Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Guatemala and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Guatemala.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Guatemalan context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Guatemalan mindset, different work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Guatemala

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Guatemalan culture

• A "crossroads" nation in the very heart of Central America
• Mayas, Incas, Garífunas and Ladinos: a multi-ethnic population
• Civil war and exclusion: the painful scars of history
• Rural and urban Guatemala: two very different worlds
• A delicate political situation and a fragile economy

3. Guatemalan values and behaviour patterns

• Cultural behavioural systems influenced significantly by ethnic origin
• A flair for hospitality
• A highly patriarchal society
• The importance attached to appearances
• Spiritual fervour
• Passion, pride and emotions
• A monochronic view of time
• A respect for status
• The Guatemalan sense of humour: a keen and merciless sense of irony

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Focus on the host town
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities, schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Guatemala

1. The Guatemalan corporate world

• A highly structured corporate environment with a clearly defined hierarchy
• Employment as a luxury
• The influence of foreign entrepreneurs on the country's economic dynamism
• The logic behind privileges

2. Effective communication with the Guatemalans

• Body language: a means of expressing trust and confidence
• Politeness and courtesy
• The vital role played by networking
• Guatemalan Spanish, English for business and the role of the interpreter

3. Working with Guatemalan teams

• Promoting trust by maintaining distance and impartiality
• The key qualities of a manager: qualifications and diplomacy
• Centralised decisions passed down via powerful intermediaries
• Supervising, verifying and advising

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Guatemalans

• Cultivating your reputation in order to improve your credibility
• Giving relationships that personal touch
• Patience and perseverance: key factors when entering a restricted market
• The importance of the written word

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion