This issue includes:

• Webinar stop press - information about our first ever webinar
• Feature - Reflections from YA director Bob Dignen on the brave new world of Working in a Matrix, based on his work with one of our Swedish clients
• Feature – YA director Fiona Mee writes about the challenges facing our clients when it comes to communicating internationally
• Markets – YA director Fiona Mee in Brazil
• People news – updates on Tricia Scott and Katie Bowe
• Publications – the latest book from the prolific Bob Dignen, Communicating Across Cultures
• Conferences – forthcoming, in Berlin, Dubrovnik and Paris
• Courses – reports on Training the trainer for Zurich Group, Virtual communication and effective writing for Nestle, European Works Councillor training for the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, fish and chips on the Yorkshire coast for Finnish academics, and more
• Trainer training – trainers! Sign up for Developing People Online, or for a DPI weekend in Paris
• York – find out about York800, food and drink and free food!

Bob Dignen has recently returned from a day in Jurmala, just outside

The demand for support with this aspect of international working is growing. Many of our clients now inhabit the fuzzy world of the matrix where the traditional single reporting line to a familiar manager now co-exists with numerous dotted lines to a host of other individuals scattered across the organisation. For organisational theorists, the benefits are clear in terms of knowledge sharing and optimised use of resources. The reality on the ground can be rather different with a range of problems like these being voiced:

• I now have two bosses. Which one has priority?
• How do I influence someone when I don’t have any direct authority?
• I don’t have enough time to do everything. Didn’t they plan resources before setting up the organisation?’
• I have to report to someone in Hong Kong. I’ve never met him and he sends me one email every month asking for data which I can’t deliver. I don’t see how this can be an effective way of working.

So what are the solutions to matrix working? These will depend a great deal on the specific type of organisation which you inhabit, its maturity, and the resources and commitment which senior management has invested in the matrix. However, three key skills are likely to prove important:

1.    Manage your time

Dual or triple reporting lines and multiple tasks are part and parcel of the matrix. If you are poor at time management, you will see deadlines missed, colleagues irritated and your own stress levels rocket. Take a training course in how to prioritise and how to say no. It will keep you healthy.

2.    Build your network

Matrix organisations work through networks of people cooperating spontaneously and positively. Professionals can only build effective networks by investing time in people, meeting and greeting, socialising, understanding their working contexts and pressures, and making themselves available when help is requested. If not, your requests for support are likely to fall on deaf ears when you least need it.

3.    Take responsibility

Clarity and transparency around reporting and decision making have largely disappeared and may not reappear. Part of matrix competence is the ability to tolerate such ambiguity but also to take responsibility to make things happen, and to get decisions made rather than wait for others to authorise or confirm. The future matrix professional is proactive, entrepreneurial and responsible. This actually requires a courageous mental shift from older certainties to newer possibilities.

What is your experience of matrix working? What are your frustrations? What tips and tricks would you like to share? Start networking that knowledge. We’ll be facilitating this process too in the autumn with our redesigned website and new blogging opportunities to discuss different aspects of international communication. Watch this space.

As course coordinator at our training centre in York, Peasholme House, Director Fiona Mee not only does a formal feedback session with every client to visit us at the end of every week’s course but also spends a lot of time talking informally to them in coffee breaks and during social events. Here she identifies three frequently expressed challenges that she hears and the questions she often asks in response.

1. We have difficulty influencing and engaging diverse people in diverse locations

Have you built in ‘virtual time’ to get to know the people you are working with even if you may never have met them?  Have you established some ground rules as to how you will work together for example to establish response times, frequency and mode of communication?  Have you asked your partners what is important to them, what are their priorities? Is everybody clear about the goals?  Are these shared goals?

2. We have trouble participating proactively in virtual meetings

Have you tried some active listening techniques such as “If I can come in here, I think that’s a very interesting point and I’d like to add …”or  “I can see your point, Sylvie, but what about in India? how could that work?” or “When you say that this is the right model, do you mean … ?”

In this way you are giving positive signals to your partners to show that you are listening and engaged and at the same time, that you are creating an opportunity to contribute your views.

3.  We can understand all of our partners except for the native speakers

Have you considered that it may be the native speakers who need to improve their communication skills and not you?  We must all take responsibility for effective communication.  If the native speaker is not clear, give some feedback such as “I’m sorry, Robert, but you are not speaking very clearly. Could you please state your point again?” or  “I’m afraid we can’t follow you. Please would you slow down and explain again in different words?” Be confident with native speakers and push them to use international English and to check understanding by summarising and asking for feedback.

