Global Effectiveness Training (GET) teaches employees at all organizational levels how to expand quality and output by improving the communication of important information. High quality information is the life energy of companies and all other types of organization. Information makes cooperation possible. Production, trust, and loyalty suffer when it doesn't flow.

Work is accomplished through relationships. A high standard of interpersonal relationship and communication skill is essential in today's multi-cultural work world. GET teaches a set of New-Skills that gives trainees the knowledge, tools, and self-confidence needed to be great communicators. The training is exciting and personally challenging.

GET's New Skills give leaders and managers the ability to clearly communicate goals, expectations, and instructions, plus rewards and consequences, in multi-cultural settings. Managers use the New-Skills to help employees open-up and communicate freely. Management's understanding of employee issues improves. The workplace becomes less stressful and more productive.

The New Skills give all employees the ability to understand exactly what is expected of them. Trainees also gain the personal confidence and skills needed to ask for clarification and help. They become empowered to communicate across - bridge - differences in culture and power in order to share ideas. They have greater personal investment in the organization's success and find their work more satisfying.

In the modern world of work and organizational performance no one doubts the important and central role interpersonal communication plays in the success of an enterprise. However, few organizations have experienced the huge potential for benefits that result from the most effective communication and relationship skills becoming ingrained into its culture. Why? Because practicing and incorporating these skills means being willing to commit to real and very personal changes in how we relate at work - not just to others - but also to ourselves. Change is never easy.

All of us can improve the on ways we communicate and relate with others. For example, some of us are shy and it's too scary to express honest opinions. Others of us express our opinions very easily, but fail to pay attention to how others are affected. However, even if we become aware of a problem we have in relating, it's really very difficult to change our old patterns.

Probably we all know someone who has made a real, lasting, and positive change in the way they relate to others. It does happen. Research has shown that when people are really motivated to change, and at the same time they are in a highly supportive environment, they can do it. GET establishes a learning environment where trust and understanding is highly valued. The New-Skills are best learned in a safe and supportive setting.

Trainees learn how to use new and powerful communication tools skillfully and confidently to produce quality work. Often trainees discover that using the New-Skills outside of the workplace lets them relate to family and friends in ways that they find more meaningful and satisfying.

In his extraordinarily popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey writes of the important role paradigms play in influencing our personal values and those of our society and culture. Paradigms can be described as broad, unconscious ways of experiencing and understanding the world. Paradigms change or 'shift' from time to time and alter our life perspectives and points of view. An example of a major paradigm shift happened when people stopped thinking of the earth as a flat, edged surface and began to think of it as a sphere or globe. The concept of world took on new meaning.

The concepts, ideas, and training methods used by Global Effectiveness Training involve a paradigm shift. Trainees learn new ways of understanding what it means to be an effective communicator. They discover new ways of being understanding, caring, and powerfully influential. Trainees explore how they can be honest, direct and full of respect at the same time.

Learning the New-Skills requires trying some new ways of communicating that might seem strange and risky in the beginning. A lot of practice is needed to use the New-Skills easily and naturally. GET training sessions are spaced days or weeks apart so trainees have time between training sessions to practice the New-Skills on the job.

GET doesn't want to change anyone's cultural and personal values. Rather GET wants to teach cultural awareness and flexibility. Trainees will gain the understanding and confidence to be 'value appropriate' and to use values as tools in exercising personal influence.

Trainees will become familiar with their own values and learn how to describe them to others in a way that conveys personal meaning. When people are aware of their beliefs and values, it becomes easier for them to understand, and even appreciate, other's belief systems. When cultural and value differences are well understood, they can be comfortably set aside long enough to establish and commit to common goals.

In the very popular, thoughtful, and practical book, Working with the Thais, by Henry Holmes and Suchada Tangtongtavy, the traditional hierarchical Thai model of effective leadership is described as a balance of two factors, phradet and phrakhun. Very simply put, phradet is characterized as an authoritarian dispenser of justice, administer of discipline, mediator and policy maker. In balance, phrakhun is described as a system of patronization providing for all material needs, protection, lending prestige, sponsoring education and rites of passage, giving rewards, and generally extending all of these benefits to the subordinate's family.

Holmes and Suchada elaborate on the traditional Thai organization model and explain the significance of a worker's status in an organization and how issues of loyalty, interdependence and expectations are effected. They show how key Thai concepts such as kreng jai and hai kiad, to name just two, also figure into this vertical system. It's a complex and highly sophisticated order that has been functioning well for many generations.

As Holmes and Suchada are careful to point out, these are descriptions of ideal norms, not the way any particular Thai individual leads or follows. They remind us that within any cultural grouping there will always be a wide range of individual differences. The Expat managers who are able to identify and discuss the various norms and values active in their multicultural work place will certainly have a significant advantage.

However, there is a second area of competency needed for managers to cope most effectively with the inevitable misunderstandings and frustrations that will result from differences in expectations. That is knowing how to create an atmosphere of trust and openness that facilitates an honest exchange of thoughts, concerns, ideas and feelings. Those managers who have the self-confidence and skills to set aside their defensiveness and listen with empathy and respond honestly can bridge enormous cultural differences to reduce stress and motivate.

