At Schulich, it’s no secret that a global mindset is essential for succeeding in the contemporary business landscape. In recognition of this need, the Graduate Business Council is hosting an exciting new initiative.

The GBC Cross-Cultural Questival will provide training for success in the global workplace from Lew Bayer, CEO of Civility Expert Inc.

In teams representative of different international backgrounds, students will learn and employ strategies to increase collaboration and understanding in an international workplace.

Class Of University Students Using Laptops In Lecture

The overarching goal of the workshop is to develop cultural competence.

“Cultural competence is having an awareness and informed view about cultural identity,” says GBC International Affairs Director Caria (Liang-Yen) Wei. “This includes the ability to work effectively with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.”

The ability to communicate and collaborate across different cultures is identified as a core skill in the current business environments most Schulich students come from, or plan to enter.

students_groupwork2“Because working in the global environment is inevitable for our generation, I believe it is crucial for every student at Schulich to develop this skill, and to meet international perspectives with respect and appreciation of the core values they bring from the corresponding home culture,” says Wei.

Cultural diversity is a standing feature of any classroom at Schulich. As such, one of the workshop’s expected outcomes is that cultural competence will come into play not only in the workforce, but in group work and classroom dialogue.

“As graduate students at Schulich, we are involved in international teams for every group project,” says Wei. “A student with cultural competence will be able to communicate effectively, better direct their team, surface key strengths from fellow teammates, and optimize performance.”

The workshop will end with a team trip downtown to participate in an Escape Room adventure.

Excited to Participate? Here are a few things you need to know:

  1. Register as a team of 5 by sending an email before Feb 25th to GBCInternational@Schulich.Yorku.ca. The mail should be sent by the Team Lead and include Team Name, Name & Nationalities of the 5 members along with their e-mail addresses. There should be atleast two nationalities represented in the team.
  2. You can pay on tilt individually or as a team. (25$ per participant)
  3. In case you need to find other interested team members to form a diverse team, join the event page https://www.facebook.com/events/500735773430509/