We can use Google to translate a document or a presentation. And most of the time it does a pretty good job. Good enough at least for me to understand the gist of the original. I assume the same is true when I use it to translate something I wrote to another language. The thing I notice is that the translation often has ‘clunky’ bits. Words translated with precision, but without understanding. Often this has to do with clichès or nuance or particular humanitarian terms. The translation is word for word but not accurate.

The joy of wroking with an excellent translator is that they often add or subtract words; but not meaning. These translations are rarely word for word, but they are accurate.

Change makers need to be the second type of translators. Not word for word, but accurate. We need to take ideas, ways of working, and translate them into language which the people we are talking to understand. Teams within organisatons have their own language, so do organisations, and so to industries and sections of society.

Accuracy is harder than precision, strive for it anyway.

Photo by Possessed Photography