News & Events

TWIST Expert forums 2020-2021

Due to the pandemic, our expert forums in 2020-2021 were unfortunately cancelled. Prof. Gert Hofstede and our partners at ODE have thankfully given us a virtual home during this time and kept us professionally fit.

LMU Seminars with TWIST

In December, we once again had the pleasure of welcoming 15 bright master's students from Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich to a weekend seminar at TWIST. Both sides benefit in the process: The students bring fresh expertise, as they use the latest research from work and organizational psychology and try to transform it into handy tools and exercises for training, coaching, and peer consulting. That way, they help our company to stay theoretically up to date, since busy schedules keep us from being constantly upbeat with latest research. Likewise, TWIST enables young professionals to gain insights into our work. Claudia Harss, TWIST owner with 33 years of consulting experience, and Charlotte Paetzold as accompanying TWIST consultant give feedback on how to sharpen the students’ exercises and tools for practical use. TWIST shares their experience on working with different clients, mandates, and participants. The students are given the opportunity to test both their ideas and themselves as consultants. At the end of the seminar, they are able to facilitate simple peer consulting sessions. The central theme in this hands-on activity is an approach practiced and constantly refined by TWIST ever since 2005. It replaces classic training designs in strategic human resource development (HRD) by merging personnel and organizational development. Therefore, three aspects are critical for the participants: self-responsibility for their personal development, learning, and rethinking in emotionally loaded, challenging work situations. This personnel and organizational development approach is ideally suited for acting and leading in agile organizations.

Internal training: intercultural research around the Hofstede CWQ3

On 27th September, a group of 13 international consultants met at the TWIST office in Munich to share their latest research, exercises and intercultural experiences. Also, the day was combined with the re-accreditation for the Hofstede CWQ 3. Individual experiences and observations in which the cultural characteristics of the protagonists might play a role were exchanged and discussed – for example: A partner from the UK noticed that the security staff at the airports in Heathrow (UK) and Berlin-Tegel (Germany) react differently to the overweight of his suitcase An Italian partner, who recently moved to Greece, describes misunderstandings and conflicts with Athens taxi drivers A German colleague tries in vain to get a binding commitment or information from an Argentine business partner In a setting of collegial consultation between four cultural experts all these cases were interpreted and tips for each scenario were discussed. By the way, the official re-accreditation has been successful for every attending Partner Associate. The next chance for the accreditation program to become a TWIST – Partner Associate will be in the year 2020. The successful participation entitles you to use the Hofstede CWQ3 in your work in an intercultural context.

Workplace of the Future

On April 3rd 2019 around 40 of our international clients, consultants, and cooperation partners from the Global Resource Team met at the TWIST office in Munich to discuss the “Workplace of the Future” and the future challenges and implications for HR departments all around the world. In expert breakout sessions the concept of agile organizations, the challenges and benefits of digital learning, as well as additional HR relevant topics were presented and discussed. Additionally, our new Hofstede Learning App was introduced and we were happy to receive positive and stimulating feedback from clients and colleagues. We enjoyed the fruitful intercultural exchange on these highly relevant topics and thank all attendants for their inspiring contributions.

Intercultural Summit February 17, 2017

Profound knowledge about practice-relevant cultural differences is becoming increasingly important in the face of globalization and a growing number of international employees in Germany. TWIST brought together four of the most renowned academics researching intercultural issues in the workplace in Munich on Feb. 17: Prof. Geert Hofstede, Prof. GertJan Hofstede, Prof. Michael Minkov and Prof. Felix Brodbeck presented the latest in cultural research at LMU Munich. Afterwards, practitioners and researchers together collected ideas on the question: Which of these research findings are particularly relevant for our everyday work and especially for our work as HR professionals? Due to the high demand, the event was moved to a larger lecture hall at short notice. In the truest sense of the word, it was a complete success. The day ended on a cheerful and musical note in the TWIST office with vocal performances from all over the world.

Expert Forum April 2015

On April 17th our cooperation partners Matthias Zimmermann PhD and Prof. Felix Brodbeck PhD (LOGIT Management Consulting, LMU Munich) held a very practice-oriented lecture about employee attitude surveys followed by a great discussion with HR experts and consultants. Zimmermann and Brodbeck depcited the relevance, manyfoldness and potential of employee attitude surveys, showing the high valence of this tool. Due to their longtime experience they also gave many practical examples about the planning, implementing and evaluating of this measure.

Expert Forum July 2015

Thanks to a very enjoable lecture by Thomas Perlitz (Global Senior VP HR, Gerresheimer AG) about KPIs for the Human Resource Department, the expert forum in July was a complete success. With summer drinks and fruity treats HR experts discussed about the meaning of KPIs for the Human Resource department. The experts asked the lecturer questions regarding this topic beforehand, which were then discussed in the plenum with the help of the lecturer's longtime international experience.

Expert Forum 2014

On September 11th and 19th, 2014, HR experts from different companies and countries as well as consultants and trainers discussed about two new techniques of consulting and diagnostics. As a coaching tool for groups, the technique of peer / cooperative consulting has received more and more attention the last years. With this technique, groups are enabled to help themselves whilst the trainer only has a moderating role. Another technique that has been introduced is the structured profile interview - a one-day assessment centre that saves costs and time with still the same benefits. The assessees can be conducted with different measures, resulting in a detailed and valid profile.

Expert Forum 2013

On the 13th of June 2013 our Expert Forum took place. This time the subject was intercultural organizational development and personnel development.

Expert Forum 2012

Excursion into other worlds The Expert Forum 2012 should consciously address different senses far from everyday work. This "excursion into other worlds" included not only the traditional exchange of ideas between different experts, but also a private viewing of the famous artist Stipo Pranyko (* 1930 in Jajce, Bosnia) and a musical journey "from East to West" with the concert pianist Maya Terpeluk whose musical tastings make cultural differences hearable.