Raising Intercultural Awareness and Creating an Inclusive Campus Culture Training with Silke Irmscher
On 17-18 May 2021, BINUS University staff members had a chance to join a virtual training session organized by BINUS Corporate Learning & Development (BCL&D). This two-day training session focused on raising intercultural awareness and creating an inclusive campus culture. The session was led by Silke Irmscher, Intercultural Trainer & Coach, Diversity and Global Mindset Expert in Indonesia, and Founder of Culturenergy.
The training was split into two different sessions, each one of them lasted for 2 hours. The first session held on May 17, 2021, was titled “Raising Intercultural Awareness Among Operational Staff Members”. On this session, participants learned how to show self-awareness of own’s culture and others, see the culture based on different perspectives and situations, classify cultural concepts in various countries, analyze examples of cultural misunderstandings from BINUS Campus, and finally how to develop strategies for successful communication.
The second session was held the next day, titled “Create an Inclusive Campus Culture”. The aim for the session was to explain the value and the complexity of culture diverse environments concept, identify the diversity and inclusion at a campus, classify the benefits of culturally diverse and inclusive academic environments, and elaborate social exclusion and related mental effects on humans. Participants were also taught how reflect on individual experiences with inclusive and exclusive behavior and how to overcome it, raise awareness and identify exclusive behavior at BINUS.
Each session involved speaker presentation and group discussions. To start, the speaker explained concepts and strategies on intercultural communication. Participants later also had a chance to share their own view and personal experiences on how to address cultural misunderstandings or behaviors in order to create a successful and more inclusive communication in everyday life, especially in BINUS campus.
