A talented product manager moves from Bogotá to Berlin. Her metrics are strong, her team trusts her, yet she keeps hearing small comments: “Could you say that again, more clearly?” “Let’s have James handle the client call—he’s more… fluent.” No one is overtly hostile. Still, over time, the message is unmistakable: your ideas are fine, but […]
Why It Pays Off to Be Fluent in a Multinational Team’s Official Language
Multinational teams come in many different forms, from diverse teams in club football to musical ensembles, product development teams, or engineering and consulting teams. Many professionals collaborate in such multinational teams, me included, which means that they need to agree on a common language to be able to converse and get work done. Most multinational teams […]
‘Us versus Them’ in Multinationals: The Case of a Lingua Franca
A couple of my previous blog posts related to the topic of adopting a dominant language, mostly English, in multinational corporations. Even though using a lingua franca is generally considered to improve communication, simplify information flows and increase collaboration across culturally different units of the company, some possible roadblocks need to be mentioned too. Specifically, […]