Mobile usage is increasing at a rapid rate and more people than ever are carrying a pocketful of knowledge wherever they go. Does this really mean we no longer need to learn anything? During the Learning Technologies show in London, I was asked for the most valuable learning advice I had ever received. It was actually something my Latin teacher told me quite a few years ago in the pre-Google age when I was having the same problems with Latin grammar as my daughter is having these days. It rhymes in German but here is an attempt at an English translation. You don’t need to know how it works You just need to know where to find it. I think this still holds true today. With search engines available anytime and anywhere, the amount of facts we need to remember has dropped significantly. Now, we simply search online or even ask a friend or colleague via our social networks whenever we need to know something. In both cases, we can usually expect a quick and accurate response. However, most of the information load is predominantly in English, not only the lingua franca of science these days but also the international language of business. Skills cannot be looked up When it comes to business communication and language learning, we have also done away with the need for a bookshelf of text books and dictionaries. We ask our online translators or store words in a mobile vocabulary app. However, these are only useful up to a certain point. The communicative abilities we need to express ourselves in a foreign language are much more difficult to acquire; it’s not simply a matter of translation. Communication is a skill we attain over time, not a piece of information we can look up on our phones. Communication skills training takes time When Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten introduced an English-only policy for its global workforce, many people were sceptical. How could a geographically dispersed Japanese company manage a common training strategy that suited its entire workforce? After three years, however, Founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani confirms that the "Englishisation" project was a success: "Today, 30% of new hires are non-Japanese, and 50% of new engineers are non-Japanese. English is also helping us to attract and hire the best and the brightest talent all over the world". Thanks to the right communicative abilities, the organisation has expanded its reach to a global level. This shows once again that strong communication skills may take time to acquire - but in the end, communication-empowered organisations are more agile and profitable. Going Global Global organisations looking to train their workforce’s business communication skills need a global solution. A successful business needs a consistent strategy, where each employee is provided with the right training solution, regardless of where they are based. How else can businesses ensure that information flows across borders efficiently and accurately? Or that they create better relationships with worldwide clients and partners? This is why we believe in live communication skills training as part an overall talent management strategy. The Speexx Perfect Blend combines virtual classroom, telephone, mobile learning and interactive e-learning solutions for executive and group training. These learning tools are then customised to suit any training need and skill level. It is our belief that the technology available to us is not just about the convenience of finding short-term pieces of information. Used to its full effect, it maximises our ability to drive long-term talent and skills, such as communicating in a foreign language. Knowledge let alone and search engines do not help a lot if you cannot communicate about what you found. This is where my Latin teacher was absolutely right for once: once it comes to languages you have to know where to find it but you also have to know how it works.

Any business with a solid product or service and a decent website will attract global interest. UK exporters and would-be exporters often don’t have any foreign language skills, and some think they don’t need them, but they could be key to export success. Learning a new language takes at least 200 hours. 200 hours to learn French? OK, you may not be fluent in 200 hours but with that amount of hard graft you will achieve basic working proficiency so that you can join in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics. As organisations become multinational, by accident or design, they need to be able to speak the language of their best clients or sales territories. When the orders come rolling in, 200 hours spent learning a new language will be the best investment they ever made. UK language deficit The language deficit in the UK is shocking, according to the Chambers of Commerce (BCC). The BCC reckons that if businesses don’t start taking language learning seriously, they are in deep trouble. On the plus side, any enterprise that does invest in language skills will be able to give British competitors a run for their money in the global marketplace. Most UK employees do not speak a foreign language well enough to conduct business in the buyer’s tongue, according to the BCC. The problem is most acute for the fastest-growing markets.  