Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Lithuania 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 Lithuania.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Lithuanian 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 Lithuanian mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Lithuania

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 Lithuanian culture

• A Baltic state located at a meeting point between the Russian and Polish cultures
• A uniform society with significant minorities
• A changing economy
• The challenges of European integration

3. Lithuanian values and behaviour patterns

• A male-dominated and patriarchal society currently undergoing change
• Basic values, customs and practices
• A devoutly Catholic nation
• The importance of appearances
• National pride
• Humour and level-headedness
• Self-control

4. Practical day-to-day information

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

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Lithuania

1. The Lithuanian corporate world

• Lithuania's changing management culture
• Relatively centralized decision-making processes
• Privileges and favouritism
• The importance and recognition of skills

2. Effective communication with the Lithuanians

• Greetings, etiquette and politeness
• The power of visual aspects and non-verbal communication
• The importance of networking
• The value of learning Lithuanian

3. Working with Lithuanian teams

• Reliability, charisma and experience.
• Flexibility, tolerance and an open mind
• Distance and sociability: striking the right balance
• The advantages of joint decision-making

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Lithuanians

• Forging relationships and giving them that personal touch
• Setting the scene.  Defining the context for your meeting
• Discipline and professionalism
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword