Summer is a popular time for employees with children to move to their new posting abroad. However, as we find out, a vital part of the preparation is often neglected in the last minute rush of details and minutiae.

The practical side of the relocation often overtakes all other considerations.

For many international assignees, especially those with children, summertime is often a frantic period of last-minute activity in order to make an international move while school is still out.  All too often, critical services like intercultural training get overlooked in the rush to deadline, putting the entire relocation at risk.  Here's an example of why - especially when time is of the essence - the essential skills provided by intercultural training are even that much more important...

Planning for the long-term

It's certainly understandable that specific aspects of the international relocation can be overlooked, or brushed aside as not as critical, as deadlines loom, and practical requirements, ranging from renewing passports, to coordinating household moves, insist on the attention of the frazzled expatriate-to-be.  In an effort to prioritise based on what appears in any given frenetic moment to be the most pressing issue, deadlines always take first place, pushing non-deadline items to the back of the line.

Unfortunately, bureaucratically essential, deadline-oriented items are often the least relevant to the long-term success of the assignment, while non-deadline items, like the intercultural training the family is authorised to receive to help them adjust and adapt to their new life and work culture abroad, have been proven time and again to be the critical 'insurance policy' against failed and difficult international assignments.

It is for this reason that the intercultural training that an organisation makes available to the assignee be coordinated at the earliest possible date, not necessarily for delivery prior to relocation (sometimes the best intercultural training is the kind that mixes pre-relocation and on-site, post-relocation training), but for the confirmation and assurance that sooner-than-later, the assignee and their family will get the all-important information they need in order to survive and thrive. 

Getting priorities right

Here's a quote from a participant in a cross-cultural programme that DFA recently delivered to a typical assignee: frazzled, hassled, rushed and without the apparent time to dedicate to cross-cultural training.  In an effort to take care of what 'Laura' (names have been changed for anonymity) perceived she needed to handle in the limited time she had to get everything organised for her relocation, she almost made the risky and dangerous decision to postpone her intercultural training; as you can see from her comments, she is very glad she didn't:

"We are only three weeks away from a departure, so we tried to cancel the class as schedules are completely overwhelming!  We are so glad we didn't, and that we were able to attend the (cross-cultural) workshop.  It has alleviated fears and prepared us for unexpected emotions and experiences that we otherwise would not have anticipated.  Our trainer was very attuned to our personalities and used personal examples of how we might have a better experience abroad".

The challenge of an international assignment can feel very overwhelming for some, calling up feelings and fears that, while needing to be dealt with, can sometimes more conveniently be denied and shunted aside.  In the rush of details and minutiae that needs to be dealt with as the deadline for relocation approaches, it often becomes an excuse for not scheduling the intercultural training. 

It is precisely for this reason that intercultural training can be so important, providing a critical, momentary, and guided respite in which one can explore their feelings, learn about best practices for handling adjustment challenges, gather the critical information they and their family will need in order to survive abroad, and develop a positive, engaged mindset toward what should be one of life's great learning and growth experiences, for them and the entire family. 

Encouraging employees to use the tools

From the corporate perspective, this insures the success of the international assignment, an investment in the global growth of the company, and the success of what is, no doubt, an important business initiative, in most cases.  The data, of course, shows us time and again that without intercultural training, relocating assignees are almost 70 percent more likely to be at risk for a failed or less-than-productive assignment abroad; equally, data shows us that assignees prepared through intercultural training are more than 60 percent more productive and successful on their international assignment than those without such training. 

If intercultural training is such a critical element to the personal, professional and organisational success of global companies and their human capital, then at the very moment when the relocation is about to occur, it is all the more important that such training occur. 

To overlook it, either because of fear, time pressure, or to minimise its importance in order to rationalise its re-prioritisation down the task ladder, is to overlook the most important critical determinant of success in the international move.  Precisely because there appears to be so little time, it becomes that much more critical for international assignees and their families (and for their organisation's to require that they) take the intercultural training that has been organised for them.

August 2006

Dean Foster is the president of  Dean Foster Associates. He can be contacted through its European Head Office at: info@dfa-europe.com, or via his website at www.learnaboutcultures.com

Subject: Intercultural training, relocating