Language Strategy - Why it is important that your organisation has a language strategy
The one line answer to that question is:
To ensure that your team is able to communicate effectively with all internal and external stakeholders.
To trade and live globally we need to be able to communicate on an increasingly sophisticated level. The words we use need to be understood in a multitude of business and personal situations. The words used are the priority, but it is not just the words that need to be understood, but how we deliver those words and the cultural codes and characteristics that underpin our thoughts and reactions. When you then add technology and the myriad of digital communication channels over which we now communicate, each with their own style and nuances of language, the complexity and opportunities for misunderstanding dramatically increase.
Imagine a situation where a Polish customer telephones a help desk and that call is routed to call centre which is based in eg. Portugal. If neither customer nor service representative speak the other's language how will they understand each other? Now imagine if that communication is conducted over Twitter or email, where facial expression and tone of voice are not available to offer clues to meaning.
This is the world in which we find ourselves, where globalisation has pressed the necessity for multicultural communication. Yet many of our teams do not have the skills needed to provide service at this level.
Many companies try to solve this problem with the introduction of a lingua franca, a common language spoken across all territories. For most companies English is chosen as lingua franca. It is widely taught in schools across the globe and is currently seen as the language for international business.
However, a lingua franca approach only works when the individuals within the various regions are sufficiently skilled at that lingua franca to be comfortable with their ability to discuss pertinent issues. Many are not.
Whilst the company itself, on a corporate level, might be able to communicate effectively across borders, its executives and staff, the rank and file, often cannot.
In the example above, both the customer and service representative could try to communicate in a common language, a lingua franca, but if both struggle with that language, the service representative will be of little help to the customer.
These problems are not restricted to company/external stakeholder communications. They also occur within the organisation itself. A client of mine, a high ranking German business woman, known for her professional expertise, admitted to me that she feels a deep insecurity and wants to hide, even uses avoidance tactics to escape certain situations because she is embarrassed at her standard of English, and I thought her English was good.
Even on home soil, the global movement of talent means that the home country language might not be the first language of an employee. The team could be made up of local staff and ‘foreigners’.
I recently talked with a British medical practitioner whose associate is a Romanian national whom is reasonably fluent in English. The medical practitioner specified the necessity to carefully select his words, adapt the way he spoke and be wary of his body language to ensure that he was understood and did not offend his colleague. He noted that with spoken communication the tone and expression clues helped understanding, but when that communication was over a digital format the opportunities for misunderstanding increased.
If organisations don't develop these language skills in their employees there is a danger that mistakes will be made, opportunities will be lost and motivation negatively impacted. Whilst technology translators will become more common in the market place, the ability to speak directly to another individual will always be highly valued and in most cases, the preference.
So what should organisations do? The first thing is to recognise that this issue needs to be addressed and the second is to develop an approach that will result in the up skilling of its employees - to develop a language strategy.
Over the next few months I will introduce you to Corelli’s Language Strategy Framework which offers organisations a logical route to the effective development and implementation of a language strategy. Within Corelli's framework we consider:
Who - which stakeholders should be involved; which teams; who owns language, where does this programme fit within the organisation, who owns the budget
What - what does the organisation what to achieve via this approach, what measurable tactics will be employed
Where - establish practical ‘use cases’ - what locations are key targets - priorities for effort/investment, what cultural codes and characteristics need to be considered
When - immediacy of communications, face to face vs. informal multimedia messaging services (eg. iMessage, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) vs. written proposals
How - what platforms/ channels/ modes of interaction - what metrics / measures for ‘good enough’ - what training is required
Why - business case for language - cost of getting it wrong
In the meantime if you'd like Corelli to help your organisation develop a language strategy and improve the language skills of your staff please contact me.
