Libya- Working and dealing with the Libyans
Benefits of Attendance
The aim of this seminar is to significantly improve the participants’ effectiveness in their professional relationships with the Libyans, enabling them to be operational right from the start.
At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to to:
- Be aware of their own cultural baggage
- Fully understand Libyan context and culture
- Analyse possible situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating
- Reduce stress and misunderstandings
- Decipher and understand Libyan decision-making and negotiation processes
Training Approach
- Exercises and case studies based on the experience of participants in the company
- Personalized action plan and cross-cultural strategies
- 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 : Understanding cultural differences
1. Intercultural awareness, the key to success in international business
- Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
- The basics of effective intercultural management
- Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes
2. Key aspects of Libyan culture
- The third largest country in Africa
- The 1969 revolution and the seizure of power by Kaddafi
- The people at a crossroads between the Berber, Arab and Egyptian cultures
- The country's ancient heritage, Islamisation and Arabisation
- A rogue state subject to an embargo, which finally recovered its respectability
- Wealth thanks to oil resources
- Sport as a social catalyst
- The educational system
3. The impact of values and behaviour patterns on professional dealings and relationships
- Islamic values
- Tribes and clans
- The family unit as a source of collective identity
- An elastic view of time
- Implicit communication
- Self-control and emotional restraint
- A firmly established hierarchy
4. The Libyan corporate world
- The public sector as a possible source of obstacles
- The characteristics of the banking, oil and service sectors
- The central role of Islam within Libyan companies
- A strong attachment to a favourable working environment
- The market, employment and turnover
- The role of the state and the authorities
Module 2 : Succeeding in work with the Libyans
1. Effective communication with the Libyans
- An oral tradition
- Information flows, networking
- Libyan Arabic, English for business, the role of the interpreter
2. Adapting your working methods
- Effective management: education, personal bearing and a sense of effort
- Colleagues, supervisors, and managers: identifying people’s roles and functions
- Concerted decision-making
- Caabiates and Tacharoukiates
- Facilitating cohesion
3. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Libyans
- Time as a useful weapon
- The importance of intermediaries
- Understanding written contracts, their interpretation and implications
- Organising the post-negotiation phase
4. Final handy tips
- Caution, patience and humility
- Protocol and etiquette
- Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code, etc
- Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
- Humour: a double-edged sword
