Intel Corporation has 91,000 employees in more than 48 nations and more than 70% of its revenue comes from outside the United States. Cross-cultural knowledge is essential to this global company’s success. So, when the company needed to create a new leadership program for its midlevel managers, exposure to different cultures was a key component. They will put 800 midlevel leaders through the program in the next eight years, flying them to week-long sessions outside their home regions, a plan that will cost the company more than $3 million.

Kevin Gazzara, who oversees the Leading through People program, used an existing supervisory training program as a starting point. When facilitating these sessions, Gazarra noticed that 90% of the people in the session would all be from the same region. Yet, midlevel managers are expected to perform well with other cultures as well as their own in the company’s global environment. Gazarra and his team made the decision that at least 30% of the attendees at the new midlevel leadership sessions had to come from outside the host region. The new sessions do not explicitly address cultural issues; instead the session focuses on issues like setting the place and executing business plans. However, the culturally diverse seminar groups of 50 are divided into smaller groups of 10 who must come up with a new business proposal by the end of the week. To do that, they must learn to communicate and work together effectively.

Seminar facilitators take an active role in working across cultures as well, often working, for example, to be sure Asian members are heard among their more vocal peers. Managers who attend the sessions give it the company’s highest rating and stress that they can apply the key learnings to their work environments. The training at Intel may be at the forefront of a trend for companies who are increasingly working in a shrinking global environment where cultural differences still loom large.