The BCC’s 2013 international trade business survey found that up to 70% of respondents had no foreign language ability for the markets they served. Some had a smattering of foreign language ability among staff, but having one French speaker and a couple of Germans on the staff is not going to cut it when you are targeting the 1.3bn population of China. Only 0.5% of respondents claimed to speak Russian or Chinese well enough to conduct business deals and no wonder - even grasping the basics of Chinese is said to take around 2000 hours. There is little sign of UK businesses enhancing their foreign language skills. Despite promising statistics showing that 43% of business owners speak some German, 36% speak some Spanish and 24% speak some Italian, a closer look at these figures reveals that only around 5% are claiming to be actually fluent in these languages, while the rest struggle by on holiday-phrase levels of understanding that might just see them book a room in a hotel or order a pint successfully. Speaking and understanding a language poorly may be worse than speaking nothing at all. If you speak very poorly, you’re more likely to get the wrong information across or confuse or frustrate the customer. The reality is that you would be better sticking with English if you don’t have at least working proficiency from 200 hours of study. Business leaders who think they do not have time to train employees in a language will lose out. Some employees don’t even dare to pick up the telephone when the call is coming from another country in case they embarrass themselves. At the very least, this causes frustration and delays and it is likely to lead to lost orders as potential clients turn to providers they can talk to. Multinational and multilingual In the recent Speexx Exchange Survey, involving 230 organisations from five continents and representing more than 1.6 million employees, 54% of respondents considered their organisations to be multinational and multilingual. A further 89% believed that business communication and foreign language skills were critical for success. With the rise of the internet, very few organisations now operate only locally; nearly all have the opportunity to work with customers, partners or staff members in more than one country or language. It is not just first-time exporters who are hitting the language barrier; businesses with offices and employees in a number of countries need to be able to communicate quickly, clearly and efficiently to avoid errors, misunderstandings and delays. Yet a lack of foreign language skills was cited as main issue hampering international communication in businesses by 33% of respondents to the survey. Learning a new language is not a doddle and employees whose schooldays are a distant memory may not relish the thought of all that study. There are ways of making it less painful. A blend of methods can keep it interesting. Use self-paced online study combined with live training in the virtual classroom, via telephone or face-to-face training. This prepares learners for real business situations and is a flexible solution, especially for those who travel frequently. Online solutions can be designed to be fun and interactive nowadays and they give learners immediate feedback. Additional coaching and learning path analysis helps to keep up learning motivation. Subtle cultural differences Effective communication is more than just language skills, however. In China, for example, people are concerned about ‘losing face’, especially if they don’t know the answer to something. Some cultures are more direct and to the point than others; Germans, for example, may be less likely to pepper their sentences with apologies and qualifiers than their British counterparts. Language training should also build in a cultural appreciation that will aid understanding alongside simple translation skills. The process of learning a language can boost brainpower as well as enable the person to speak another language. Learning a language is said to grow the brain and even prevent dementia. If employees need any more convincing that time spent learning a language is time well spent, remind them that foreign languages are a highly sought-after skill and their new-found ability could lead to promotion and new opportunities to travel. Language learning is life changing. Fluency in a new language opens up the possibility of living abroad, meeting new people and understanding their culture better, and even in future the ability to raise bilingual children who again will have better grades in foreign languages at school and better career prospects. And imagine how intelligent you will feel being able to read Proust in the original French. 200 hours of language training sounds expensive and it certainly requires some sort of investment to learn a language properly. There is no doubt you will need to get management buy-in for language training - sell it to them as part of career development which will benefit company’s prospects of operating internationally and eventually achieve higher ROI. Addressing the gaps in commercial exporting skills, including language skills, must be a priority, according to the Chambers of Commerce. Businesses that have mainly English as a mother tongue may believe they start from a strong position in the global marketplace, but they will soon fall behind their multilingual rivals if they do not invest in that vital 200 hours.

