• Cancellation Policy

Seminar

Building on years of experience as a foreign-trained professional and as a cross-cultural trainer working with organizations like APEGGA, PEO, OSPE, the Ontario Regulators for Access Consortium and its Manitoba equivalent, this workshop examines the impact of cultural differences on engineers and geoscientists.

By contrasting the starting points, thought processes and communication approaches of professionals in the countries of origin of immigrants and in Canada, this workshop finds the root causes of many of the challenges commonly faced by engineers and geoscientists when they work with immigrants (in the case of people who completed their education in Canada) or as the navigate their careers in Canada (in the case of people who completed their education overseas). This analysis enables participants to identify behaviours and approaches that they can use at the individual level to overcome these challenges, as well as systemic changes that they might want to make as an organization in order to guide immigrant professionals more effectively in their organization and/or manage their own careers more effectively.

By attending this workshop, participants will learn:

• Differentiate between cultural differences and personality problems and between stereotypes and generalizations
• Give the benefit of the doubt to culturally different colleagues
• Identify common cross-cultural communication challenges
• React more positively to cross-cultural misunderstandings
• Communicate more effectively with culturally different colleagues
• Interpret feedback they receive from culturally different colleagues the way it was meant
• Adapt the feedback they deliver to culturally different colleagues so that it is received the way they mean it
• Determine whether someone they work with has a stronger or milder sense of hierarchy
• Adapt their managerial / reporting style to match the expectations of people who have a stronger or milder sense of hierarchy than they do

Instructor

Dr. Lionel Laroche, PEng - President, MCB Solutions

A highly sought-after speaker who is known for his dynamic, entertaining and educational presentation style, over the past ten years, Lionel Laroche has provided cross-cultural training, coaching and consulting services to over 15,000 people at over 150 conferences and venues worldwide.

Lionel specializes in helping professionals and organizations reap the benefits of cultural differences in their work. He helps the executive team of an existing or planned subsidiary blend successfully the working styles of the parent company with local business practices; trains and coaches HR professionals who experience issues related to cultural differences within their organizations, trains team leaders and department managers to increase the effectiveness of their culturally diverse work units, builds effective multicultural teams, trains employees of culturally diverse organizations to increase their collective effectiveness, prepares expatriates for foreign assignments, coaches immigrant professionals who have superior technical skills but insufficient interpersonal skills by U.S. or Canadian standards and helps immigrant professionals find jobs that make use of their skills.

Born in France, Lionel obtained his “Diplôme d’Ingénieur Polytechnicien” from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, France and his Ph D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA.. He is based in Toronto.

Throughout his training, coaching and consulting practice, Lionel makes use of his 15 years of international engineering, management, sales and human resources experience, working with people from over 60 countries. He has worked in eight countries for several multinational companies, including Xerox, Procter & Gamble, British Petroleum, and Jeumont-Schneider.

Lionel is the author of two books and over 100 publications examining the impact of cultural differences on business in general and technical functions (engineering, science, and software) in particular. His articles have appeared in over 30 trade magazines published in eight countries.

Cancellation Policy

Registered attendees unable to attend the event may designate a substitute, provided APEGBC receives written notification at least one business day prior to the event. Registration information for the substitute attendee should accompany the notice. If notice of cancellation of registration is received:

•  5 business days or more prior to the event, a refund will be processed
•  Less than 5 business days prior to the event, no refunds apply

Substitute registrants are permitted up to the day of the seminar and member/non-member fees will be applied. The organizers reserve the right to cancel the event if less than the minimum required participants have registered. Liability limited to registration fee.

APEGBC is an AIBC/CES registered provider offering an AIBC-Accredited activity for 3.75 Non-Core Learning Units.

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