Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in French Guiana 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 in French Guiana.. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in French Guiana.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Guianese 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 Guianese 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 Guiana

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 Guianese culture

• Both a region and a French département located in the very heart of the Amerindian continent
• The "land of the sacred soil": a luxurious equatorial environment.
• An age-old French presence
• Prisons, gold and the conquest of space: a highly dependent economy
• A young and racially mixed population facing a precarious employment situation

3.  French Guianese values and behaviour patterns

• A patchwork quilt of separate cultures: the importance of ethnic origin
• The difference between urban and rural inhabitants
• Clearly defined social classes, visible religious fervour
• Sexual equality in theory, even if the reality is rather less clear
• The importance of "being" and of being "seen to be".
• A polychronic view of time
• The importance of collective and communal life

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities
• Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Guiana

1. The Guianese corporate world

• The labour market: a source of betterment but also social discrimination
• The prevalence of unemployment, poverty and illegal labour
• Strictly defined and supervised roles and duties

2. Effective communication with the French Guianese

• Politeness, small talk and greetings
• The importance of networking
• The frequent use of hints and implicit communication: a communication style heavily dependent upon context

3. Working with Guianese teams

• Effective management: charisma, experience and a willingness to listen
• Supervising, adapting and giving praise where praise is due
• Supervised decision-making processes, combined with an ability to listen and to consider new proposals and ideas
• Encouraging initiative to promote a sense of responsibility

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the French Guianese

• Understanding and clarifying the situation
• Forging relationships based on trust and confidence: the importance of the personal touch
• Adapting your strategic position: persistence and responsiveness
• 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