The Mindful International Manager
Our latest publication, written by York Associates director Jeremy Comfort and Peter Franklin, professor of intercultural business and management communication at HTWG Konstanz University of Applied Sciences, Germany, is now available. The book brings together many of our insights into developing international teams. It is based on the Developing People Internationally (DPI) virtuous circle of high performing teams with chapters on areas such as directions, roles, feedback and conflict. Written for the busy international manager it is designed for easy reading and quick reference. A unique feature of the book is the sections which outline best practice for working in an ever more demanding and complex world. Visit the dedicated website for more information, sample text and to purchase: www.themindfulinternationalmanager.com

Director Nick Brieger retires
Nick Brieger is retiring as a director at the end of 2008. Nick has been with York Associates for more than twenty years and in fact has worked with fellow director Jeremy Comfort for even longer. He has contributed enormously to our success in developing specific clients particularly in Switzerland and Eastern Europe and also in building up new businesses such as trainer training and legal communication courses. He has been a great support to his colleagues at YA, particularly in answering our endless IT and financial questions.

In the next new chapter of his life, he will be basing himself more in London and adopting a slightly more leisurely lifestyle, but only slightly as he plans to continue to work with YA on a number of trainer training projects and also some consultancy (see Partnership with Malta below) and management training abroad. So, while we are very sorry to see him leave his formal position in the company, we look forward to maintaining strong ties with him in the future.

We asked Nick to reflect on his time with York Associates and this is what he wrote:

‘What next?’ I asked myself in 1978, as I came towards the end of my two-year contract as a young academic at a Czech university. The answer, as it turned out, was to be mainly York and mainly teaching. As a youngish partner in an early model of York Associates, I became involved in the design and delivery of Business English courses. The intervening years have seen a shift in the concerns of those managers working internationally. And this change in emphasis, first from language to communication, and then to people skills and intercultural awareness, have kept me fully engaged and occupied. It has been a fascinating journey, both professionally and personally. And, of course, it would have been far less enjoyable, had it not been for the support of the team at York Associates. This support went far beyond the bounds of the work context. As a recent consultant asked: ‘Are you a team or a family?’ Well, in truth we are both. Now, as I come towards the end of my term as a director of York Associates I ask myself again ‘What next?’ The answer, I can confidently say, is less York and less teaching.

DPI conference September 2009
Following the first very successful Developing People Internationally conference held in Konstanz in September 2007, we are now planning the second such conference to take place this time in the UK – probably in York - in September 2009. This will be organised in collaboration with SIETAR UK and the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences and there will once again be a range of speakers contributing their latest ideas and research on the challenges of international working. The DPI conference brings together a unique mix of business people, academics and trainers all working in this field and the 2009 event promises to be as cosmopolitan and stimulating as the last event, if not more so. Details of venue, dates and main themes are to be announced early in 2009 and can then be found on the YA website.

More DPI accreditation workshops
2008 has seen successful workshops in Paris, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Ingolstadt, Konstanz and York. We have now accredited more than a hundred trainers to use our innovative set of resources. These include film extracts which demonstrate a diverse group working in a virtual international project. There are also audio recordings with managers talking about their experience of leading and managing internationally. In 2009 we plan further workshops in Paris, Lille, Darmstadt and Bergamo.

Partnership with Malta
2009 will see the start of new project with our Maltese partners, the European School of English. We will be launching a range of professional language and communication courses in Malta. Nick Brieger has already begun training trainers and will be instrumental in developing these courses and ensuring the highest quality of delivery.

Compared to the York offering, the courses will be less intensive and take advantage of the opportunity to combine leisure activities with the training. These courses will enable us to reach a wider range of clients in both existing and new markets – both private and corporate clients who are looking for YA quality plus the very distinctive Maltese experience.

Courses for 2009

International team combination course
In 2009 we are introducing a new international team combination course, the latest addition to our range of individual, combination and profession-specific language and communication courses. This is for people with more advanced language skills who wish to focus on the challenges of international working. The one-to-one training will focus on key success factors for international team communication like rapport building, influencing, coaching and managing conflict across business cultures. The group component will deal with business communication situations such as presentations, meetings and negotiations.

Building Business Communication Skills overseas
Over the years, many clients have asked YA for a training programme which brings together the core business communication skills. The result has been Business Communication in English. The programme covers the core communication skills required in typical business contexts – presentations, meetings, telephoning, negotiating, professional discussion and business writing. Clients who have chosen this programme for their staff include Credit Suisse, Nestlé, KPMG and Alcatel. The key to the programme’s success is its adaptability – both in terms of duration and content. Some clients have opted for a three-day version, focusing, for example, on presentations and meetings; others for a five-day version, choosing more elements from the menu. With its well-tried and trusted formula, BizCom is now available as an overseas offering and has already been successfully delivered in-house or as a residential course in a number of countries across Europe. With pre- and post-course support material, it offers a flexible and cost-effective training programme in the core skills required for working internationally.