Communicating Across Cultures

October will see the publication of Bob Dignen’s Communicating Across Cultures published by Cambridge University Press. The short course of 40 hours will allow Business English trainers to offer training to their clients which integrates intercultural, professional communication and English language skills. The course is accompanied by a DVD with 6 video case studies which investigates different approaches to decision making, influencing and feedback in an international team. For more information, contact Bob at bob.dignen@york-associates.co.uk. Or better still, catch up with him at the BESIG conference in Dubrovnik as he will presenting the course there.

Communicating Internationally in English

York Associates’ latest title, Communicating Internationally in English, is now available and can be ordered by visiting our website or going directly to the site of our book distributor, The Bournemouth English Book Centre (www.bebc.co.uk). German readers can buy it through Business Spotlight magazine which sponsored its publication. The book is designed to help non-native speakers of English in particular to master the communication skills which are essential for success when working internationally. It includes introductory chapters on the fundamentals of international communication; seven chapters on key interpersonal skills such as influencing, conflict management and trust building; as well as a section on virtual communication which includes advanced email skills and tips for working in virtual teams. By reading Communicating Internationally in English, you can become more successful in your international job, managing relationships more effectively to reach better results.

Business Minimaxes

Our series of Business Minimaxes on Presenting, Meeting, Negotiating, Telephoning , Socialising and Writing, continue to go down with clients across the world. “Exactly what I need” was the comment of one recent participant in York who had come from a French luxury goods company to practise presentation skills for her new role in global talent recruitment. Don’t forget that you can customise the front and back covers of Minimaxes to your own brand specification for orders of 500 copies or more of any title. Contact us for a quotation.

Former York Associates director Jeremy Comfort will be the keynote speaker at this year’s BESIG (IATEFL Business English Special Interest Group) annual conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 18 to 20 November. The subject of his talk will be ‘What’s culture got to do with business? – supporting our learners in a complex world’. Bob Dignen will be presenting his new book, Communicating Across Cultures, and YA director Steve Flinders will be talking about Influencing:

http://www.besig.org/

Director Steve Flinders and Business Spotlight editor Dr Ian McMaster will be presenting Communicating Internationally in English at the tenth conference on Languages and International Business Communication (Sprachen & Beruf) in Berlin from

26 to 28 October:

http://www.sprachen-beruf.com/

Bob Dignen will be presenting at the TESOL France Colloquium in Paris from 4 to 6 November:

http://www.tesol-france.org/Colloquium11-callforpapers.php

Training the trainer with Bob Dignen

York Associates recently completed the third of three train-the-trainer sessions for Zurich Group, the leading global insurance and financial services company. The company has developed a comprehensive internal qualification programme for staff including underwriters and relationship managers. Bob Dignen developed a short two-hour module called Collaborating Internationally for this programme, and then trained approximately 80 nominated internal trainers on how to deliver the materials across Zurich’s worldwide locations. This knowledge transfer initiative could prove to be a future business model with York Associates acting as learning consultant supporting companies looking to develop customised internal training programmes.

Effective business writing with Jackie Black

Jackie doubles as a trainer and as our support course coordinator when Fiona is working in other areas like writing or marketing in Brazil and Germany. She writes:

If your company decided to carry out an email audit looking at volume of traffic, relevance and time spent, what do you think the findings would reveal? With this question in mind, I recently ran a two-day writing course for a group of people with very diverse functions and responsibilities as well as very different communication needs.

Much of the time was dedicated, of course to content, style and language. However, a common thread running through discussions with the participants before the course was the need for clarity. Being able to send out clear, transparent messages reduces the time we spend wiring quite drastically, and also leads to less frequent misunderstandings and more efficient decision-making. The main challenge for most of the group in their writing was to achieve a balance between being too direct (blunt and dictatorial) and too polite (quaint and old-fashioned), especially when making requests or offers.

In addition to this, many of the group admitted to being addicted to emailing, resorting to the written form in an attempt to avoid face-to-face discussion (or conflict) or using the phone. Many of them also felt that having information written down in ‘black and white’ gave them some kind of safety net. The reflection then was: is this the best form of communication to use in this situation?

My aim was for the participants to leave the course not only armed with a comprehensive set of phrases to help them write more accurately and more concisely, but also with a new outlook on writing as a form of communication.

European Works Council communication with John Woollacott

John’s expertise in international trade union communication continues to be in demand as we provide support in the form of training and facilitation not only to the Norwegian Trade Union Confederation (LO) and Norwegian Workers’ Educational Association (AOF) and to the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) but also to an increasing number of European Works Councils of individual companies. John writes here about the last course for European Works Councillors organised through ETUI.

At the end of November, York Associates will welcome another group of European Works Council representatives to York for a one-week course on behalf of the European Trade Union Institute. This follows the success of a similar course last year, when EWC reps from companies based in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Norway and Romania worked on improving their language and communication skills around trade union and EWC issues.

