Brightlands-Get Out Of The Building 2019

First of all we would like to thank everyone who visited our Cultural Awareness stand at Brightlands’ event “Get Out Of The Building” on Friday, September 20th. We are very pleased if you enjoyed it and moreover if we succeeded in creating more awareness about the Dutch culture.

As promised herewith some information about the statements:

Facts about the Dutch

The Dutch are quite innovative people. Many inventions have been done by the Dutch like the storm umbrella. There are few places in the world more hazardous for umbrellas than the Netherlands, a country under constant assault by stiff winds and pelting rain. Like many Dutch natives, Gerwin Hoogendoorn had grown accustomed to replacing broken umbrellas after storms. He invented the Storm umbrella.

Some other examples of Dutch inventions can be found on https://www.iamexpat.nl/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/10-important-dutch-inventions.

Why are Dutch so innovative? This also has to do with culture. The Dutch ‘like’ to complain but on the other hand they are seeking for solutions.

Cultural behaviour

In general the Netherlands scores high on ‘individualism’ (geert-hofstede.com). An heritage from the 18th century when Calvanism took a strong position in the Netherlands. Therefore the Dutch are ‘carrying’ honesty in their DNA. This leads to the quite direct way of communication. Dutch teach their children to give their opinion and to take initiatives. At school it is common to discuss your results with the teacher if you don’t agree.  Nevertheless in general a Dutch is quite unpretentious, if you would give a compliment on his/her car the answer could be something like ‘Oh…I need it for my work’ or ‘Oh..It’s a safe car for my kids’. Next to that Dutch people are precise with respect to appointments; be in time and in general it is not appreciated when you just step by, your Dutch host wants to be prepared for your visit in order to give you a feeling of being very welcome.

Furthermore we would like to pay attention on the use of gestures; your gestures will not always be understood and certainly non verbal expressions are not always noticed. On the other hand be aware a gesture from someone of another culture can have a complete different meaning.

If you want to learn more about how to adequately interact in an international (business) environment, please contact us.

We support professionals to integrate smoothly in the Dutch work culture. We train and coach people who are interacting with different cultures. We maximize employee potential by harmonizing and building on intercultural competences.

 

Integrate smoothly into the Dutch culture as entrepreneur

We as Connect 2 Improve are happy to have been able to share the Dutch culture in a creative manner with the new international startups Brightlands Innovation Factory and in cooperation with Holland Expat Center South. Furthermore, we challenged the participants in intercultural communication within the team and with other stakeholders as an entrepreneur.

Intercultural Communication @ Sociale Zaken MH

Creating awareness about intercultural communication challenges but also similarities in cultures, sharing experiences and learning from each other…it was a great pleasure to facilitate this workshop on behalf of Acumen Business Services, for the team @ Sociale Zaken Maastricht Heuvelland.

Intercultural Workshop at Brightlands Event

On Friday, June 29th. we provided an intercultural workshop during the Brightlands event ‘Get Out Of The Building’. Our participants were internationals (living and working in the Netherlands) and representatives of companies and of government. Our workshop ‘Trust in Perception’ emphasized on how being unaware about perception can lead to miscommunication and how ‘giving trust’ can lead to success. The participants were surprised by our ‘creativity with food’ part, leading to nice insights about differences in habits and behaviour.

Cultural diversity; the impact at work

Just a small part of the world scores high on ‘individualism’. This means that most people from all over the world are not familiar with the Dutch way of communication. Culture differences unfortunately often leads to culture clashes and waste of time in the business environment. Just create intercultural awareness and understanding and enjoy the way your employees and colleagues interacting with diversified people. Our message: Trust in Perception!

If you want to learn more about how to adequately interact in an international (business) environment, please contact us.

We support professionals to integrate smoothly in the Dutch work culture. We train and coach people who are interacting with different cultures. We maximize employee potential by harmonizing and building on intercultural competences.

 

Brightlands ‘Get Out Of The Building’, June 29th. in Sittard

How can we create more awareness about different perceptions and how to benefit from it?

Connect 2 Improve is proud to announce that we will organize an intercultural workshop for internationals and representatives of government and international companies.

The workshop will take place during the Brightlands ‘Get Out of The Building’ event! We will provide this on behalf of the Holland Expat Center South and municipality Sittard-Geleen.

Join this summer 2018 edition at Friday, June 29th.!

Interview “RTV Maastricht News”

 

Nice to announce: during the great event for internationals in Maastricht ‘The Magic Meet & Greet’. Read more

Tasty Thoughts workshops AZC Sweijkhuizen

 

A Tasty Thoughts workshops for the Children at the AZC in Sweikhuizen. Read more

War Child

 

War Child invited us to provide a culture workshop…. Read more

Little Dutch Entrepreneurs Award

 

In 2017 the foundation Amalied organized the fantastic event “Little Dutch Entrepreneurs Award ®”.  Read more