The European Union’s Court of Justice recently attracted a lot of attention with a new ruling that will affect Google’s business in this part of the world. Under this popularly termed "right to be forgotten", individuals living in the EU may ask the search engine to remove links to articles, court judgments and other documents in search results for their name. The news raised a lot of eyebrows, particularly in the U.S., and Google stated that it was disappointed by the decision - but to be honest, it didn’t surprise me all that much. Both individuals and businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy protection on the web. Scepticism towards internet giants like Google is growing every day, in terms of where they store our data and who can access it. I think the feelings have always been strong in Europe, perhaps even more so in Germany. Following the revelations about Chancellor Merkel’s phone being tapped, the German government is now about to tighten national regulations affecting the IT industry. For example, the German government is considering making IT companies sign a no-spy agreement when bidding for public tenders. Providers from within the legislation of the US Patriot Act might find this very hard and could even be barred from doing business in the German and eventually the European IT public administration market. In case you’re based outside the EU, here’s a bit of background information: The European Data Protection Directive regulates the processing of personal data for all member nations of the European Union. It originates from the protection of personality rights and consumer rights. Every time a contract between two parties is signed within the EU, both must agree on the data protection terms that apply. There are very good reasons for this regulation, but actually, these terms often end up limiting the mutual benefits of a new partnership between organisations when it comes to L&D. Data security issues for HR and L&D Europe-based HR and L&D departments, as custodians of sensitive personal data, will be able to confirm this. Just think of what happens when a company in the EU decides to integrate an online learning solution by a third party provider. All student data, such as learning progress, support emails and training results, will need to be stored at a location which is accessible to both HR and the provider. With the rise of globally integrated talent and learning management systems, this type of data is increasingly made accessible through the cloud, which opens up a lot of new concerns. "By the way, where is your learning data stored?" is a question the Speexx team regularly receives from customers and potential clients. One client actually sent two data privacy officers over to Speexx to ensure our servers were safely located within Germany. This was a prerequisite just for signing the contract. Furthermore, many of our clients ask that their employees’ data be "forgotten" completely after a six-month course period and some even demand that learner results be displayed anonymously, with no possibility of identifying the student whatsoever. While I fully understand the need for data protection in businesses, I think this can sometimes be counterproductive. After all, keeping track of an online language student’s learning results for a longer period (more than six months) is crucial for recognising strengths and knowledge gaps - it simply takes longer than six months to learn a language. Only with a comprehensive and transparent set of learning data can we give our learners the full support they need and make founded recommendations for their further training. And let’s be honest, does it really hurt to know which students still need to work on their Spanish gerund forms and which have difficulties remembering their Business English vocabulary? Alternatives to forgetting To prevent data security issues from hampering your L&D strategy and to avoid having to ask your e-learning providers to "forget" your data, we recommend five simple steps. Assume that all learning and development data is personal data and ensure you document where it is held and how it is processed. Make sure that all stakeholders including unions and IT professionals are involved from the start. Multinational organisations with HR data centralised in one company but headquartered in another perhaps for tax or legal reasons will have to address where their home authority is in data protection terms. Appoint a designated data protection controller. The new draft EC regulations call for a data protection officer to be appointed by law in any public body or any business with over 250 people. Subject access requests, where people can ask to see data held on them look likely to get easier and cheaper so make sure the organisation is ready to handle these efficiently. Consent is important in data protection law. Consider how you will be able to show that consent was obtained to storing personal data in the course of learning and development, possibly through including this in the initial contract of employment.

Despite employees being ‘always on’ and constantly connected, most companies have not figured out how to make information easy to access for them. In fact, nearly three-quarters of employees still cannot find the information they need within their company’s information systems. E-learning, too, needs to be simple and easy to access and use if it is to compete against all the other channels. One of the main ways of cutting through the noise so that employees prioritise and value learning is to involve line management in developing a learning culture. If managers can explain clearly to staff in the real world why they need to do the learning, perhaps to learn a new language to communicate with new partners or customers, for example, and how it will benefit them and the company, workers are so much more likely to get involved with e-learning. It’s all in the content Content has to be very relevant to individuals. There are still too many one-size fits all e-learning applications but people who work in manufacturing, for example, will not relate to something designed for the finance sector. Language and terminology must fit each learner. Personalisation also involves creating flexibility, to suit the individual’s schedule, perhaps enabling mobile learning apps or remote access to e-learning from any device for road warriors. The Speexx Exchange 2013-14 Survey, an audit of more than 250 organisations worldwide, revealed that while 76% of organisations allow or provide mobile devices in the workplace, only 35% use them for learning. Back to basics Despite the digitisation of work and learning, we need to hold on to some basic human elements. People need to be approached as individuals if they are going to see a point in learning and development. Staff must have a clear reason why they are doing something. Engagement needs to become a distinct item on an organisation’s agenda to prevent overwhelmed employees from disengaging entirely. Somebody, preferably in HR or management, should be in charge of it. And finally? Communication should take place face-to-face now and again, not just via the internet. Self-paced learning on mobiles and tablets alone isn’t enough to keep people engaged. 3 tips to re-engage the overwhelmed employee Bring meaning back to working life with targeted learning and development. Make sure learning content is compelling and relevant to the employee and the job in hand. Use technology to make learning interesting but don’t rely on whizzy technology to keep employees away from the latest funny cat video. This is where human beings come in. Managers and other workers need to set out the importance of the learning face-to-face.  

