How do I manage culture and different languages in a workshop?
One of the questions we often hear from our global community is how to manage a workshop with people who do not speak English (80% of the world). The following are some of our tips and tricks for managing complex workshops across different cultures and languages.
- Pre-work. for all of our workshops we always do pre-interviews to understand the pain points and opportunities ahead of time. This also gives us a sense of the culture, operating model(s), and behavior of the teams. One of the stokes we do is called ‘Come dance with me.’ After one day of back to back stakeholder interviews in Slovakia with a financial services team and their general manager, we decided to take that stoke out of the workshop because NO ONE was going to do that stoke. (side note: at the end of the workshop the team was dancing to the music we played during the final activities in the workshop and we uncovered that a couple of team members were in a ‘metal’ band but that was all hush-hush until they opened up on the last day).
- Local language co-facilitator. having a co-facilitator who can speak the local language is helpful. They can focus on observing people who are struggling and give them the support they need. We recommend 1 co-facilitator per 7–9 people.
- LLC goes rogue. we have also encountered a local language facilitator going rogue and creating their own storyline in the translation. It is good to check in with the participants yourself as the facilitator where possible.
- Content. build your deck, posters, wall art, agenda in both languages (two screens and two decks or both languages on one slide).
- Translator. we have experienced all different types of translators. Some who translate after you have presented and others who translate in real-time. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The disadvantage sequential translation is it takes longer, whereas real-time translation can be distracting as a speaker and to those around the translator. Plan seating and agenda timing accordingly.
- Prep. take your co-facilitator(s) and/or translator(s) through the agenda and content ahead of time.
- Translating headset. in one of our events, the translator used a translating headset for those who needed it. those who were reliant on the headset had their heads down a lot during the presentation and were pressing the headphones to their ears to hear they translation more clearly and were also taking notes, this heavily impacted interaction in the activities. We would recommend in these events, even less context-setting or lecture, more prompts and exercises they can execute in their native language.
- Music. we love music but in a multi-language, multi-culture, multi-translator environment it becomes an annoyance and we save music for breaks only.
- Seating. sprinkle your non-English speakers among your English speakers. This way they can support each other and are more effective during activities.
- Be ok. with not knowing what is going on since you won’t be able to read any of the HMWs and will need a team lead with the translator to explain to you what is happening.
- Cultural awareness. touch base with your wingman and translator regularly. Create examples in your presentation that are local and culturally relevant
- Talk slower, repeat, and continuously check-in. iterate and reiterate to the team that it is ok to ask questions and ask for help. Ask the audience questions and check-in regularly with the co-facilitators and translator(s). Be gracious and ask someone else to clarify for the team if needed. Remember not all metaphors or analogies translate.
- Timing. everything takes longer and that’s okay. Figure out what the priorities are and focus on those activities that create the most impact in the areas that matter the most.
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We are The SIX, a women-founded and owned strategy and innovation firm. Feel free to ask questions, challenge, and share new ideas and frameworks in the comments section below. To learn more about us visit us at www.the-six.co
