Training Bridges Continents: African Digital Talent in Lithuania
The Digital Explorers initiative connects Lithuania’s ICT sector with young Nigerian IT specialists – a bold experiment in talent mobility. A training in Kaunas highlighted both the potential and the subtle pitfalls of the project.
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A Bold Pilot Between Lithuania and Nigeria
In 2019, Lithuania launched an unprecedented initiative: Digital Explorers, a three-year project bringing young ICT specialists from Nigeria into Lithuanian companies. The idea was as simple as it was daring: strengthen Lithuania’s digital economy while providing career opportunities for African talent. But between the strategic vision and everyday reality lays a complex web of expectations, stereotypes, and intercultural challenges.
Against this backdrop, I was invited to design and deliver a full-day preparatory training for participating companies and project staff in Kaunas, just days before the first Nigerian specialists arrived. The aim was clear: build awareness, shift perspectives, and equip teams with practical tools to make this ground-breaking experiment succeed.
From Vision to Business Imperative – The Morning Session
The first half of the day focused on framing diversity and inclusion as a driver of performance rather than a (soft) side topic. We explored empirical evidence of how diverse teams foster innovation, strengthen agility, and open new markets – benefits especially relevant to Lithuania’s fast-growing ICT industry.
The ICT Sector’s Own Diversity Struggles
Lithuania’s ICT sector is booming and faces serious bottlenecks: a shortage of mid-level professionals, an underrepresentation of women, and a lack of ethnic diversity. Many companies had been searching for solutions but often fell back on short-term fixes such as outsourcing or temporary contracts. The Digital Explorers project represented a more strategic answer: attracting and integrating international talent.
Confronting Stereotypes in Tech
Yet challenges loomed large. Industry participants voiced doubts: Can Nigerian specialists meet the same technical standards? Will communication work smoothly? Such stereotypes, while rarely spoken openly, shaped expectations. We confronted these assumptions directly, demonstrating that skills and motivation travel across borders — and that biases often tell us more about our own filters than about the talent in front of us.
The Propelling Performance Principle
Participants reflected on their own perceptions of difference, learning that we don’t see the world as it is, but as we are. This became the basis for the Propelling Performance Principle, a model linking diversity, openness, and inclusion to tangible business outcomes. From recruitment to collaboration, the discussion showed how IT companies could leverage cultural diversity not just to fill talent gaps but also to strengthen customer orientation and future competitiveness.
Why Doesn’t It Happen Automatically?
We also addressed barriers: unconscious biases, mono-cultural norms, and the inertia of established routines. Why, if D&I is a win-win-win, doesn’t it happen automatically? Together we dissected the mechanisms that hold people back from leveraging difference – and outlined strategies to overcome them.
Turning the Mirror – The Afternoon Session
After building a shared “why” and “what,” the afternoon shifted gears towards personal reflection and team practice.
Challenging Assumptions
We asked participants to confront their own assumptions: How do stereotypes form? Which ‘automatic reactions’ shape daily interactions? And what first impression would a Nigerian newcomer have when stepping into a Lithuanian workplace?
Building Inclusive IT Teams
Through case discussions and role-based exercises, managers and HR staff realised the importance of psychological safety and inclusive team dynamics. Concrete tips emerged: create space for newcomers to show their strengths, use buddy systems, over-communicate in early phases, and avoid treating people as representatives of a category but rather as unique individuals.
From Stereotypes to Curiosity
The final debate addressed stereotypes head-on – from food and religion to communication styles – and showed how curiosity, empathy, and conscious adaptation can turn cultural gaps into learning opportunities.
Lessons for the IT Sector
The Kaunas training day proved that inter-continental talent exchange is both possible and valuable – if companies are willing to invest in cultural intelligence. For IT managers and HR leaders, the Digital Explorers project offered a glimpse into the future of global collaboration: diverse teams, distributed talent, and the need for inclusive leadership.
Ultimately, diversity is not about charity or being nice. It is about engineering better performance by creating environments where differences fuel, rather than frustrate, collaboration. That was the message we carried forward as Lithuania welcomed its Nigerian Digital Explorers.