We all love a bit of art. That’s why we decided to head out of the office early this Wednesday and spend a special evening with our friends and customers at the charming Museo Sorolla in the heart of Madrid. Even the rainy weather couldn’t stop us, and a group of 30 people joined to receive an exclusive guided tour of Joaquín Sorolla’s famous works - in English! The tour started in the gardens and then moved through what used to be Sorolla’s house. Each room has been converted to represent a different stage of his career as an artist.  A networking session followed, accompanied by some delicious refreshments and Spanish tapas. A big thank you to everyone who joined and made it such a fanstic event! Check out the art-filled evening in pictures: About Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 - 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works of art are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. About the Museum Sorolla The Museum Sorolla (Spanish: Museo Sorolla) is an art museum located in Madrid, Spain and features work by the artist Joaquín Sorolla. The building was originally the artist’s house, and was converted into a museum after the death of his widow. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1962. Stay tuned for our upcoming events here!

Here’s a useful paradox: to get better at speaking, you need to be a good listener. This is the central idea underpinning this text, in turn inspired by a book on thought and action. Written in the 18th century, ‘The art of silence’ is still relevant today. The author of the book, Father Dinouart, suggests there are three levels of wisdom, all of which are crucially important in the present day: being silent; speaking little and showing restraint; speaking a lot but neither critically nor excessively. As I pointed out in the Spanish version of this text, originally published in the magazine Cinco Días, these days we are continuously assaulted by ever more and ever louder messages. Moreover, we then we then seem to feel compelled to speak non-stop, to penalize any breaks and even more so, condemn silences. The extreme opposite can also be a bad thing - some leaders are neurotically addicted to remaining silent when intervention would really be called for. Social networks can only be fertile when personal roots are deep A month ago, an expert said that to stop twittering - which is also a form of speaking - when on holiday could easily result in losing a significant number of followers. This made me think and act: since then, I twitter less and live better. Social networks can only be fertile when the personal connections underpinning them run deep, just like learning a language is only worth the pleasure (not the pain) when we have something worthwhile to learn or to contribute. In this context, I am deliberately swimming upstream, but I might be heading in the right direction. A beneficial side effect of such verbal restraint is that it is humbling: on the one hand, it does me good to admit that I don’t have that many really good ideas, and on the other hand, keeping quiet every so often helps me escape from the acoustic overload that surrounds me. The incessant repetition of good messages strips them of their true value and may even produce dislike towards message and messenger alike. Not interrupting appears to be a key skill for good listening. Any verbal interruption is preceded by something much more profound, by mental interruption. Listening before speaking in public is an exercise in humility. I’m trying to improve, but I still notice the tendency to mentally interrupt those who speak before me. Why? For at least two reasons: first because I want to do well and speak my prepared turn as eloquently as possible and second because deep down, I tend to think that what I have to say is more interesting than what others might have to say. We clearly only learn when we listen - not when we speak. Just as clear is that we do more listening when we’re born and when we die, yet we stifle this ability when we’re supposedly at our most mature. Listening and shouting are inversely proportional to each other. As we project outwards what we generate within ourselves, I can only listen to others if I start by generating an internal silence that lets me listen to myself. If I am unable to listen to myself in silence, I’ll have no other choice but to shout at myself. In a way, I am thus harming myself and shouting at others is only a symptom of this illness. This analysis contains more wisdom than is immediately apparent and it explains why people shout more out on the road; perhaps because in the shops, you listen less. You can’t trust strangers (customers) if you don’t trust those you know (your co-workers). A prerequisite for all this is authenticity. ‘The Little Prince’ tells us that important things can only be seen with the heart, so it is reasonable to conclude that for genuine, humane listening, we also need our hearts. Put simply, we only really listen to those that we appreciate and love. And it shows. Being an example is more powerful than setting one Something