Prof. Wieland opens the ELEVATE Closing Conference in Bilbao
Prof. Dr. Josef Wieland, Director of the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin, opened the closing conference of the ELEVATE project at the Bilbao Berrikuntza Faktoria on 18 September 2026. His talk took up the question of how leadership can build trust and cooperation when people work across cultural boundaries, differing perspectives, and expectations.
Three main thoughts are shaping Prof. Dr. Wieland's work on this question. Relationships act as a strategic resource for organisations. Good leadership builds common ground while leaving room for cultural differences. Shared values take effect once they become practices for which an organisation holds itself accountable.
ELEVATE is a European project funded through Erasmus+ that spent more than two years researching and testing tools for developing transcultural competence in work teams. The closing conference passed these results on to professionals, researchers, and organisations from across Europe, among them a self-assessment tool that lets organisations gauge where they stand and a structured learning pathway for teams.
Wieland's presentation was followed by five workshops led by experts from across Europe and a shared World Café, in which participants applied the tools that had been presented.
