Questions:

What are the best techniques for fostering innovation in multicultural teams?
I want my functional experts to influence high-level strategy.
How can managers get the best thinking out of support staff?
What role does information technology have in promoting a decentralized organization? 

Answers:

The more your network includes individuals from different cultural backgrounds, the more you will be creatively stimulated by different ideas and perspectives. Importantly, these ideas do not necessarily come from the network members who are culturally different from you.
Experimental research found that cultural heterogeneity induced creativity for tasks that required the use of varied cultural knowledge resources. But for other types of tasks, cultural heterogeneity had no effect on creative performance.
The research is relevant to business practitioners because creating a multicultural workplace is often touted as a strategy to foster organizational creativity. While this is sometimes effective, managers still need to seek other drivers of creativity. 

Micronutrients: Vitamins and Minerals

Macronutrients – proteins, carbohydrates and fats – require micronutrients, which included vitamins and minerals, to work efficiently. All the vitamins are essential for good general health, and at least fifteen minerals are considered to be necessary. Most of these are obtained from the diet. Micronutrients also clear ‘rust’ from the body, oxidised material which is irritating to the tissues and contributes to disease – the notorious ‘free radicals”. Antioxidants – especially Vitamins A, C and E and glutathione with the mineral selenium – help to rid the body of these.

1. Listen – Listening is important in all communication scenarios, even more important when there is conflict. Listening allows you to gather information – Who is involved, history, interest in resolving the issue and even potential solutions. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes’, see the issue through their eyes. Don’t interrupt. Clarify anything you aren’t clear about and confirm what you are hearing.

2. Common Ground – State the problem as you understand it and have the others build, clarify or confirm. If you can’t agree then shift up a level to something you can all agree on e.g. perhaps the conflict is around the strategy or action to get new business so move back to confirm that you all agree that you need more business to increase sales or that the three possible areas to get new business are xyz etc. Having common ground frees everyone up to finding a solution that is win-win.

Review outside training support that is available from the hotel’s brand  or membership group.  Reach out in advance to find out what training they will be offering in the coming year. When in-house and brand or management company training resources are limited, or have already been used for your staff, consider outside training support from companies like ours (KTN) and others that come up in an Internet search.   Select a company that specializes in hotel industry training not one that teaches generic sales or service programs. Where possible, coordinate plans for training with sister properties.  For outside training support this will help bring down the costs, as most companies allow sister hotels to share the fees.  For in-house training this is also a great approach, as there may be managers or trainers from the other hotel(s) that can bring a new  perspective. Encourage your local hotel association, visitor’s bureau, or other destination marketing organization to organize area-wide training sessions for the member hotels.  Again this is a great way to reduce the costs as fees can be shared by all the hotels that participate. Don’t skip training when it is busier than exp