you don’t always notice when listening to a public speaker is the degree of connection between what he says and what he actually does, above all, if there are direct practical applications to the topic he talks about. A classic case is that of a manager giving a conference speech about company ethics while asking the organizers to pay him on the side. The paradoxes of human beings… By contrast, there are speakers who, if you have the good fortune to meet them in person, will show themselves to be just the same person you heard speaking to a large audience. I found conference speakers like Javier Fernández Aguado, Marcos Urarte and José Aguilar to be of this quality. It is great to see that brilliance in public speaking is indeed compatible with humility in private conversations. In addition, this gives rise to two frequently overlooked abilities: contextualizing what we hear and synthesizing what we say. Finally, William Safire offers us some profound wisdom in his book ‘Lend Me Your Ears’. His long career as a White House speech writer means is able to give good advice to budding speakers who are merely hoping someone will give them their time and attention. Listening well helps us become better speakers, not least because it helps us recognize our errors and guide the perceptions of our audience. It means going back four steps and, in this order: being a good person, listening, speaking well and making sure your listeners know you’re doing all of these. To sum up, reality comes before rhethorics and yet you need to reconcile these two elements -being exemplary certainly has a greater impact than setting examples.  Enrique Sueiro, consultant and Manager Forum’s ‘Speaker of the year 2013’ holds a Ph.D. in Communication

For a lot of companies, when it comes to filling a job vacancy, it means announcing the job opening on social media sites or hiring a recruiter. But sometimes the perfect candidate is right under one’s nose. That’s why many companies have started investing in internal promotions. What is lost when a company looks ‘outside’ rather than ‘within’ to fill a position? Many companies have a stated philosophy of promoting from within, but what does their actual track record look like? Seasoned employees have already gained tremendous knowledge within the company and know how the company works. If they have been successful within the company culture and have shown that they can take more responsibility, they may be good candidates for an internal promotion. However, if the approach to hiring tends to focus on new blood, experienced employees are also likely to look outside for opportunities to grow professionally. Losing an experienced employee carries a price tag which is rarely quantified - although the investment that companies make in employees is often larger than reflected by the numbers on the books. Extensive experience and knowledge of the company is likely to allow them to navigate new situations much more quickly and effectively. Company politics are often cited as being the reason for losing good people. But, if decisions are based on objective criteria, office politics are likely to become a non-issue. Companies invest both time and money in creating a common vision and common values. People choose to stay at a company when they foresee a bright future, but this begs the question if company philosophies are in line with decision making. Opportunities must be structured around the employee’s experience so that the person is prepared to take on new responsibilities. If employees see that co-workers have successfully progressed within a company, they are more likely to believe that they too have opportunities. In this regard, some managers are likely to suffer a nervous breakdown. The fear is that an employee will be developed, developed, developed - and never have any time to work. The pressure to get things done certainly does not subside because opportunities for further development are available. A careful balance is required. In addition to having extensive knowledge of an employee, promoting from within actually saves money.  A recent HCS survey about internal promotions at over 600 organizations discovered that nearly 40% of the companies found internal candidates less expensive than external ones, even when the internal hire received a salary increase. A further advantage is that companies don’t need to outsource the search, thereby doing away with headhunter fees and advertising costs. In the end, the human resources department might want to ask the ultimate question: do internal hires really pay off? The answer is, sometimes. In general, internal hires do stay longer after a promotion - on average, 1.3 years longer. However, internal promotions may not perform better. Although internal hires are often cheaper and additionally bring experience of the company and the company’s culture with them, the survey indicated that about 55% of the companies came to the final conclusion that external candidates performed better, mostly due to the influence of new ideas, a willingness to change work habits, and a desire to question.

