93 | Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers: Strategies for Effective Global Internal Communications | Ray Walsh

  The Building Better Cultures podcast starts out the new year with a lively conversation featuring Ray Walsh, a communications and internal localization consultant whose professional background and years of living in various European markets have given him unique insights into the power and nuance behind effective messaging. The author of “Localizing Employee Communications: A Handbook” shares thoughts about the challenges unique to global organizations that want uniformity of messaging but not at the expense of effective penetration among the employees those internal corporate communications must reach.   Ray reflects on the responsibility of leaders to collaborate and co-create communications by taking an active role in the process. The most effective internal communications understand and incorporate local culture. English works as the global language of business to a large degree, but not in all instances, which is why Ray has developed a framework for tackling the thorny problem of reaching across business units and teams in markets of varying sizes and cultures with variable norms. This podcast offers concrete tips for building (and co-creating) compelling content that will resonate among individuals while preserving central corporate culture and messaging.   Click here to read more about Ray’s approach through his handbook, “Localizing Employee Communications.”   To learn more about the Building Better Cultures podcast and related services, visit www.buildingbettercultures.com  If you’re struggling with communications while adapting to a hybrid workplace model, click here to explore Workvivo, a collaboration platform that offers seamless digital integration.  KEY TAKEAWAYS  About the perennial challenges in Global (and global – small “g”) Communications:   Differences in language and culture.  Comms materials not written in the local language (or taking into consideration other workplace differentiators) are less compelling, effective and inclusive.  Lack of comms leaders with skills to translate, personalize and make more accessible internal marketing materials is a problem within many corporations.   Ray shares thoughts on the cascade approach, in particular internationally - when management across functions is asked to share information but not provided language support, it leads to fragmentary duplication of effort and puts the enterprise at risk for error or inconsistency.  Co-creation of communications requires thoughtful briefings, including:  Who’s the audience?  What’s the desired outcome?   Is there anything you need to measure and why?  Consider presentations that take specific approaches (co-created, translated, versus cascaded as-is).  Ray finds it helpful to group markets into tiers:  Tier 1: Large markets that merit co-creation of materials.  Tier 2: Mid-sized markets in which materials are simply translated word for word.  Tier 3: Smaller markets in which content might simply be passed on as-is.  Irrespective of tiers, it’s important to be collaborative in developing communications and work with those who are most engaged and able to make messages accessible for employees downstream.  The Power of Storytelling: Most leaders still don’t fully understand what it truly is, the kinds of color available to all of us or the many low-stress ways in which life experience can be personalized and incorporated in presentations.  Ray believes it’s advantageous to produce internal communications materials in the local culture’s native tongue when the objective is to resonate on a deeper emotional level.   Ray offers his best advice for companies looking to improve communications: Rather than centralizing, identify local stakeholders, consult with them often, given them time to co-create, translate if necessary and use their advice as you produce global materials in English for smaller markets.  KEY QUOTES “In regional offices here in Europe I see physically that we have gaps – gaps in understanding, gaps in motivation, business conditions, culture. More of us that work in home offices need to know that we have these gaps.”  “People are more likely to act on content that speaks to them.”   “We have to rely on (a cascade approach) a lot and I think we should. Unfortunately information isn’t like water. It doesn’t flow naturally like a cascade, so it has its problems.”  “I don’t think we can simply put out a campaign and say, ‘Let’s cascade this’ and just assume that they’re going to do it effectively and in a fully engaged way.”   “If you’re going into too much detail, you’re underestimating what your mature communicators can do for you. And if you don’t give enough detail, then you’re really encouraging … just flipping it forward.”  “It’s really important wherever possible to connect communications with (leadership’s) desired local outcomes.”   “Anything that connects abstract, global concepts to local examples, we consider a story; anything that grounds lofty concepts into the specifics of the workday.”  “When we’re trying to motivate or persuade, that’s where I think it’s much more effective to speak to (local employees’) guts; to use their mother tongue, to make it easier for them.”  “If you want to change behavior – or, more likely, prevent misbehavior – trainings coming from us in the Anglosphere may not be so effective.”  “We have to from the very beginning build a mindset for global-ready content. Global readiness, I believe, should be built into almost everything we produce.”  ABOUT RAY WALSH Ray Walsh is an American communications consultant based in Prague. For 20 years he has supported global clients in a variety of industries and managed employee communications in-house for companies including UPS and DXC Technology. He has lived in his native US, and in Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Website: www.raywalsh.net @LinkedIn ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, founder and director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.  ABOUT WORKVIVO To discover Workvivo, a workplace communication and engagement platform that offers seamless digital integration, please click here.