The Greatest Smart Goal EVER!

Can't believe I never updated this post!

Will do so on the main blog this weekend, once I get back to the office.

Mark

I work with a very diverse group and alot speak Spanish. However, in HS and college I took French for a total of 7 years. It is sometimes hard to know every word in the dictionary and people will struggle for the word in your language. I can say "how do you say..." in three different languages.

My employee will jump between languages without realizing it and I have to keep up. They do a great job at knowing my language and it won't hurt to learn something of theirs.

An update would be great.

I agree with bradleymewes.. it is a lofty goal indeed (perhaps an impossible one) to learn a language in a matter of weeks, but the major benefit here is "walking a mile in another man's shoes".

Soo..... how'd it go?

What a great goal indeed! Working in a similiar situation I made it a focus to learn to speak Spanish the old fashioned way, by fully immersing myself. But by forcing the new manager to have lunch completely in Spanish with his boss, the GM is teaching his new manager a much more important lesson - he is teaching him the empathy necessary to understand the dificulty and akwardness his employees will have in communicating with him. It is amazing how much we all take speaking a language fluently for granted, and how often many of us assume that lack of fluidity in english translates to a lack of intellegence or drive.

If I may, I believe the central tenet of Manager Tools as well as all great mangement philosophies is to break down the barriers to communication that we all encounter in order to become more effective. Communication is already hard enough without interjecting the difficulties of another language. I applaud the General Manager for setting this goal, I imagine it will be one of the most noteworthy accomplishments his new manager will acheive.

This is great. Larry Winget, in his latest book, "It's called work for a reason", speaks about why our companies hired us. It isn't to work hard or to look good (at least not in my case), but for results.

The GM is all about the results and found a very effective way to create a sense of urgency around the goal being achieved.

Thanks for sharing!

This sounds great! Mark, thanks for the clarification. I'm an American working in Kosovo (former Yugoslavia) and had to spend my first two years there studying the Albanian language full-time (30 hours a week). I have a lot of sympathy for him! Wish him success!

Rich-

Sweet! And I am soooo right there with you. I told the plant manager - who is just about the greatest guy you'd ever want to meet, and up to his eyeballs in problems and job satisfaction - that I was going to post this this week.

He groaned, but with a smile.

Update guaranteed.

Mark

I recommend lots of small bites and plenty of chewing... no talking when there's food in the mouth right?
Here's the part where we all need to remember to check for an update and see how said manager did at the meeting. It's all about the follow-up. :)
(adding it to google calendar and Palm now. Muahahaha)

No! Sorry folks, I wasn't clear.

The new plant manager doesn't speak Spanish. The GM, whom he reports to, feels that the plant manager learning Spanish is non-negotiable. He must do it, and fast, to be effective in his new role, working with a Spanish speaking work force.

So, the GM tells the plant manager what amounts to, "you and I are going to have lunch together entirely in Spanish (the GM already speaks it), so that I can be sure that you've achieved the goal." It's NOT enough to take a class, though that's a good PLAN... the GM knows that what he wants is a Spanish-capable plant manager. This is how he is going to measure it.

The plant employees will NOT be at the lunch! There is no "acknowledgement" - this has nothing to do with wanting to communicate something to the employees - this is actually doing the thing. We're not marketing an interest in learning here, to make employees feel better... we're actually learning, and this is the way we're measuring.

Mark

I think the implication of the goal is that the new plant manager will have to learn Spanish in order to effectively have a lunch with his staff in Spanish.

Wow. That sounds pretty interesting, but is it symbolism over substance? I think its great to acknowledge the majority (plant) language with a dinner. Perhaps taking a Spanish language course would be another way to communicate to his employees that he wants to communicate. Following the course a dinner of this type might even be more powerful.