Living and working in Colombia

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Summary

Target audience

Employees preparing for an assignment in Colombia and their partners

Prerequisite

No prerequisite

Objectives

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Colombia.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired the necessary skills to:

  • Be aware of their own cultural baggage
  • Understand Colombian context and culture
  • Analyze situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
  • Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
  • Understand Colombian mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
  • Strike the right balance between personal and professional life

Added value

ACCESSIBILITY

All our training courses are accessible to people with disabilities. Each training project will be the subject of a case study by our teams, in order to adapt the training program.

Program

Module 1 : Successful personal integration in Colombia

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

  • Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
  • Culture shock and the integration process
  • Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Colombian culture

  • Significant geographical differences
  • A racially mixed Latin American society
  • The impact of Spanish colonisation
  • A difficult socio-economic situation

3. Colombian values and behaviour patterns

  • A patriarchal and family-centric tradition
  • A class-based society
  • Hospitality and affability
  • Volubility and phlegm: a complex approach to managing emotions
  • A view of time adapted to the situation concerned
  • Festivals and festivities: an important part of Colombian social life
  • The ever-present Colombian sense of humor

4. Practical day-to-day information

  • Focus on the host town or city
  • Transport, administration, housing, hygiene and healthcare
  • Urban violence, drug trafficking and guerrilla warfare: the need for precautions
  • Social life, leisure activities
  • Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professional integration in Colombia

1. The Colombian corporate world

  • A conventional business environment
  • An extremely hierarchical management structure
  • Privileges and favoritism
  • The role of national and local authorities

2. Effective communication with the Colombians

  • Formality and greetings
  • Taking account of regional differences
  • Deciphering non-verbal and implicit communication
  • Spanish used for business

3. Working with Colombian teams

  • Building trust and confidence: flexibility, a willingness to listen and reliability
  • Effective management: professionalism, discipline and experience
  • Understanding attitudes to authority
  • Building an effective working environment

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Colombians

  • Encouraging entrepreneurial commitment
  • Punctuality and responsiveness
  • Giving careful thought to relationships
  • Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

  • Caution, patience and humility
  • Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
  • Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
  • Humour: a double-edged sword

Intra-company coursesDuration: to define
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