A scene from the Developing People Internationally DVD

Courses in 2008

People Management in Switzerland
In 2008 we cooperated with our Lausanne-based partners CRPM to deliver a new two-part programme in People Management. The first two-day programme focuses on individual and team understanding, clarifying roles, defining and communicating objectives and supporting team members through coaching. There is then a four- to six-week break in which participants are encouraged to coach each other. This is followed by part 2 – another two-day programme concentrating on the situational leadership model, motivation, recognition and feedback. This course is highly practical, based around role-plays and real-life case studies which the participants work through and give each other feedback. The context is the complex and demanding task of managing performance and relationships in multicultural workforces.
In 2009 we will be extending the courses we offer to include Leading Virtual Teams, Business Communication and Business Writing.

HR synergy in Norway
Director Steve Flinders, one of YA’s HR specialists, visited Norway several times this year to deliver HR communication courses both for HR Norge, the professional association there, and for the HR Organisational Capabilities and Change team at StatoilHydro in Stavanger led by Vice-president Tor Egil Sunderø. This is a two-day course, delivered to a formula devised by the team itself and facilitated by Steve where each team member in turn delivers a presentation outlining policy proposals for his or her specialist area for questioning, examination and discussion by the whole group, followed by communication feedback from everyone and then more communication and language feedback from Steve – a very effective way of building policy and team spirit in an international environment.

The AOF Yorkshire School
Every year for the last sixteen years, York Associates in collaboration with the Norwegian Workers’ Educational Association (AOF) and the Bradford College Trade Union Study Centre, has run a course for Norwegian trade union shop stewards called the Yorkshire School. Up to 24 Norwegian trades unionists come in two groups, accompanied by AOF tutors Josephine Bakke or Mike Barker, to spend one week in York and a second week in Bradford where they work on projects which they present to groups of British trades unionists at the end of the course. The course involves guest speakers from the Yorkshire and Humberside Trades Union Congress, which has always been strongly supportive of these initiatives, and has been so successful that there has also been a follow-up course for people who did the first one; and Josephine has also welcomed a group of British trades unionists for a course in Norway.

Gaëtan Gorce with YA director Steve Flinders, meets Simon Sweeney, Head of Programme MA in International Studies and Senior Lecturer in European Integration and Management Studies at the University of York St John

Recently we have been finishing off the York week with a session led by Dr Barrie Rhodes of the Yorkshire Dialect Society who talks interestingly and amusingly about the parallels between the Norwegian language and Yorkshire dialect and then invites participants to take part in a word trading game – a fun end to the first half of a course which has helped to strengthen links between Norway and the Yorkshire region and to improve international trade communication generally. More political courses We were happy to deliver a number of courses in international political communication again this year, welcoming back Gaëtan Gorce, a Socialist deputy in the French National Assembly; and a group of senior officials from the Norwegian Labour Party and a delegation of MPs from the Norwegian Parliament, both of whom had the opportunity to meet a Yorkshire and Humberside Member of the European Parliament, Richard Corbett, at Peasholme House. York Associates is fortunate to be able to call on a range of political representatives and commentators to meet our clients and engage in genuine dialogue during such courses.

Delivering practical courses in Switzerland through CRPM

StatoilHydro build policy and team spirit at the same time

Anne Grethe Wilhelmsen and Kim Jelle trades Norwegian and Yorkshire words at the end of another Yorkshire School.

Norwegian MP Gjermund Hagesæter makes a point to British MEP Richard Corbett at Peasholme House

More new publications

Business Minimaxes new edition
Over the next few months, we shall be relaunching the six most popular titles in our Business Minimax series - English for Presenting, for Meetings, for Negotiating, for the Telephone, for Business Writing, and for Socialising – with a new look and slightly slimmed-down size.. One client, Dialog in Germany, has already taken advantage of this to commission their own customised edition of two of these titles – a great language and communication support for your own staff or clients: contact us for more information about prices for bulk orders.

50 Ways to improve your intercultural communication skills
April 2009 should see the publication of Bob Dignen's and co-author James Chamberlain’s 50 Ways to improve your intercultural communication skills. As it says in the title, the book is designed to give pragmatic tips to those working across business cultures. You won’t find detailed descriptions of dos and don’ts for specific cultures in the book. Instead, you’ll learn about the competences needed to be successful in diverse international business contexts across all cultures.

