Page 44 - Becoming a Successful Manager

The Staff Mosaic—Working Together 35

Verify Before Moving On

Remember to “check in” during and at the conclusion of the
transmission.
Verify to be sure your message was received as you intended it
to be.
Again, as distances increase and cultures interact, the pos-
sibility for error expands. Here’s an amusing example of what can
go wrong between sending and receiving a clear message. And this
was face-to-face, so think what can happen with distance.
At a restaurant in Cologne, Germany, a guest ordered a dry
martini before dinner. When the waiter returned, however, the
guest was served three martinis. You can imagine the surprise.
He said “dry,” but the German waiter heard “drei”—German
for “three”!
This was funny in that setting, but such a misunderstanding
in business communication can be serious.
You must also be sure your American English words don’t take
on different meanings as you move to other countries either in
person or through technology. Years ago we were given a “transla-
tion dictionary” for English to American and American to Eng-
lish. We thought it was a joke until we looked at it carefully. Many
words in American English have very different meanings in the
United Kingdom.
Here’s a clear business example: In the United States the word
table as in “to table a discussion” means to postpone the discussion
until a later time. In the United Kingdom, it means, “to open the
discussion right now.” Imagine the confusion at a meeting if one
party was from the United States and another was from Britain,
and both were arguing “to table” an item?
Oscar Wilde, the poet, once described the United States and
the United Kingdom as “two countries separated by a common
language.” He was right, and it’s a good reminder for managers in