How to Become a Walking Billboard for Communication Equity

​Several weeks ago, I listened some of Leila Hormozi’s podcast episodes about building a high-performing team of employees. Even though the podcast is geared toward businesses, it struck me how applicable her lesson was to our work of building the new habit in existing teams to use translation and interpretation regularly.

Leila says an employee does not believe a change is going to take place until they have heard you say it seven times; you should talk about it so frequently, employees/co-workers should associate your face with the change you asking them to do.

Tip

Reflect on how frequently you are talking about your translation and interpretation systems, and with whom.

​Reflect on what else you can do to become a walking billboard for the behavior change you are asking of people: translate everything written and provide interpretation for everything spoken

The Story

In past years, summer school enrollment has been a time of frustration for me and our multilingual families. Previously, I was not a part of this particular enrollment process, how it was being communicated to families, or what the deadline for summer school registration was.

I would often receive texts from our parents who speak other languages asking how they can get their child or children signed up. The worst was when I would receive texts -- "How do I sign up Jazmin for summer school" -- after the enrollment deadline had passed.

(I want to note that I do not say this to cast blame on my colleagues as failing in their duty. They are competent people working hard to provide for kids. Our responsibility is shared, and I had not yet found an effective way to collaborate horizontally.)

This past year was different. It was the first summer school cycle after my overhaul of our communication equity training and accountability systems:

• I received translation requests for the enrollment form.
  
• I was looped in on how it was being distributed and communicated to families so we could make sure they received information and instructions in their language.

Nevertheless, I did receive a text from a family after the deadline, wanting to sign up her children. This time, I had the peace of mind that this parent received the information in her language, but like all of us who are parents have experienced, was simply overwhelmed by life and had missed the deadline. Still, I followed up on her request to see if there were openings.

I explained the situation to the person who had spearheaded the summer school effort, saying, “I know everything for summer school got translated this year …” to which she emphatically responded, “1,000%. Because I had you in the back of my head!”

That was a feel-good moment for me: I had you in the back of my head.

I love that, because it told me I had communicated effectively, and my training was doing its work in spaces where I wasn’t necessarily present all the time.

This also allowed me to differentiate my action-taking: 

I no longer needed to assertively advocate for a parent who was denied access.

​Instad, I could calmly explore options that remained to this parent.

Call to Action

Check this list of seven ways you can talk about communication equity without sounding like a nag or having people tune you out. 

Choose one thing you are not yet doing, and implement it this year:

1. Train all staff at the beginning of the year. (All staff, not just staff who “need to know”.)
2. Lead mini refresher trainings leading up to parent-teacher conferences (so, two per year).
3. Offer frequent reminders beyond just emails, such as: blurbs in existing newsletters, agenda items in meetings you or teammates attend, a prominent blurb in the signature line of your email, shout outs to campuses or people for positive steps, etc.
4. Measure campus usage of translation and interpretation tools, and share out the data with leaders.
5. Ask teams or individuals how you can help. "I want to help. How can I ... ?"
6. Ask teams or individuals for help. "I need your help ..."
7. Publicly celebrate or express gratitude when a campus or team has done particularly well with their communication equity efforts. For example: pass out food or drink, issue a trophy, shout a team out publicly, etc.​

If you decide to adopt one of these moves, I would love to hear from you! Just email me with your idea! [email protected]

Faster Together

Many ELL Coordinators or others in similar roles are keenly aware of the inequities in communications for their families who speak other languages, but they are also trying to solve every other problem in the world, that progress is hard. 

Anne works with ELL Coordinators and others to help move schools along the pathway of noncompliant to compliant to equitable multilingual family communication.

To find out more, just schedule a pressure free time to talk.