With 50 Ways you’ll be able to develop a greater range of working styles to match different environments. You will learn how to listen more effectively, how to speak more clearly, how to build rapport and how to manage conflict across cultures, how to communicate in international teams and how to get your message across as an international leader. 50 Ways will help you to build better relationships and get better results internationally.

To be published in 2009 by Marshall Cavendish: see www.marshallcavendish.co.uk

York Associates in York

Course reports and the Common European Framework
York Associates has changed they way we produce our course reports. Course reports are a vital instrument in course design and delivery because they show the framework for a course as well as establishing an evaluation of achievements. The report is built up during the week, beginning with a profile of the participant’s job and communication needs and an assessment of the language and communication level. This is followed by setting objectives for the week, detailing content covered in order to achieve these goals and at the end of the week, summarising how far those targets were met. The last part of the report sets out a plan of recommendations on how to follow up after the course has ended in order to build on what has been done.

Up to 2008, course reports were more focused on language competence and stressed mechanical accuracy and fluency. However, technical competence is only one aspect of effective communication and often not the most important. Since then, and in line with an increasing trend throughout Europe, YA has adopted a system based on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework Reference (CEFR). This reference tool, which grew from an intergovernmental symposium and scientific research by the Swiss National Science Foundation, was designed as a communicative reference, open and dynamic, rather than prescriptive. In November 2001, its use was recommended by the EU Council to show:

Environmental update
Following the implementation of our eco plan in the summer, we are now some way to achieving our targets, for example, maximising recycling, switching to green suppliers, purchasing environmental friendly goods, changing to an e-publications catalogue, encouraging walking and cycling to work, encouraging participants and staff to use the train for travel to/from France rather than the plane, and reducing consumption in general. We have also made cost reductions as a result of these actions. We have other targets that we will continue to work on in 2009, such as putting training resources onto disc instead of printing on paper, and continuing to reduce the number of photocopies and misprints.

However, our major challenge in 2009 will be energy, both reducing consumption and increasing efficiency. We have now become a member of the York and North Yorkshire Business Environmental Forum, which recently held a ‘Resource Efficiency’ event at the Park Inn Hotel in York where energy management was discussed, led by Bernard Regan of the Carbon Trust. In the current climate of energy price rises and increasing insecurity, York Associates is considering two significant measures at Peasholme House; to replace the old and inefficient boiler and heating system and to put in window insulation throughout the building. This should make a significant difference to increasing energy efficiency, along with current procedures of turning off radiators, lights and PCs when rooms are not in use.

And finally, as part of our paper-saving drive, we have now gone paperless for both our Christmas greetings to our clients and our newsletter. We hope that you approve of the changes.

Host families
In this issue we are presenting two more families who regularly welcome course participants at Peasholme House and who, like the Lyons and Lindsay MacNamara in the last issue, are also friends and neighbours. They are further testimony to the diversity of our families and of how interesting breakfast and dinnertime discussions can be for their guests. We are lucky to have them.

John and Christine Roe say: “We remember our first YA guest staying with us in 1985 when our daughter, Hannah, was a year old. Now Hannah is living in Beijing, learning Mandarin, and our son, William, is in his final year at university, studying history. John continues to teach Renaissance Literature at the University of York and Christine works as a retail trainer for Dr Hauschka skin care.

Our YA guests were very important in our children’s lives. We enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. Chatting to someone over breakfast is a relaxed way of getting to know them. The world seems to have travelled to us. Our lives have been enriched by the many very different and wonderful people we have met through YA. We have felt very privileged indeed. We look forward to the years ahead and to the new people we will meet as well as seeing the old friends we hope will return.”

Martin and Ellie Dreyer are in their mid-60s and have two sons, Charles and Mark, both in their early 30s. Ellie is from Montreal, where they met when Martin was a student at McGill. Together they run a classical music business which they founded 30 years ago. Martin is also music critic for York’s daily paper and lectures part-time at York University.

When not spending time with Charles, who teaches in London, or Mark, who is a TV producer in Beijing, they enjoy walking, travelling, watching sport and, of course, going to concerts and opera. They were surprised to be reminded that they have been a host family since 1980: “it hasn’t seemed that long,” says Ellie. “Having students to stay is very stimulating”, adds Martin. “They are usually high-flyers with a sense of humour and plenty to say, and along the way we’ve enjoyed learning a great deal about other countries.”

Conferences: Nick Brieger in China
Director Nick Brieger was most honoured to be invited as keynote speaker at the International Conference for Business English Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, (South East) China. The conference brought together scholars and practitioners of Business English from across the country. With a country the size of China, this was no mean feat for the organisers. With around a hundred delegates from institutes of higher education, the conference presented plentiful opportunities for professional exchange and development. For Nick, it offered an insight into the role of Business English in an academic setting, as well as the opportunity to profile the services of YA as a leading provider of Business English courses. “Business English is being taken very seriously as an academic discipline at Chinese universities”, said Nick, “and in time this will translate into demand for quality courses for the business community. With China’s economy still booming, there are plenty of opportunities for Business English teachers.”

