Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Lebanon 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 Lebanon.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Lebanese 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 Lebanese mindset, 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 Lebanon

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 Lebanese culture

• A Middle Eastern country with an impressive heritage
• A multifaceted country with no fewer than 17 religions
• An unstable state
• The legacy of French colonisation
• The impact of the war

3. Lebanese values and behaviour patterns

• Hospitality and generosity
• The family: an important social bedrock
• The importance of one’s origins and clan
• Expressing emotions
• A sense of honour
• Rigidly ordered relationships between men and women
• An adaptable approach to time
• Religious influences

4. Practical day-to-day information

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

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Lebanon

1. The Lebanese corporate world

• A paternalistic corporate model
• A great deal of importance attached to status and qualifications
• Decision-making focused on a clearly established hierarchy
• The prevalence of nepotism

2. Effective communication with the Lebanese

• Smiles and greetings
• Understanding gestural communication
• Giving relationships that personal touch
• The French language and a few pitfalls to be avoided

3. Working with Lebanese teams

• Effective management: charisma, responsiveness and intuition
• Supervising, consulting and circulating information
• Understanding the importance of individual pride
• Prudence, patience and openness

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Lebanese

• Initiating dialogue
• Managing ambiguity and unforeseen events
• Building a climate of trust
• 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, Syria
• Humour: a double-edged sword