Why Servant Leaders TRAIN

I’ve been thinking a lot about the concepts of Internal and External communication and how to integrate these concepts into a Deaf-Friendly workplace. Let’s start by explaining the concepts: Internal communication is for the management and employees. In traditional sense, it would be the management telling the employees what they needed to know. More modern approaches emphasize the concept of servant leadership and having much more two-way communication so that employees can participate in the policies, procedures, and practices of their work. Today’s technology offers various ways to do this beyond the traditional face-to-face, all-hands-on-deck company meeting.  

 

Unfortunately, many of these options are text-based, like using an internal social media platform such as Slack. Large group meetings may have some value but for ensuring that everyone understands the company’s goals, the one-to-one or small-group meetings are much more Deaf-Friendly. It is one thing to explain a concept to people, but it is much more powerful to both demonstrate it and then see the employees replicate the demonstration. This is true training in the sense of the sign that is used to meaning TRAINING.  The differences between “training” and TRAINING are worth a little more exploration.

 

I once had a new job where I was qualified to do the work, but the specific practices involved were not something I already knew. I asked for training, using the common ASL sign TRAINING. Let me say that just because someone is working as an interpreter does not guarantee that they have a far-reaching understanding of Deaf culture. My interpreter used the English word “training,” which one would think meant that they had done a good job.  In fact, the job was specifically working with Deaf people, so one would hope that the cultural adjustment would not need to be made.  But as is often the case with organizations designed to help Deaf people, this one was run and staffed entirely by non-Deaf “hearing” people.  In other words, people who believed that they were “helping” the underprivileged, or lesser, deaf – us “children of a lesser God.” Helpers generally don’t understand cultural differences.

 

I asked for TRAINING.  They gave me a pamphlet and a URL for an online video with captions.

 

From a hearing, standard-English perspective, they had provided “training.” From a Deaf culture perspective, they had postponed TRAINING and given me busy work to occupy the rest of my day. When I repeated my request for TRAINING, they asked if I had read the pamphlet, to which I replied that I had and I was ready for the TRAINING to begin.  They just assumed that I had not looked at the video or read the pamphlet and that I was being lazy. I was actively trying to get someone to SHOW me what to do and then assess my ability to DO what was shown to me.  Only then would I know I had correctly understood the training.  I was never TRAINED in the entire three months that I worked there.

 

So as a future operator of a Deaf-Owned and Deaf-Friendly business, my plans for internal communication must have both a showing and a viewing.  That is live and interactive, which few of our technical solutions come close to replicating. It might be time consuming in a large organization, but it could be done simply by doing an initial TRAINING of team leaders (showing them and then watching them show me) and then setting them forth to repeat the process in each team. 

 

What about using videos? Yes, we will make instructional videos and in fact, I am already doing so in anticipation of needing the standard recipe and procedures to be described (shown) so that they can be followed.  But watching a video is far different from doing the thing yourself.  The video is the standard unchanging expectation, but the live and interactive TRAINING is the transfer of experience, knowledge and skill that would be missing from the video.  Even if I explained every tidbit of experience, knowledge, and skill in the video, it would still, most likely, be missing (or missed) by the employee.  The reason is that my experiences, knowledge, and skills are based upon my living them directly. TRAINING would require me to learn about the trainees’ experiences, knowledge, and existing skills. That’s a conversation.  The conversation is essential because it will connect each trainee’s direct living to the task being trained.  This connects to a previously discussed concept of knowing your “why.”

 

Simon Sinek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4) explained the concept well. Start with “Why” you do what it is that you do.  Any policy, procedure or practice should have a reason behind it. I believe it is important to share that reason – the “why” – behind the change so that the employee can cognitively buy-in to the change, explain it to others, should anyone ask, and support the change across the organization by reminding coworkers of the reasons, should anyone be confused.

 

Knowing the “why” of a procedure – take health code requirements for food handling, for example – should lead to higher compliance with the “how” and the “what” of the procedure. Using gloves when doing food prep has an obvious image to it – your hand is now blue (or whatever color the glove is); however, if your gloved hand is scratching your nose or fussing with your hair, then the point of using the glove has been bypassed.  In food service, we wear the gloves to prevent contamination from the preparer to the food. But just as nurses must change to a new pair of gloves when entering each patient’s room, we need to ensure that we don’t cross-contaminate different food items. So, a simple thing, such as wearing gloves, requires an understanding that gloves don’t prevent contamination, but rather proper use of gloves is part of an overall plan to eliminate contamination. Awareness of how the gloves themselves might become a source of contamination ties into the behavior. - the doing - not just a knowledge that gloves must be worn.

 

TRAINING that begins with “Why” seems to me to be the most effective and essential part of successful internal communication, at least for a Deaf-Friendly restaurant. I suspect, it would work with everyone.  Deaf people – the “people of the eye” – have a lot to offer.  All it takes is a little bit of time and desire to have meaningful interaction back and forth – not just one-way.

 

References

Gomez, R. (2021, November 11). Kickstart your internal communications strategy with these best practices. Sprout Social. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/internal-communications-guide/

How great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek. (2010, May 4). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4.

Nolfi, T. (2018, May 24). Developing competencies for effective strategic communications. PA TIMES Online. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://patimes.org/developing-competencies-for-effective-strategic-communications/

Rabinowitz, P. (n.d.). Section 4. promoting internal communication. Chapter 15. Becoming an Effective Manager | Section 4. Promoting Internal Communication | Main Section | Community Tool Box. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/effective-manager/internal-communication/main