Prior to a large and long trip to India for the opening of a new vendor call center, our “boss’s boss’s boss” executive type person sent out a Mandatory Memo. After opening vendor call centers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines, he was bound and determined to make this launch the best ever!
That Mandatory Memo – which was bullet marked business cliches pulled right out of a Dilbert comic which we were to share with our Indian counterparts – was going to tell us how. The point of that memo?
There are no sacred cows…
So, that’s awkward…
I don’t know what you know about India. But I would guess that you know about the Taj Mahal, the Kama Sutra, and sacred cows.
India – where we were going – is literally full of sacred cows.
When called out, this executive held firm. “No, there are no sacred cows!”
Sigh…
He did go on to explain what he meant; that we don’t have to do things the way we’ve always done them. That whole, “What’s the last six words of a dying company? We’ve always done it this way.”
Fair enough.
While his point was valid, his communication of that point was flawed.
His communication hindered – not helped – the point he was wanting to make.
Yes, we (people and organizations and businesses) should always be growing, learning, improving, maturing, developing.
But to use the cliche of “no sacred cows” for an audience that literally believes cows are sacred is foolish and lazy, at best.
As I have said before, all communication is cross-cultural communication.
This man seemed to have no idea who his audience actually was. It seems to me his audience was a “call center” (of which we had many) and not Indians.
I know it’s simple, and encroaching on cliche, but please, for the love of training, know your audience.
This man did not, and prevented him from communicating clearly.
This is why the ADDIE Model starts with analyzing, right? Part of analyzing is finding out who our audience is, identifying what they may or may not already know, understanding how their behavior should change, etc.
Until next time,
Simon L Smith