It’s that time of year again - Speexx Exchange 2014 is now officially open for registration and we’re more excited than ever to invite you to our global talent managament conference on 3rd December in Berlin. Get a taste of what to expect. This is what Speexx Exchange is all about It´s almost a tradition now: Each year just before Christmas, Speexx Exchange brings together friends, customers and thought leaders from all over the world to take an in-depth reality check on the state of corporate e-learning and talent management. No future talk, just real hard facts. You will meet industry leaders, hear and talk about best practice for deploying global e-learning strategies and get the latest results from Europe’s leading talent management research. Speexx Exchange helps HR and L&D managers worldwide meet the challenges in managing talent across borders. Together, we’ll create a unique exchange of ideas between HR and L&D professionals from loads of different backgrounds, all based on real facts and best practice straight from the experts. You will return to work with brand-new insights and practical solutions for delivering real results. Join us on the eve of Online Educa 2014 for a day packed with networking opportunities, expert presentations, collaboration and - great food. To get a recap of tweets and images, follow us on Twitter: @Speexx or check out the event hashtag #SpeexxExchange. What was Speexx Exchange 2013 like? Paris, Madrid, Rome and Berlin: Speexx Exchange 2013 was all about finding new approaches to global talent management and getting practical solutions that can be applied in the workplace right away. Over 450 attendees from over 25 countries joined, representing global organizations such as JW Marriott Maqruis, Bulgari, Brückner Group, ALSTOM, SGS, Saint-Gobain, Generali, UniCredit, BCD Travel, E.ON, Volkswagen, eBay and many more. Together, we created a unique exchange of ideas over the course of several weeks. Speexx Exchange Berlin kicked off on the morning of December 4th at the Hotel InterContinental Berlin in cooperation with our sponsor ChapmanBlack. The room was packed, with no seats going spare. Around 100 international guests and speakers from all over the world and a broad range of industries gathered together to get an in-depth reality check on what is happening in e-learning and talent management right now. An impressive line-up of eight international experts from HR and L&D joined to share their insights. We were delighted to welcome Laura Overton of Towards Maturity as our host, who guided us through the day with new learning approaches, lots of opportunity for the audience to interact and live votings about e-learning usage in the workplace. Laura started her session by sharing some of the key findings of this year’s Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey and showing what the top quartile do differently in terms of learning in the workplace. This was followed by Nabil Senyonga, Director of Learning at JW Marquis Hotel Dubai. Nabil gave us an insight into the e-learning advent in the Middle East and the reasons for its fast uptake. In particular, he highlighted how the learning culture in the Middle East differs from that in other parts of the world and what role the government and infrastructure play in fostering learning technologies. Barry Trout, CEO of ChapmanBlack and HireStorm took the floor next, by showing us how to hire and retain the best talent in organizations worldwide in seven crucial steps. Barry shared a comprehensive and practical set of guidelines which simplify the hiring process for any organization aiming to find and keep the right people. Did you know that there are 4 million people in the UK alone who seeking new job opportunities and available to change right now? Our final session of the morning was held by Stefan Linge, Head of Training & Development at SGS Germany. With an in-depth set of statistics, Stefan helped us to see what really remains of the learning process in self-directed scenarios. In order to really measure the transfer of skills and knowledge, we must use the formular of Learning x Ability x Motivation x Work Environment. Stefan also raised the question of how many organizations really help their staff grow their ability to learn and relearn. After a delicious lunch served by the famous Hotel InterContinental cuisine, we heard how Petra Pongratz-Kolbig of Brückner Group manages intercultural awareness in a globally engaged organization. As Head of HR, Petra is faced with the daily challenge of managing intercultural teams that not only have very different approaches and expectations in terms of their work, but also in the way they acquire new skills. Next up was Michael Salone, CEO and Co-Founder of 3-6TY, who gave us some first-hand advice on integrating learning and talent through peer-to-peer talent identification. It turns out that our colleagues often know much more about our skills than our bosses do. Michael gave us some fresh perspectives on how to deal with this and other challenges in talent management. The next session featured Bernd Binzenbach, Training Manager of the Business Travel Academy at BCD Travel. Bernd showed us why he truly believes in the power of blended learning and how to get buy-in from colleagues and management when implementing blended learning formulas. Above all, as we discovered, it is crucial to compose different learning modules and not just throw them together. Donald H Taylor, Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, wrapped up the event with an impressive insight of learning trends and pitfalls that we can expect in 2014. In particular, Don touched upon maturing delivery, the rise of the networked individual and the demanding business as the key trends. And the 2014 pitfall for HR and L&D? Organizational agility. Our final session involved a World Café with round table discussions, where our delegates got their final say on what is really driving learning and performance in global organizations. This was followed by some refreshments and networking opportunities to end a truly eye-opening day. We’re looking forward to seeing you again this year! 