Module 1: Understanding cultural codes in the Balkans

1. Interculturality, the key to success in international exchanges

• Awareness of one's cultural background
• Basics of effective intercultural management
• Identify and overcome stereotypes

2. The essentials of Balkan culture

• Identify the Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia
• The ambiguities of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society
• The divide between regions
• Historical heritage, the challenges of European integration
• Reality and complexity of corrupt practices

3. Values ​​and behaviors in the Balkans

• Specificities of the Balkans and characteristics by country
• The decompartmentalization of public and private spheres
• Relationship to work, relational, emotional on a daily basis
• Ways of thinking specific to each country

4. Corporate life in the Balkans

• Persistences of the Soviet organization
• Mediterranean influences
• Formalism and hierarchy
• Role of the State and the administration

Module 2: Optimizing your professional action in the Balkans

1. Communicate effectively with Balkan nationals

• The essential networks
• Languages: practices and benchmarks
• Non-verbal communication: beyond preconceived ideas
• Direct and implicit communication

2. Adapt your methods to work effectively in the Balkans

• Manage effectively: listen, support, step back
• Master the temptation of conformism, establish your authority: know how to say no
• Supporting productivity: empowering and valuing the individual
• Managing conflicts: passions, intrigues and transience

3. Succeed in your meetings and negotiations with Balkan nationals

• Meet the decision-makers
• Support a close personal relationship
• The importance of the written contract
• Manage time and recovery

4. Final practical advice

• Prudence, patience, humility
• Social codes, gifts, business cards, dress
• Delicate subjects: “Roma” population, communist era, corruption
• Humor and sensitive subjects