Some highlights of the week included a meeting simulation, where participants had the opportunity to explain and discuss problems they face in their work – including disciplinary action against a shift worker, renegotiating an EWC agreement following a company takeover, a new bonus system, and the lack of consultation with employee representatives in one EWC. Following a talk about trade unions in the UK, participants prepared and gave a short presentation about trade union organisation and membership in their own countries. The emphasis in all activities was on speaking clearly and listening actively, and this formed the basis for the feedback provided by the trainer.

Lionel Fulton, from the Labour Research Department, gave an excellent talk to the group on EWCs in theUK, and answered questions about the challenges facing EWCs in general. There was also a lively meeting with shop stewards at the Nestle factory in York, in which views were exchanged on workplace organisation and some specific achievements of EWCs. The group prepared questions for both these meetings, and the questions were distributed around the group so that all members were fully engaged.

The end-of-course evaluation was very positive. One participant commented that “this course was made-to-measure for EWC members.” We look forward to a repeat performance in November!

Finnish academics visit Whitby with Brenda Gleave

See our last newsletter for Brenda’s profile. She writes about one important aspect of a recent course provided for academic staff from the Metropolia University in Helsinki:

There’s a well-known English proverb which goes ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’.  We at York Associates and, it would seem, many of our clients, happily subscribe to this.  What better evidence than a recent mini-bus extravaganza, undertaken by a group of Finnish academics from Metropolia University in Helsinkito the quaint coastal town of Whitby.  The Finns’ enthusiasm for such an outing was fanned by the popularity in their native country of the British TV series, Heartbeat.  Its setting in the North Yorkshire moors, the fictional village of Aidensfield and the reality of the fishing port of Whitby, were temptations too great to pass up on a hot, sunny afternoon in May.

York Associate’s menu of courses caters for all tastes.  The Finnish contingent opted for a closed group format which allows not only for intensive English language tuition but an opportunity for colleagues to gel and brainstorm solutions to management challenges within their own organisation.  The ten clients were chaperoned by two of YA’s trainers, an enviable task for the latter and a means to a unique exchange of conversation and cultures.

Whitby offers an embarrassment of riches in terms of historical sites, together with shops for the ladies and drinking holes for the men.  Arriving at our destination, our band of sightseers divided into two groups and set off in a spirit of fun and adventure.  Whitby is famed principally for its abbey – the first monastery founded in AD657 by King Oswy of Northumbria.  An Anglo-Saxon style double monastery for men and women, its original ruler was the formidable royal princess Hild.  Now in ruins, it nonetheless sits in haunting majesty atop a headland to frame a panoramic view over the town and coastline.  Kirsi Massalo, one of the two female lecturers in the group, gamely climbed the hundred steps to the Abbey to gaze on the harbour below. In the spirit of true enquiry, and, inter alia, as a graduate of wood sciences, Kirsi also investigated during her week at York Associates, the origin of the monkey puzzle tree and its fossil legacy of jet.  This luminous, black gemstone, made popular by the Victorians, is found in both quantity and quality in Whitby– so an additional source of delight on the trip for Kirsi the researcher.

The next Developing People Internationally accreditation course for trainers, led by Jeremy Comfort, will run for six weeks from 31 August to 21 October. Go to http://www.york-associates.co.uk/general/trainer_training/dpi_online.htm for more information and to register online. This course is now being offered at the discounted price of £500 per participant.

Steve Flinders will also run, subject to demand, a DPI accreditation workshop in Paris from 16 to 18 September at the standard price of £895.

York800

Come to York in 2012 and help us to celebrate the 800th anniversary of becoming an independent and free city. It was on 9 July 1212 that King John signed a charter guaranteeing York its own rule of law and ability to collect taxes, and paving the way for the city to have its own council and Lord Mayor. York’s best-known festivals  including the Viking Festival in February, the Early Music Festival in July and Illuminating York in October will tie in with the anniversary theme. Probably the highlight of the celebrations will be the staging of the York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens. The Mystery Plays date back to the 14^th century and are the best-known cycle of mediaeval religious plays in the country. Book both your summer course in York and your Mystery Play tickets early! Both may be oversubscribed.

York Food and Drink Festival

This festival gets bigger and better with every passing year. This year it runs from 16 to 25 September. Go to http://www.yorkfoodfestival.com/ for information about the different events and to book your tickets and contact York Associates to book your course at the same time, although do this soon – some weeks in the autumn are already getting very full.

And finally …

Not a stone’s throw from Peasholme House, you can now pick free vegetables to take home and cook, thanks to a new eco-venture called Edible York. Our photos show the vegetable patch just outside our headquarters and the sign explaining the new venture. A great initiative and one that is attracting a lot of local attention.