Pre-Relationship Phase Activity

"When we encounter differences, our tendency is to be rigid and to only resort to what we know and what we've been acculturated to know, which is a habit; in actuality, it's a habit. It's very good for us. It makes us run our lives efficiently, but in terms of building a relationship, it has the opposite effect."

Percy Thomas
Montgomery College

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Pre- Relationship	Initiation	Conflict	Negotiation	High Performance
Individuals have varying degrees of knowledge & skill around: Diversity Relationship Culture Personal patterns Interpersonal patterns Organizational patterns Environmental patterns Varying comfort level with differences Varying levels of commitment to the relationship & task Varying levels of trust Varying leadership styles Other:	Think about each of the three areas below and consider how they might impact a new relationship that you are forming. With some careful consideration and observation, your sensitivity will increase, benefiting your global business ventures and impacting production, marketing, sales, and general management performance. National culture:Think of a national culture different from your own that you will be making contact with in the future. Contrast how a challenge such as religion has been handled by the nation in question. How does it contrast with your own national approach? What impact might this have on a global business partnership? Organizational culture:Think of an organization across your own borders or a multinational organization that you will be doing business with in the future. Contrast the organizational culture with a local business. Think about roles (leaders, managers, gender, employee). What are the contrasts and how might these contrasts affect global ventures? Team culture:Think of a cross-cultural team that you will be forming a relationship with in the future. Explore how different teams respond to common challenges such as time, decision-making, planning, etc.
Awareness	Uncover Differences	Build Relationship	Negotiate New Ways	Transform Relationship

*Use the Human Envergy At Work video series and comprehensive guides to master the relationship at work. Key phases:

*Use the Valuing Relationships video series and comprehensive guides to master personal, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness.

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Barriers & Skills chart for each of the phases

Pre-Relationship
Phase Conditions

Countries, organizations, teams, and individuals come with histories, cultural expectations, visions, beliefs, values, and cultural ways of being and working. These pre-existing relationship conditions can either become opportunities or barriers to forming cooperative relationships, depending on how they are managed.

The key to building effective global relationships is awareness of oneself and others. It is important to be aware of relationship styles, as well as other cultural differences that are brought to the interaction, and to notice the context in which the global relationship is going to be developed. Through awareness of your own cultural and individual ways of building relationship, how they may contrast with the ways others build relationship, and being sensitive to the context, you will be better prepared to deal with challenges that may come up in the global workplace.

In particular, seek to understand the historical context of the work relationship long before the initial contact. The higher our general awareness of cultural challenges, the greater the chances of success. Cultural contrasts have real consequences for doing business and working across cultural boundaries (for example an inappropriate advertising campaign).