Tried-and-true training methods can fail in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment, and can leave an unprepared trainer wondering what to do. In this article I share what I learned while leading a 24-hour team-building intervention, in Spanish, with a group of 20 managers, supervisors, and journeyman production employees of largest truck body manufacturing company in western United States.

The client needed help coping with a rapid growth, customer demand for better quality, and employee resistance to changes necessary to meet customer needs.

From start many of hourly workers expressed reluctance to “intrude” on decision-making responsibilities of their bosses a common feature of work relationships in Latin American cultures. Decision-making and problem solving are perceived as management roles, and sharing power and authority was commonly seen by most participants as a sign of weakness, and therefore undesirable.

There were differences in cultural values and assumptions relating to such issues as: how time at work should be used, how power and authority should be exercised, how day-to-day relationships between peers should be carried out, appropriate exercise of discipline, perceptions about formal and informal reward systems, how much participation in decision-making and problem-solving is appropriate and desirable for hourly employees, etc.

Only four of participants spoke English as their first language. The rest were native Spanish-speakers of Mexican ancestry. About 20 percent of them experienced difficulty in reading and writing Spanish.

This team was charged with learning new skills to apply and also to teach to these new skills to other employees.

Confianza and Other Lessons Learned

I had to adjust to language requirements and difference in culture in order to make training effective. These adjustments can be grouped under following headings:

Build Trust The Spanish word “confianza” can be loosely translated as “trust.” Velasquez New Revised Spanish-English Dictionary (1974) also translates this word as “honest boldness, assurance, firmness of opinion,” as well as describing a relationship that permits a certain secretiveness and privacy. Confianza shapes working and organizational relationships, and extends to training arena: if confianza is not felt mutually between trainees and instructor, trainees will “shut down,” and learning will dramatically suffer.

The usual repertoire of training tools to elicit participation and involvement will likely fail when confianza is not present. This is particularly relevant for interpersonal communications skills training where such concepts and skills as providing relevant feedback, active listening, and self-disclosure are not only highly valued as elements of training design and delivery, but indeed are deemed by most training practitioners as fundamental to this type of training.

The instructor should avoid behaviors that participants may interpret as confrontational. Many Hispanics see confrontation as negative and potentially destructive it is likely to be viewed as a personal challenge and an exercise of power and dominance. It does not have an “up” side.

Avoiding appearance of confrontation requires trainer to adopt a slower pace. It has been my experience that a typical “soft” skills training program is about 20 percent longer because of need to build trust gradually and to avoid any appearance of forcing people to participate.

By adding your love and light energy to your product, you are creating a product that uplifts, nurtures, blesses, or somehow lightens life of person purchasing your product. It will come across as so much more than just good customer service. If you have two identical items of same quality and price, one with joy will magnetize buyer. They may or may not be able to describe exactly what it was that made that product stand out over others.

My mother is a perfect example of this concept. She is an entrepreneur at heart without any form of business school or higher education. Every business she's ever run has been extremely successful. She is organized and business smart, but that's not what sets her apart from everyone else. She usually works in industries that she finds an interest in, however one time she decided to run an auto parts shop for my step dad. She was definitely not an expert in her industry. She dove in with an upbeat positive can-do attitude and got to work. Besides selling a quality product at a quality price, she infused entire shop with her electric energy and light. She is a natural salesman because she's so amazingly bright and cheerful. No matter what kind of business she's operating she treats every customer like a small town neighbor that she's known all of her life. I didn't grow up with her so as an adult visiting her, it was amazing for me to watch her work this special magic of hers. She makes everyone feel smart, special, and cared about. People like to do business with her. She can charge whatever she wants and work as few or as many hours as she likes because people will gladly pay for that feeling they get when in her presence. Her customers and employees treat her with a certain hero worship.