Why it's becoming increasingly important to be multilingual in a digital world

If anyone is reading this hoping that it's going to be be written in multiple languages, prepare to be hugely disappointed I'm afraid! In my marriage, it's my wife who has the talent with actual languages. In this blog I'm going to talk about the language of 'business' and the language of 'technology' - bare with me though, I promise it'll be worth it!

For starters, as with any language, there are nuances, dialects if you will. Let's think about when we implement a new technology, or enhance an existing one.

From a business perspective, the purpose is normally driven from one of two angles; Improving the User Experience, or improving the Insight they get from the technology.

On the flipside, from a technology perspective, they normally enable these in one of two ways; improving functionality, or data architecture.

To put this another way, let's try to think back to when we were able to travel to other countries if you can.

If you're lucky enough to go to a country where English isn't the native language, it can make for an interesting time.

Some will make the assumption that ours is the most common language in the world, so surely they'll speak some English.

Others might learn a few key phrases, enough to navigate the essentials perhaps. Either of these can often rub the locals, understandably, up the wrong way.

But for those of us lucky enough to have experienced it, I think we'd all agree that the most memorable experiences we've ever had whilst on holiday have been because you are fluent in the language, or have a guided experience from someone who does; this is when we are introduced to those parts of the culture that we just wouldn't get visibility of without that local insight.

This is exactly how it is with technology enhancements or implementations. As a business person, you might go into the project expecting everyone to understand what you're trying to achieve and why. Whereas as a technology person, you might be sitting there wondering why this person is talking to you in abstracts and possibilities, when all you want are facts and requirements.

In reality, both opinions are valid. Business people have to focus on their customers user experience, the user experience of their people and the value their service provides, whereas technology folk are primarily concerned with the actual functionality and architecture required to enable these things. Historically, these have been so distant from each other, there was no room for gaining an appreciation for the culture of the other.

Times have changed however.

Just like our holiday experiences, the truly great technology enabled transformations occur when you have one of three things; a business person who has experience with, and appreciation of, the technology, a technology person who has prior experience working with that business team or service, or a "guide" who has enough experience with both worlds, to help ensure the experience is optimised.

In the corporate world, this is where it gets a little trickier however. Of course, if we lived in an ideal world, each and every project would get all the resources needed to deliver in the agreed timeframe and within the allotted budget - this is not a perfect world however.

On top of that, we have operating models and job roles evolving over time. In 17 years I've been in both camps, as a Client Operations manager, Relationship Manager, Technical Consultant, Solution Architect and even dipped into Product Management. Throughout all of these roles however, one key skill has been there throughout; the ability to talk to the business in a way that resonates with them, then speak to the technical teams in a way that they understand, and helps them understand what the business need and why.

The challenge these two issues create is one of balance. Historically, we have people who are given job titles, descriptions and scopes that limits their ability to understand the other side of the coin. People are often forced to choose between delivery quantity as opposed to longer term quality, as demand usually exceeds supply.

The solution is not an obvious one, however I think two things will help longer term sustainability within organisations who's deliveries struggle with any of the above.

Firstly, people in roles have to be encouraged to broaden their horizons. If you work in a technical role, spend some time getting some experience in a business role for a while. Contact one of your customers perhaps for some coaching or mentoring to help you develop your understanding of their world.

Likewise, if you're in a business role, you're not going to be able to ignore technology and how it works much longer. Learn the basics. A lot of it is based on logic, and building an understanding of what you want from your data and why will help the technical teams provide you and your customers with a much better experience.

Secondly, give people a chance to put these learned skills to the test without fear of punishment. If you're running a project or other team, and someone needs requirements gathered, instead of waiting for an official Business Analyst, why not see if one of your developers has a desire to develop this skill? Or if you don't have a developer handy, but you have a business person who has an understanding of the technology, why not give them some ability to build their own solution?

These might sound scary, and again there would need to be a balance, but I think longer term this sort of approach would pay dividends.

That way it becomes a prioritisation call; you can keep the SME's available for those projects that will provide the highest value, whilst letting others learn on the less valuable, or risky, pieces of work.

Think of it in the context of our holiday scenario again. If I'm going on a business trip to Spain for the day, I might learn a couple of phrases ("Uno cerveza por favor" for example) so I can get by, but if I'm planning my honeymoon to Asia, when I want the experience to be truly memorable, I'd probably buy a guide book, learn a few key phrases and look for any kind of guided tours I could find - technology projects are no different, it's just a matter of deciding where the resources are truly needed.

So to finish off, if you've read this and have ever found yourself in a position of wondering if you 'fit' in a specific role, keep your chin up. The skills you development are hugely important and someday soon, I truly believe you will all find yourselves in roles that allow you to leverage all you have learnt.

And if you're reading this thinking about the team or organisation structure you have, and that perhaps this is something you might be suffering from, talk to your people. Get creative with job titles. Reward their curiosity and give them the ability, in a safe environment, to put these skills to the test - I promise you it will help keep them motivated, delivering and will pay off in the long term!