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Like any living language, English is changing. Each year, new words enter the language, others become obsolete. English remains the second most spoken language worldwide. But do we all understand each other? English is evolving. There are around 375 million people worldwide who speak English as a first language, and as many as 600 million who speak it as a second language. Even so, native speakers may be surprised to learn that they will account for only 15 percent of the two billion people using the language by 2020. Even today, the majority of conversations held in English are between non-native speakers.This is partially true because English has taken on the duty of a lingua franca, a language used by non-native speakers as a regular means of communication. For many, English is the language of choice or necessity at work even when it isn’t spoken at home.English is currently the lingua franca of international business, science, technology, aviation and diplomacy and is one of the six official languages of the UN. Historically, this ‘world language’ changes regularly, depending on who is the political, financial or technological top dog.An estimated one billion people are currently learning English worldwide. But are they learning ‘real’ English? The answer depends on who you ask. What specialists might call textbook English is likely to be outpaced by locally inflected ‘Englishes’ (in both spoken and written form) in the years to come. English has escaped its bonds and is busily adapting to its many new environments. It takes on attributes as it needs them, and discards others. Such changes go beyond taking over cultural references or words for local cuisine. Instead, millions of non-native English speakers are incorporating grammar, pronunciation and even word meanings that reflect their own languages and language needs into English.It’s important to keep in mind that English is no exception in language evolution, even if the process seems to be happening faster. As the Roman Empire declined, Latin transformed itself into many dialects and then later diverged into five distinct languages: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian.As for English, adaptability has always been one of its strengths. About half of the words in English are borrowed from other languages already, especially French and Latin, and another 20 percent are borrowed from languages all over the world. Such borrowings have kept the language vibrant for centuries.Textbook English, meanwhile, continues to change even as purists try to keep it the way it is. Desirable or not, in fifty years, English may sound increasingly like Chinese.Educators also believe that the lax approach to teaching grammar to native speakers will also contribute to language evolution. Since the hard and fast rules of English are not being learned by the people most likely to have a stake in enforcing them, change is inevitable. By the way, why not power up your Business English in one of our expert webinars? We offer free sessions for all kinds of industries with a professional native speaker trainer who will help you master key terms for your daily work.

For many years, I’ve been using the metaphor of language to explain leadership and to help directors build their skills. In my experience, there are about 250 words and types of behavior which turn a director into a leader. A director is someone who gets people to do what they’re meant to do. A leader is someone who gets people to want to do what they’re meant to do. It’s someone who builds commitment in their organization. Learning the language of leadership isn’t easy because it requires us to resist our natural tendency towards routine and comfort. Incidentally, these same two obstacles are what makes learning a new language difficult for us. Among the learning methods for leadership are reading, considering new examples, group training and also coaching. It is the coach’s job to somehow turn into a certain professor, who facilitates learning words, pronouncing them correctly and putting them together according to syntax. Mastering leadership is no simple task. All in all, just as with any other language, mastering the language of leadership is extremely satisfying because it allows us to discover new skills and ways of approaching reality, as well as enriching approaches to  routine relations or tasks. Finally, just as is the case with all languages, no matter how well we speak them, we can always continue to deepen our skills. The important thing is not to get tired of it, but to keep boosting our pronunciation more and more, to improve our syntax on an ongoing basis. Our underlying goal should always be to offer the best possible service to those who depend on a director who is dedicated to becoming a leader. Communication is a critical tool for reaching a target market, and the way in which leaders bring across their message to members of an organization can make or break staff commitment. Leadership is a language which some people are capable of learning and others find more difficult. Moreover, although there are many different ways of speaking the language of leadership, a few common words need to be pronounced in the same way for everyone to understand them. Compared to other languages, which require you to know between 1,500 and 3,000 words to express yourself at an acceptable level, the language of leadership only requires about 250. Those capable of handling these 250 words, i.e. 250 leadership skills, have the potential to become a real leader. Click here to read the original article in Spanish.   About Javier Fernández Aguado Javier Fernández Aguado is President of the MindValue Group, which is focussed on professional services for senior management. A thought leader and speaker, Javier is considered one of the top and most sought after contemporary experts in managing people and organizations on an international level. He is a coach for senior managers and a member Top Ten Management Spain and Top Ten Speakers Spain. His works are regularly published by HR specialist magazines such as Capital Humano and Observatorio de RR.HH.