I struggle everyday to speak and understand French - some days it flows and some days it limps. But when one moves to a different country, this really is to be expected.
I didn't expect to bump into ANOTHER foreign language - the one that is spoken at work.
When I left my Big 8 accounting job over 25 years ago, I left behind a corporate world where everyone was speaking plain English - at least I didn't hear much else in the halls and boardrooms.
Who knew how that simple language would morph over the ensuing quarter century?
Besides catching up on Power Point and Excel, my vocabulary was woefully out of date as well. I'm like a kid learning secret swear words.
I have to quantify the take-aways of our latest initiative.
In our department we hope to on board our new plans quickly. Those plans include up-streaming ideas from our end users....and down-streaming our programs to match their ultimate needs (huh?).
I have learned to leverage (I used to think this had to do with borrowing money) previous experience to achieve glorious corporate goals and contain anxiety of stakeholders (and these guys are not pitching tents with those stakes).
I now know the difference between a flat organization and a hierarchical one and where on this bandwidth mine falls.
I am now a member of a transversal team to develop an alumni strategy - I know strategy has been around for a long time but never have I bumped into SO many of them. Everything has a strategy, looked at from a strategic viewpoint, or is part of thinking strategically.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot. One must learn to drive strategy or at least drive something.
Remember when strategy had to do with who won at RISK? And driving was what you did in a car?
All of a sudden after hiding my ignorance for months and pretending that I knew what someone was talking about (at least I hoped I was convincing), the corporate buzz words are starting to flow without me even translating in my head like I do in French.
Ha! I have begun to on-board this new paradigm as a result of my experiential learning experience..............I know, I know, its sickening isn't it?
And I thought speaking French was going to be hard.
Comments