Location: Balsamroot Conference Room - G.W. Marks Exploration Center - 1075 South Avenue West, Missoula, MT 59801
Workshop Description: In this follow-up workshop, (first part was offered in April 2023), you will learn about communicating and collaborating more effectively and efficiently with diverse individuals. The seminar will support the strengthening of the connections between customers, clients and colleagues in your organization. Comparing interactions of people from diverse cultural backgrounds is the first step in developing genuine intercultural and global competency. The next step is to recognize and appreciate the values, beliefs, customs and behavior that other cultures bring to a human interaction or an organization. This training takes you through some best practices and strategies to help you take your cross-cultural communication to a new level. It presents a structured approach for dealing with cultural differences and making necessary adjustments to your communication and collaboration style.
Speaker: Dr. Udo Fluck
Bio: Dr. Udo Fluck is a leader in cultural and global competence skill development and cross-cultural and international education. He is a German born intercultural researcher, curriculum developer, instructor, consultant, trainer, author, conference speaker and podcaster. Born and raised in Wiesbaden, Germany, he came to Missoula in 1989 for his undergraduate and graduate education. Fluck holds four degrees from the University of Montana (UM). Fluck has over 20 years of teaching experience at the University of Montana and as a professional trainer and consultant. He maintains an active, nationally and internationally recognized research portfolio in cultural competence development. Between 2004 and 2016, while at UM, he initiated, developed, and oversaw one of the largest intercultural and global competence training offices. In 2016 he founded Intercultural and Global Competence Training and Consulting (IGCTC), a consulting LLC based in Missoula, developing and providing seminars for business professionals. Between 2018 and 2023, he also managed Missoula’s sister city relations, offered cultural awareness trainings and provided cultural community programming. As a Clinical Professor of Management in UM’s College of Business, he continues to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in cross-cultural management. He has been an invited speaker at over 35 national and international conferences and has presented over 2,000 documented cultural awareness seminars to date. As a lead-author, his research results in pedagogy, instructional design and course development have been published in academic journals in the US and Germany. Fluck was the invited first author for a chapter in International Students: Strengthening a Critical Resource, a nationwide publication, endorsed by the American Council on Education and is part of the American Council on Education Series on Higher Education. Fluck was also the senior curriculum developer for the National Science Foundation’s Resilience through Intercultural Skill Enhancement (RISE), housed at the Salish Kootenai College campus, on the Flathead Reservation. From 2018 to 2023, Fluck was the host of the World View Film Series at the Roxy Community Theater in Missoula. The series screened four international movies (either foreign productions or with a focus on a country abroad) in the fall and four in the spring of each year. The film series was FREE and open to the public. From spring 2020 to fall 2023, Fluck was also the host of “International Voices with Udo Fluck”, a monthly, 60-minute podcast with listeners in over 30 countries. Episodes can be accessed here through Apple Podcasts.