Kolb believes that adults learn by having an experience, then reflecting on that experience, coming up with new insights or ideas and then going out into the world to apply these new insights. Upon applying new insights, adults then have new experiences to learn from. In this way, learning goes on and on in an endless cycle. Coaching shares Kolb‟s assumption that the best way for the client to learn is from his or her own experiences. Coaches believe that clients are dynamic, powerful individuals capable of finding their own answers. As coaches, it is our job to ask the right questions. Coaches assist clients to reflect on and learn from their experiences. They also assist clients to apply this learning to new goals so that they can create new achievements. In fact, the coaching conversation could be seen as the “observations and reflections” step of Kolb‟s Cycle of Learning and the whole coaching relationship could be seen as a learning relationship (Coaching Theory, ICA, 2010).
Throughout experiential intercultural training, coaching technique can be used to ask powerful questions to build awareness. This experiential learning is unstructured learning through exploring, experiencing, creating, discovering, relating to and interacting with the world around them, without rules or time limits.
Step 3: Post-Training Evaluation
Company is required to evaluate their training to determine how well such plans and programs contribute to mission accomplishment and meet organizational and employees performance goals. Coaching plays an important role at every stage of the evaluation, which can be described on Kirkpatrick’s fur level of training evaluation.
Intercultural training does focus on soft skills to prepare participants work internationally in an effective way. Soft skills are behavioral competencies. Also known as Interpersonal skills, or people skills, they include proficiencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal effectiveness, creative problem solving, strategic thinking, team building, influencing skills and selling skills, to name a few.
Based on this research paper, it is clearly showed that both intercultural training and coaching can work parallel and complement each other by creating a structured awareness of the impact of culture on all business and non-business functions and communications. Intercultural training provides specific skill, advice and knowledge, quick fix to the problems which the impact of the result is rather for short term, whereby, Intercultural coaching is a cognition process, with self-directed learning, aims to facilitate client’s thinking, awareness, beliefs, competencies and behaviors to achieve personal and professional goals in long run.
In conclusion, by practicing coaching techniques in intercultural training, the participants are given opportunity to understand themselves better, understand the existing of different worldviews and take advantage of cultural differences to achieve the desired outcomes which will last for long time. Intercultural coaching focuses on creating an ‘intercultural climate’ that allows the coach and coachee to become more culturally aware and adapt their behaviour and expectations as appropriate (Kate Griffin and Richard Cook,2008).
Bibliography
IOR Global Services www.iorworld.com
Intercultural coaching, A Survey of Current Practice, Sibylle von Arnim, Alexandra Maszynski, Inge Schwenkel, berlin, 2006 Intercultural coaching, Interkulturelle Management- und Organisationsberatung
Kirkpatrick, D. L. and Kirkpatrick J.D. (2006). Evaluating Training Programs (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
U.S. Office of Personnel ManagementStrategic, Human Resources PolicyTraining and Executive Development Group, www.opm.gov/hrd
Intercultural Coaching: The Next Big Thing (2008), Global excellence, Kate Griffin and Richard Cook