Even with our wide range of personal and cultural differences, all of us earthlings do share some core human issues that have the potential to unite us. We have all struggled with our family, our sadness, our fear, our loneliness and despair. And, we have all been delighted by our loved ones and the feelings of belonging, our joy and our hope. To paraphrase Carl Rogers, 'our deepest, most personal and private issues are also the issues most universally shared by humankind.'

Cultural differences are real and they do add to workplace challenges. Being able to identify, label and understand them is a useful first step toward multicultural cooperation. The key, however, to establishing a comfortable and radically productive work place is being able to communicate personally, with courage and respect, and a real commitment to finding common ground. The New-Skills make that possible.

GET identifies an employee's feeling of being 'personally effective' as a primary motivator factor. When an employee feels effective and useful, they generally do achieve outstanding results. GET has a strategy to promote and encourage that feeling of being highly effective.

GET demonstrates two parallel and necessary paths to maximize the "personal effectiveness" motivator factor. One is having available to employees the training they need to do their job well. The other is the establishment of a dual and mutual accountability system that involves supervisors and subordinates equally. Frequent, honest and respectful performance assessment and accountability reviews will improve performance and reduce stress. Employees will be - and feel - more effective

There are three fundamental steps in establishing a system of mutual accountability:
   1. Employee understanding and respecting organizational, department and.
       team goals.
   2. Employee understanding the task and valuing his or her role in the
       organization or team.
   3. An effective system of vertical and mutual accountability.
         A. Clear delegation of authority and/or task assignment.
         B. Mutual understanding of each other's goals, expectations and needs.
         C. Mutual performance contract.
         D. Regularly scheduled performance assessment and contract reviews.

The outline above may seem complex and too time consuming. It's not. It is the single most efficient and effective way to unleash creative and cooperative energy. It will increase the quality of production, and expand employee loyalty and satisfaction.

To insure this accountably system is most effective, those involved should be skilled in using personal influence. It is a negotiation process. It works brilliantly if all the players have the skills and confidence to communicate their needs honestly and clearly, and to understand the other person's needs. The responsibility and accountability for results are mutually shared and the potential for creativity and productivity is maximized.

GET's New Skills build self-confidence and provide the tools needed to exercise personal influence with integrity, honesty, and understanding. Actual language skills, English for example, may play a smaller role in a successful negotiation than good communication skills.

GET uses various approaches to coaching based on the particular needs a client has. For some a personal coach is someone they can talk to openly and honestly without fear of being judged or criticized. A good coach can help someone work through a personal problem affecting performance at work. Some employees benefit from a broader reaching program.

In a comprehensive coaching program GET addresses leadership and managerial issues. Communication and relationship skills are primary considerations. The employee will appreciate the strong personal support and encouragement offered by an understanding and honest coach. There are four elements in GET's comprehensive personal coaching program:

• Reassessing and setting meaningful goals
• Evaluating strengths and weaknesses
• Learning new effectiveness strategies
• Demonstrating effectiveness

When professional goals are not in alignment with personal vision, motivation suffers and work isn't interesting. Linking meaningful personal and work related goals is a key to being motivated for success.

Another key to becoming more effective is taking an honest look at one's own strengths and weaknesses in working effectively with others. A personal evaluation of needs together with an objective look at co-worker's perceptions will give the employee a good idea of what areas he or she wants to focus training.

New strategies for being successful will be developed. A skills training and learning program will be designed to meet specific needs and objectives. The coaching process concludes when both the client and his or her co-workers are satisfied that a high level of effectiveness is being demonstrated. The combination of having meaningful goals with the skills and strategies necessary to achieve them are very powerful. A new interest and energy for work will lead to improved leadership, higher achievement and personal satisfaction.

Highly effective work teams have three characteristics that bring about a synergistic performance. The first is a complete understanding of the larger goals of the organization and the role of the team in contributing to the organization's success. The second characteristic is a shared commitment by each individual to work cooperatively on mutually agreed upon tasks. The third essential quality is an atmosphere of respect and trust that promotes an honest and self-confident exchange of ideas.

Teams can become ineffective by losing their commitment and focus on mutual goals. Some teams waste valuable time and energy trying to avoid areas of disagreement and/or conflict. Members who are reluctant to give honest feedback and opinions diminish team energy and creativity.

A team coach can facilitate the establishment of respect and trust. Realistic and mutually agreed upon goals and objectives can be set. Interpersonal difficulties can be resolved. Creative energy can be freed-up and the potential for synergistic cooperation can be maximized.

Every company and organization is unique. Each has its own hierarchy, culture, values, goals, and strategies. Just as people have strengths and weaknesses, so do organizations. And, like people, none is perfect.

In order for an organization to be highly successful in the twenty-first century, it must have a clear and successfully communicated vision. Employees need to fully understand the goals and how their job contributes to the organization's success.

From time to time organizations and companies decide to modify or re-articulate their vision, goals, and objectives. GET can facilitate a very meaningful visioning process. Employees wll be involved. It is vital that employees appreciate the vision and understand the role they are being offered to help the organization reach its goals.

When a significant number of employees are personally invested in their organization's goals and feel that they are effectively contributing to its success, an amazing amount of creative and cooperative energy will produce true synergistic excellence. This is the Global Effectiveness Training model for organizational success in the multinational twenty-first century.