evident are:

1. Selling abroad in neighboring cultures and distant cultures.
2. Buying abroad or building supply management agreements, negotiating with foreign suppliers.
3. Business agreements for the distribution of goods or services abroad
4. Joint ventures (construction of companies managed by several partners of different nationalities) for production facilities abroad.
5. Mergers between companies and acquisitions of companies in which the organizational cultures of origin are substantially different (as occurs in almost all cases, both at an intra-national level and at the level of international acquisitions and mergers).
6. Manage the workforce in third countries.
7. Manage the foreign workforce operating in your company.
8. Do multinational training, training programs involving human resources operating in different countries.
9. Intercultural training: cultural diversity between the trainer and the participants, or cultural diversity within the group of students.
10. Coordinate international working groups.
11. Diplomatic negotiation and international agreements.
12. Peacekeeping, peacekeeping, conflict prevention and resolution.
13. International contracts, cross-cultural legal negotiation.

On the mediated communications front, we see the urgency of an intercultural approach whenever problems arise in:

14. Information communication campaigns in distant cultures.
15. Advertising communication spread in different cultures and on international markets.
16. Creation of persuasive and promotional messages on an international scale.
17. Development of product concepts of international significance, destined to operate on global and different markets.
18. Concept development of products aimed solely at a linguistic-cultural area, whose design takes place in a different starting culture.
19. Build distribution and sales structures in different countries.
20. Create personnel incentive and motivation systems appropriate to the local culture. On the social front, instead, we see an urgency of intercultural negotiation and communication skills when addressing the following issues:
21. Scholastic integration of foreign children.
22. Intercultural psychological therapy and intercultural counseling.
23. Dynamics of ethnic adaptation.
24. Interreligious dialogue.
25. International development projects.
26. Social communication campaigns (public health, disease prevention, nutrition education, drugs, and others) conducted in culturally diverse areas.

Over twenty areas of strong and urgent problematic characterize the field of intercultural communication. The vastness and severity of the underlying problems – in this incomplete list – highlights the urgency of a high level of attention to the dynamics of intercultural communication.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

For further information see:

In Senza categoria

The Clarification of Concepts and the Precision of Language

5 Febbraio 2021 Nessun commento

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

The Four Descriptive Filters

On the intercultural level, as we have noted, even relatively simple and taken-for-granted concepts (eg: “home”, “work”, “friendship”) are misunderstood. It is therefore advisable to carry out activities of setting the semantic boundaries (setting the meanings) that allow to specify the language. Building the common linguistic basis requires clarification on several levels. Each keyword, each word or concept in general, can be read through at least four descriptive filters. Let’s create an example on the Italian word “gondola”.

The possible attributes are:

Perceptive: it is long and narrow:
Functional: used to transport tourists;
Associatives: it makes me think of Venice;
Social-Symbolic: recalls a romantic experience, for classy people;
Encyclopedic: it is made of wood, it has been used since the year ….., it is built like this ….

The same problem occurs on the business level. Let’s imagine that we are carrying out a “marketing consultancy” on behalf of an Indian, Korean or Chinese client. We should first compare the two mental images of the word “marketing”, understand which of the two different concepts of marketing the customer is thinking about. For example:

Concept A (marketing as an operational tool). Analysis:	Concept B (marketing as a strategic tool). Analysis
Perceptual: marketing is equivalent to advertising and promotion, sales, advertising	Perceptual: Marketing is the search for new or better products to satisfy human needs
Functional: used to sell more	Functional: used to better design products and services
Associative: it is an instrument of capitalism and consumerism	Associative: it is a research tool
Socio-Symbolic: it is for advanced, large, technological or very managerial companies	Socio-Symbolic: it requires respect for the customer and the will to satisfy him, it can be used by anyone
Encyclopedic: deals with concepts such as the marketing mix, customer satisfaction, promotion	Encyclopedic: deals with concepts such as marketing mix, customer satisfaction, promotion, but above all market research, creativity, customer orientation

Starting an intercultural negotiation means first of all clarifying semantic concepts, the latent meanings of words, mental associations, and not taking them for granted. Through associative techniques, it is also possible to search for the “stereotypes” that people possess with respect to the concepts dealt with.

For example, dealing with the training of a salesperson means first of all clarifying what the mental image of our interlocutor is, understanding what is behind the word “salesman”.

Tab. 1 – Different conception of two sales cultures: the seller …

– He has to talk a lot
– He has to be a bit stupid and work hard, no matter he is a graduate
he doesn’t have to do strategy, we make the strategy
– He have to be around all day
– He has to bring us results

– He has to listen a lot he has to be intelligent and creative
– He has to be a strategist of his territory, respecting the guidelines
– He has to act with targeted appointments
– We have to put him in a position to give the best results

Without clarifying these points, any action risks being based on wrong and misunderstood concepts.

© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com

For further information see: