What holds a cross-border team together, with CEXIM executives

What holds a team together when its members are spread across countries and cultures? That was the question behind a hands-on session with executives from the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM), run with Professor Minyue Dong and Jiawei Lu of the University of Lausanne.

We worked through the real challenges of cross-border teams: how decisions get made across cultures, where trust breaks and how alignment holds when people rarely share a room.

What the session surfaced

• The soft skills are the hard part. Trust and clear communication are the foundation of cross-cultural efficiency.
• Clarity travels. The Team Alignment Map and the Team Contract give a mixed team a shared language for roles and expected behaviours.
• Diversity becomes an asset when it is handled with tact. Different views turn into a source of innovation once a team has the common ground to use them.

Participants left with practical tools they could put to work the next week, in a fast, high-pressure global environment.

With thanks

To the CEXIM delegation and to Professor Minyue Dong and Jiawei Lu, thank you. It reinforced what we see again and again: visual, practical tools change how teams work together. Next stop, Shanghai.