Cross-Cultural Success: Settling in Australia

If your company has a new employee from another city or state, perhaps you would ask another employee to welcome them – point out popular places for lunch, give them directions to the nearest public transit station, and recommend a local bank. But what if the new manager is from a different country? They may not understand when someone says “fair dinkum” when they present their arguments.

Think of the many things the new manager must learn: new geography, new transportation system, new form of government, new currency, new climate, and new language idioms (or even a new language). In Australia, even our toilets are different from those in other countries because ours are dual-flush. We’ve seen Americans forgetting to drive on the left side of the road, or struggling to tip the right amount in a restaurant.

Our staff members have experience in moving and traveling to other countries. We studied the languages, navigated the local shops, used public transit, made friends, and “went native,” going beyond typical tourist activities in each country. For example, one of our team members is a native Aussie who has lived and worked in the U.S., Germany, and Malaysia. Another is from Hong Kong and has lived and worked in the U.K., France, and Austria before moving to Australia. We have a Chinese consultant who lived in Japan, Germany, and China before moving to Australia.

In addition, we have worked with thousands of tourists and new immigrants in our research projects, which helps us to see our own country through the eyes of a foreigner.

These experiences have taught us the most important essentials about moving to another country and quickly assimilating a new culture. We share these lessons in a workshop we call “Cross-Cultural Success: Settling In Australia.”

For example, we welcomed some newly-arrived Brazilian executives and their families from a multi-national American company in one of the Cross-Cultural Success workshops. Our agenda for the personalised workshop (which was delivered in English and Portuguese by our bilingual consultant) included:

• Australia itself – geography (map basics, comparing Aussie cities to U.S. cities by size and industry), demographics, history overview, political system
• Australian business culture compared to U.S., Brazil, markets, products, and team building and communication 
• Settling in – Aussie slang, tax, leisure, shopping, education for children, sports, public transit, driving and road signs, safety, media 

In another CEO workshop, we also took the participants on a cultural walking tour.

Did you know that only Aussies call “000” for emergency service? In the U.S. and Canada, they call “911”, but in New Zealand it’s “111” and most of the European Union uses “112”. You may not notice little things like that, but they are important.