Finding Common Ground

EDITORS INTRODUCTION — This workshop is one of six that emerged from the 2019 Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change. An international group of students was tasked, over the course of three weeks engaging in seminars, workshops and other learning experiences, to devise an interactive learning experience for their peers that responds to the crisis of distrust. Please read the project overview to learn more, and see the people behind this work.

In the media and through personal experiences — including here, at the Salzburg Global Seminar — we have witnessed challenges for intercultural communication which are a microcosm of the kinds of challenges experienced between members of different cultural groups in the larger world.

Some examples of ineffective intercultural communication would be talking over others and ineffective listening, patronizing the other, talking over others…etc.

The Common Ground workshop will equip our target audience (students, faculty and career people working in intercultural environments) with the skills to engage in more effective intercultural communication, as well as to recognize how the same biases and issues that arise between individuals play out in mass media and encourage and help shape public perception.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Our learning experience will include a variety of interactive experiences to sensitize participants to issues that affect all intercultural communication, and to practice their skills, including:

1. An icebreaker, which emphasizes non-verbal communication

2. Opening Video to set a light tone for what could be perceived as a contentious topic

3. The sharing of personal anecdotes regarding intercultural experiences (positive and negative)

4. Four simultaneous mini-workshop activities to divide participants into smaller groups and to consider body language, linguistic issues, cultural competence, and the impact of high-context, low-context cultures on cultural interactions.

5. Slideshow of examples from world media and pop culture that exhibit some of the same challenges for intercultural communication as one-on-one interactions

6. Playing the popular game Kahoot to test participants’ growing cross-cultural competence

7. A choose-your-adventure VR video that simulates an intercultural interaction in real time, yet with low stakes

We will also be providing you with a zine as a takeaway from the workshop full of tips and art.

The complete workshop takes 3 hours, and can accommodate 12 to 24 people.

For more info please click this link!