Few things move as slowly as people who think they understand each other. It might sound strange. One spontaneously thinks that misunderstandings should arise when people speak different languages. But the really dangerous misunderstandings often arise when everyone uses the exact same words and nods around the table in agreement even though they actually mean completely different things.
Someone says “platform”.
- One person thinks technical software.
- Another thinks collaborative structure.
- A third thinks marketplace.
- A fourth thinks Teams.
And then everyone wonders why the project started to spread after six months.
This is one of the biggest hidden problems in systems innovation. No shortage of ideas. Not lack of will. With no lack of common understanding of the words used to describe the change. Therefore, the Translator method is needed. A method that is actually very simple but can change the pace of complex collaboration dramatically.
The biggest obstacle is rarely resistance but misinterpretation
System innovation is almost always about several organizations, professional roles and cultures having to move together towards something new. Municipalities, companies, researchers, civil society and citizens try to understand the same future but do so from completely different realities.
The problem is that people overestimate how clear they are. A researcher says “resilience” and means the system’s ability to absorb disturbances and reorganize itself. A company manager hears “crisis preparedness”. A communicator hears “sustainability”. A politician hears “something that sounds important but expensive”.
Everyone nods. No one has understood the same thing. It is much like several people trying to build the same house but starting from different blueprints while everyone believes that the blueprint is shared.
Language that no one really understands
Because modern organizations have developed a kind of advanced “fog language” where the words often sound impressive but mean very little concretely. For example, you can read something like:
“We facilitate transformative synergies for scalable impact through cross-functional co-creation innovation.”
It almost sounds like someone tried to win the WC in abstract nouns. Translated into common language, it often means:
“We try to get different people to work together.”
The strange thing is that this language often arises from good intentions. People want to sound professional, strategic and future-oriented. But the effect is sometimes the opposite. The more advanced the language becomes, the more people begin to interpret their own meanings. And then the system starts to fall apart.
Why the Translator method is needed
The Translator method is based on a fairly simple insight: If people do not understand the same thing when they hear the same words, the system movement will be slow.
The method is therefore used to create common understanding by actively translating visions, strategies and change initiatives between different perspectives and language logics. It is not about simplifying away complexity. It’s about making complexity understandable.
The six roles
The essence of the method consists of adopting different perspectives that are used to translate the same text or idea. Here are suggestions for roles that give a richer picture of the words we use:
- First there is the 6 year old.
That role asks brutally simple questions. What does this really mean? Why are you doing this? If something cannot be explained simply, there are often ambiguities even in the adults. - Then comes the businessman.
Here the content is translated into value, benefit, risk and economy. What do we gain from this? What is the cost of not doing it? How does it affect the business? - The taxi driver represents everyday logic and practical reality.
How would this sound in a normal conversation? Would anyone outside the organization understand why this matters? - The police represent structure, rules and consistency.
What does this mean concretely? What if people interpret it differently? Are there risks, uncertainties or conflicts? - The researcher represents precision and knowledge sustainability.
Are the concepts correct? Are there assumptions that need to be clarified? What do we really know? - The pensioner represents life experience and long-term perspective.
Is this really wise? Will people feel better from this? Is it sustainable over time or just trendy right now?
Together, the roles create a significantly richer understanding.
How the method works in practice
- The process begins with the group producing or selecting a text that describes what they want to achieve. It can be a vision, a project, a strategy, a system move or an innovation initiative. The text should be long enough to work with.
- The participants then have to translate the text based on the different roles.
A person or group translates the vision as if it were to be explained to a 6 year old. Someone else does the same thing from the researcher’s perspective. A third party translates into the taxi driver’s language in an imagined taxi journey. - Then each group creates a glossary of words that need to be clarified in order not to be misinterpreted.
This is where the magic often happens. Because suddenly the group realizes that words like “sustainability”, “innovation”, “digitalisation”, “inclusion”, “scalability” or “efficiency” mean completely different things depending on who is listening. Even simple words such as place, sort, nature and travel often prove to need explaining. - After the translations, the versions are compared with each other. The whole group begins to discuss which wording actually works best to create common understanding.
Something happens here that is often experienced as unexpected. Things you thought were obvious become clearer. The language becomes both simpler and smarter at the same time.
Why the method works
What makes the Translator powerful is that it makes the gaps between people and organizations visible. Namely, system innovation rarely fails due to a lack of intelligence. It often fails because people move in different mental worlds without understanding how far apart they actually are. The method therefore works a bit like calibrating instruments before an orchestra starts playing.
Not everyone has to play the same instrument. But they need to understand the timing..
When the method is particularly important
The translator is particularly useful in situations where many different types of actors must cooperate. It can be between the public sector and business, between research and practice or between management and operational activities.
It also works very well early in innovation processes where people otherwise easily start running in different directions without noticing. Many projects would have saved enormous amounts of time if this type of translation was done before starting to build solutions. Because it is significantly cheaper to discover a linguistic misunderstanding than a system error after two years of work.
Tips and tricks for facilitation
However, here are some important things to keep in mind. First, the process needs to be playful enough for people to dare to be honest. If someone feels stupid for not understanding a word, the group will quickly start pretending to understand again.
Second, the facilitator needs to protect simplicity. In many professional settings, there is a strong status behavior associated with advanced language. People can almost feel threatened by simply expressing themselves. But simplicity is often a sign of deep understanding.
It is also important not to get caught up in perfection. The goal is not to create the ultimate definition of each word. The goal is to create enough common understanding for people to be able to move forward together.
Another important thing is to let people keep their perspectives. The aim is not for everyone to think alike. The purpose is for people to understand how others think. There is a big difference.
Creativity often arises in translation
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the method is that it not only creates clarity. It also creates creativity. When people start translating between different worlds, new connections arise. The scientist begins to understand the logic of everyday life. The businessman begins to understand emotional values. The taxi driver asks questions no academic has thought of. And suddenly something happens. The system begins to think together instead of in parallel.
Perhaps the most important competence of the future is to be able to translate
We live in a time where the world is becoming more and more specialized while the problems are becoming more and more interconnected. This means that the most important people of the future may not always be the ones who know the most in a field. Maybe they are the ones who can make different worlds understand each other. People who can translate…
- between technology and humanity.
- between research and practice.
- between strategy and everyday life.
- between vision and reality.
Because sometimes it’s not the lack of solutions that stops change. It’s that we still use the same words but live in different languages.
