Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Brazil 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 Brazil.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Brazilian 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 Brazilian 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 Brazil

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 Brazilian culture

• A multicultural colossal nation, a variety of regional tendancies
• The impact of Portuguese colonization
• The Brazilian federation: a balance of powers
• Mercosul, NAFTA and international perspectives
• Social classes and inequality: the Brazilian pattern
• The question of the pharmaceutical industry in the economic system

3. Brazilian values and behaviour patterns

• Conviviality, humour and hospitality, physical closeness
• Religious traditions : a component of every daily behaviour
• A powerful patriarchal structure, the claim of emotions
• A Latino culture embedded with American and European influences
• An informal but resilient hierarchy

4. Practical day to day information

• Focus on the host town or city
• Security: the issue of urban violence
• Transport, administration, housing, , hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities
• Learning the language
• Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Brazil

1. The Brazilian corporate world

• Small and medium firms, multinational groups
• A paternalistic orientated structure
• Reliability and flexibility: “Jeitinho” and “malandragem”
• Brazilian trade unions in the corporate world
• The impact of bureaucracy and administration

2. Effective communication with the Brazilians

• Inter-individual socialization and the importance of networks
• The impact of mass-media communication
• Humour and allusions
• The characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese

3. Working with Brazilian teams

• Endorsing trustful cooperation: the reign of “Persolanismo”
• Respecting one’s age and status, delegation and consensus
• Empowering one’s authority: the Brazilian “Jogo de cintura”
• Supporting individual aspirations
• Handling conflicts: patience, mediation and honour

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Brazilians

• Identifying decision-makers: the characteristics of Brazilian “despachantes”
• Improving one’s credibility: accuracy, punctuality, harshness
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

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