Learning Styles and Cultures

I do a lot of facilitation in South-east Asia, Middle East, and Australia and New Zealand. We are based in Brisbane and this gives me exposure to many cultures in short range. I find it interesting to reflect on the differences in many of these cultures and the need to adjust your facilitation styles to suit the cultural differences. It is always dangerous to generalise, but I find that my style is quite different in various countries. I have not yet facilitated in the UK and would be interested in understanding what works and doesn't work in your culture with I suspect is not too different to Australia.

In Australia, we find that training programmes need not be too structured, allowing for the fact that the power distance between the trainer and learners is not great. You can ask spontaneous questions and get spontaneous responses from people in the room quite easily. This is in sharp contrast with places like Singapore. Singaporeans generally value structure and you simply can't ask a question in a training room in Singapore and expect an answer; hierarchy and the concept of 'saving face' put a stop to that. To facilitate discussion, you have to break people into groups and get the groups to consider the question and then through a spokesperson (generally the most senior learner or manager), they respond after an allocated time.

This is not so much the case in India, where the learners are more outgoing and willing to offer their view without such formality (particularly if they know you like cricket!).

Participants in The Philippines are inclined to call you 'Sir' or Dr Baker, in my case. They will often stand to address you and it is not unusual for the students to offer their workbook to be signed at the end of the workshop. Who says trainers can't be rock stars! This is definitely not the case in Saudi Arabia where the participants will make strong eye contact with you and it can be quite intimidating. The workshops of course have to be structured around their prayer breaks too.

I find it interesting too that Singaporeans love 'games' and participate fully. They expect a lot of experiential learning and role plays mixed with lectures, but little in between - it is either a lecture or a game, but never a facilitated discussion! I was told that this is because they work such long hours and training is an opportunity to 'unwind' and have some fun. I recall recently an HR manager telling me that it was ok to work past 6:30pm in a standard 9 to 5 workshop. I can never recall that being said in Australia.

They have a love of learning that we Australians could adopt. For instance, I made the mistake of giving homework at the end of the first of two back-to-back training days. I didn't debrief the article the next morning on my assumption that only a few would have taken the trouble to read the article. I was wrong! Everyone had read the article and highlighted the key points and they asked me for additional reading!  In Australia that just would not happen.

A taxi driver in Singapore articulated to me why there is a thirst for learning in this part of the world. He said that "unlike Australia, we have nothing in the ground that is of value and the only thing that is of value is between our ears and we have been taught this from a young age".

Australian's will generally tell you what they think of your training and the topic, whether you want to hear it or not. In many parts of South-east Asia this would never happen. You will only find out how it went two weeks later when you read the 'happy sheets'.

I would be interested to know how the UK system compares.

Dr Tim Baker is an international consultant in change management and the author of 'The 8 Values of Highly productive Companies: creating Wealth from a New Employment Relationship"(www.winnersatwork.com.au)