One of the new Minimaxes – Dialog Germany-style

50 Ways to improve your intercultural communication skills

We have now moved over to the Council of Europe scales for language level assessment

Energy saving at YA - more of us are cycling to work

John and Christine Roe, YA host family

Martin and Ellie Dreyer, YA host family

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies – Nick Brieger spoke here

York news

Getting here from France and Belgium
If you are reading this in Paris or Brussels and haven’t yet sampled the Eurostar ride to the new terminal at St Pancras, book now for a trip in the New Year. Not only is the terminal a delight but the transit to your train to York from Kings Cross is now just a five minute walk away: your correspondent recently went from seat to seat in less than half an hour. With prices currently very competitive, this is an increasingly easy, comfortable and economical alternative to flights to Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle: you can book through return trips at www.eurostar.com.

Top ten university in York
Once again, the University of York has been ranked in the top ten universities in the UK – ninth in fact in the Times league table of 113 British universities using measures including research, facilities and student satisfaction. For a city of its size, York is particularly fortunate to have two universities – York and York St John – which provides valuable spin-offs for York Associates since we are often able to arrange meetings and counterpart visits for our clients. Plans are now afoot for a major expansion of York while York St John has clearly benefited from £50 million of investment in recent years.

Walking city
First it was European Tourism City of the Year and now York has been designated the most walking friendly city in the UK. Our clients will know about this from the guided historical tours which we so often organise in conjunction with York Walks, but if you’re planning a visit and have some spare time, check out the walks at www.visityork.org/explore.

Racing city
If you prefer horse transport, then you will be pleased to learn that the number of racing days in York will expand from 15 to 20 in 2009. York is now the undisputed racing capital of the north of England.

Drinking city
Eleven York pubs have been included in the national Real Ale Pub Guide for 2009. Course participants who have already relaxed in the evening over a pint may know such locations as The Golden Ball (which we visit regularly on Thursday evenings for the music), The Blue Bell, The Last Drop and The Three-Legged Mare, but perhaps not The Maltings, The Tap and Spile or The Yorkshire Terrier. Visiting all 180 York pubs during a single visit is probably too much of a challenge, but visiting our first eleven could be possible over a one- or two-week course. See www.york-camra.free-online.co.uk for more details.

York history – see it
It’s taken two years to build, the involvement of 80 people, contains 250 pages of information and more than 1000 images but the website presenting the history of York is now up and running. If you are planning a visit or have been to York and would like to extend your historical knowledge, this is the site for you. Go to www.historyofyork.co.uk for the full experience.

York history – hear it
And finally, when you visit (again) bring your iPod and download an audio tour of York for £7.99 from www.mp3cityguides.com complete with a printable guide containing a map, information about eating and drinking, etc.

Leadership briefing
Here’s an extract from The Mindful International Manager on surfacing expectations, taken from the website: www.themindfulinternationalmanager.com. This is just one of the extracts to download from here.

Christmas across cultures quiz
1. In which country did the Christmas tree originate?
2. What do you kiss under at Christmas in Scandinavia and English-speaking countries?
3. In the UK, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast on BBC radio every Christmas Eve. How old is the service and where is it broadcast from?
4. Where exactly was Silent Night first performed?
5. What is ‘la fève’ in France?
6. Why is Thomas Nast important in the history of Christmas celebrations?
7. What does it mean if you find a spider’s web in your house on Christmas morning in Ukraine?
8. In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. Of what material is it usually made?
9. What is Father Christmas called in Norway?
10. In Italy, what is an Urn of Fate at Christmas?
11. What are the names of the Three Kings? What gifts did they bring?
12. What is the nationality of Good King Wenceslas and when did he live?

Sir John Betjeman, a former Poet Laureate, is waiting to greet you at St Pancras station in London

The University of York – one of the best

York has been designated the most walking friendly city in the UK

The Mindful International Manager – now available

Your feedback or comments on anything in this newsletter will be much appreciated.
Once again we wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year,

For more information on any of these stories, please contact us . . .
Tel: 00 44 1904 624246
Fax: 00 44 1904 646971
Email: training@york-associates.co.uk
Internet: www.york-associates.co.uk

York Associates Language, communication, intercultural, interpersonal and leadership training
Peasholme House, St Saviours Place, York YO1 7PJ, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 1904 624246 Fax: +44 1904 646971