All posts by Vas Taras
Elusive Consensus in International Teams
Our team of Regional Executive Directors (RED) is trying to launch X-Culture Kids (X-Culture Academy). An annoying but a necessary task is to prepare materials REDs need when they meet with school principles and teachers to talk about X-Culture. Specifically, we need: business cards, informational pamphlets, other promotional materials. Also, we need to decide on…
Out of emails
An unexpected challenge: X-Culture ran out of email addresses. Who would have thought… X-Culture’s web hosting allows us to have up to 100 email accounts at name@X-Culture.org. When we bought the hosting years ago, we needed only one email address: Admin@X-Culture.org. We didn’t even pay attention to the 100 limit. Who cares? How many email…
X-Culture Coach Gets a Job
People often ask me why do I work so hard, days, nights, weekends and holidays. It’s all because of the stories like this one. And even more so, because every semester we end with new ideas for how to help our students even more. We’re about to roll out some new features that will…
Whiteboard Animation Challenges
Three years ago, X-Culture made a series of short whiteboard animation videos (see below). Each video tells a story and explains what X-Culture is, how it works, and how businesses or students could benefit from it. The videos have been seen tens of thousands of times and served us well. We are launching X-Culture Kids,…
Betar Metering Devices
RECORDED WEBINARS Wednesday, November 15 9 am to 10 am(EST New York time zone) Presenters Anna Svirina, CEO Topics Review and feedback on students’ work so far Questions and Answers
MVP Hair
Thursday, November 16 11 am to 12 noon (EST New York time zone) Presenters Sandy Osei-Agyeman Topics Company introduction Company history Products The X-Culture Challenge
X-Culture Kids Introduction Webinar
Upcoming live webinars: Friday, November 17, 10 am EST (New York time zone) Friday, December 1, 10 am EST (New York time zone) Friday, December 15, 10 am EST (New York time zone) Topics What is X-Culture and how it works? Who are our corporate partners and what challenges the students work on? What are…
Launching X-Culture Kids (or whatever the name will be)
Dear X-Culture Friends, As many of you already know, we’re about to open X-Culture to younger pre-college participants. The plan is to start with teens (ages 10-17) and later go as young as ages 9-12. Our early tests show, kids are fully capable and very interested to work with their international peers. So why not…
Constant Skype Calls Are Fun but Draining
A typical slow Wednesday morning: – Skype with a co-author from Afghanistan who works in Denmark about a study on Cultural Intelligence – Skype with a Ukrainian project partner in Ukraine about X-Culture Kids – Skype with a Peruvian company that wants to be an X-Culture Partner next semester (really cool product, tell more soon)….
Free-riding
One recurring issue most teams (not only in X-Culture) face is free-riding (aka free-loading, social loafing, shirking). Almost every team has one or more team members who do not meet the expectations of their team members. The problem is especially acute in global virtual teams (GVTs). Here is why: