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January 26, 2005

Is learning to communicate like learning Italian?

If your objective is to help managers communicate, it’s logical to explore training as a strategy. After all, couldn’t everyone benefit from communication skills development?

But managers, like all adults, resist learning because “they have to.” Yes, managers will attend the required class or click through the mandatory online course, but many will just go through the motions to meet an obligation.

To really “teach” adults a new knowledge or skills, the motivation has to come from the individual, not from the organization. Only when managers want to learn communication skills—because they believe doing so will help them solve a problem or meet an objective—will learning be embraced and take hold.

That’s where my quest to learn Italian comes in.

I am going back to Italy in October and I am determined to learn to speak Italian before I get there. As a result, I am a motivated learner. So motivated, in fact, that so far I have: 1) received the Rosetta Stone CD course I wanted for Christmas, and completed lessons 1-11; 2) ordered an audio CD for my car recommended by a friend; and 3) signed up for a conversational Italian course at my local community school.

Why do all three? Even though I think the Rosetta Stone (visit the website for a free demo to see for yourself: www.rosettastone.com) course is fabulous—it’s intuitive and visual and interactive and fun—I realized that I need to practice speaking (hence the audio CD) just as much as I need to be able to comprehend. And I also need a live expert to explain things and guide me in the right direction, which is where the course will prove helpful.

I will go to such lengths to learn Italian because it’s my personal goal—one that I care about, and will invest time and money to achieve.

Here’s the question for us communicators: How do we provide communication help for managers that doesn’t feel like an obligation (something the organization wants them to do), but helps managers meet their needs and sets them up for their own self-defined success?

I have lots of ideas; maybe you’d like to share some of your thoughts as well.

Posted by Alison Davis at January 26, 2005 01:20 PM