Learning and change are like driving a vehicle: some rides are smooth and pleasant, others rough and uncomfortable.

When you've selected the right people to be in your car, planned and studied the route, packed what you needed, chose the best music and snacks for each of the passengers, and built the best spirit to enjoy the ride, your learning experience and change initiative can have a huge chance to be engaging and effective.

Suppose you include the power of cultural and linguistic diversity in your road trip. In that case, you'll undoubtedly bring more complexity to your team dynamic, but also more richness, creativity and innovation.

Research shows that cultural, cognitive and identity diversity improve the capacity of a team to produce better results.

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we highlight the power of cultural and linguistic differences and similarities, sharing with you some ideas to drive learning and changing experiences that are human-centered, respectful, effective, profitable and sustainable.

Having the right people from different cultures, thinking styles, identities and languages in your car can transform even the worst road trips with flat tires, missed turns or exits, into enjoyable experiences.

Culture and Language in Learning and Change

Culture and languages are interconnected: they nurture each other.

I'm a Hispanic-American, proud Venezuelan immigrant, welcomed by the United States as a permanent resident to serve people, organizations and communities to be more inclusive and innovative. I see the function of designing and delivering learning with a practical and valuable combination of theory, techniques and tools to help others be better at what they do as strategically critical.

Among the factors that make the drive of learning and change fulfilling or fearful, frictionless or frightening, I see two critical ones: culture and language.

In a multi-modality, multi-cultural, and multi-language world, the understanding and mastery of how culture and language make a learning drive pleasant and effective or uncomfortable and unproductive is an essential capability.

Culture

Culture can be defined by how we are and do things in a particular time, space and social group.

Paraphrasing the English anthropologist Edward B. Tylor (1871), culture combines knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by members of a specific group or society. Cultures are transferred through written and spoken words and by rituals, practices and artifacts.

We not only learn and change differently due to our learning styles or cognitive preferences, but we also learn differently due to the cultural attributes we've been exposed to in the social groups in which we've lived, worked and studied.

The way we think and learn, express our emotions, behave and perform, and adapt to different contexts is affected by the cultural identity we've crafted through our life.

Language

But culture is not alone in the factors that impact the way we learn and change to adjust to the emerging conditions of life and work.

According to most seminal authors and linguistics, language can be defined as pronounced or written words combined to create meaning and be understood by a community; the combination of audible, articulate, meaningful sounds produced by vocal organs; or a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings, using signs, sounds, gestures or symbols.

Language plays an essential role in how cultures are built. Language influences how learning experiences can lead or not toward the accomplishment of learning outcomes. The ability to listen and understand, speak and convey messages that engage people to improve the way they are and perform effectively depends on the proper use of the existing languages in the environments in which you're involved.

Multi-Cultural and Multi-Language Environments and Interactions

Living in the United States of America means being part of a mosaic and melting pot of cultures and languages.

Many of us are driving in the front seat of the vehicle seeing how culture and language mix in the day-to-day working dynamics and the academic or corporate learning experiences we live.

Being fortunate to experience working in more than 70 countries, living in Latin America, Europe and the US, and being part of projects in highly diverse organizations from France, Germany, Denmark, Japan and Italy, have challenged my way of driving learning and change and helped me to see the power of culture and language.

In the following paragraphs, you'll find some practical ideas learned from CEOs, CLOs, C-suite members, managers and front-line team members who have led learning and change initiatives in different countries and companies.

You'll also learn some recommendations to increase engagement and effectiveness in team interactions between English and Spanish speakers. I hope you find them useful in your work as a learning and change leader.

Four Factors to Consider When Driving Learning and Change Across Cultures and Languages

In culturally and linguistically diverse learning and development experiences, we can identify four factors that, if well considered, can increase the engagement with your audiences and the effectiveness of your educational and working experiences.

These factors are categorized into four domains: cognitive, emotional, physical, and contextual. For your convenience, the four domains are organized in a table, using 4Hs: Head, Heart, Hands, and Habitat.

The 4Hs of Learning and Change Across Cultures and Languages

Designing and delivering a learning experience having in mind the Head, Heart, Hands, and Habitat domains will undoubtedly balance the cultural and linguistic implications of cross-cultural and multi-cultural audiences.

People across cultures and languages will thank you for being empathic, respectful, inclusive and for designing and delivering the experience of having them as humans at the center of your learning process.

Learning and Changing with Hispanics

"I don't consider myself Hispanic" – a colleague born in Colombia with more than 20 years working in the oil and gas industry in Texas was telling me as we were conversing about Hispanic Heritage Month. We enjoyed a deep conversation about how some see ourselves as more Latin American than Hispanic American.

Latinos, Hispanics, and Chicanos are terms frequently used to identify people connected to Latin American countries and Spain.

Some people with a family from Spain or closely related to people from the mother country of Hispanics may feel more identified with the Hispanic heritage. A person born and raised in a Latin American country without contact with Spain due to family or work reasons may feel more Latin American than Hispanic. A second or third generation of Mexicans or Salvadorians may be bilingual or have fluent mastery of English with minimal knowledge and fluency of Spanish.

A mistake I frequently see in learning designers and facilitators is to wrongly assume when working with Latino and Hispanic Heritage people that they all speak Spanish or are all Hispanics.

Excellent drivers of learning and change are mindful of the culture and language of their audiences and design, manage and facilitate their learning and change management experiences. They research, reflect, reset and respond to the voice of their learners and team members.

Spanish, Hispanic, Latino, Latinx or Chicano

In an effort to provide some clarity for designers and facilitators, here are some terms and definitions:

Spanish: a person born or naturalized in Spain.
Hispanic: a person with family or work-related roots from Spain.
Latino or Latinx: a person born in a Latin American country or raised in a family from a Latin family. Some people prefer to use the "x" to provide gender neutrality to the term.
Chicano: a person born in Mexico or in the United States with roots from Mexico and identified with the identity of Mexican-Americans.

Some people identified as Hispanic or Latino may feel and use the term "Chicano" to honor their Mexican heritage and the principles of Cesar Chavez's Chicanos Movement in the 60s that still have a strong influence, even in the minds of the younger generations.

10 Practical Ideas to Successfully Interact with Hispanics, Latinxs and Chicanos

1. Study your audience and avoid overgeneralization of all Spanish-speaking people as Hispanics. They might consider themselves "latinxs" or "chicanos."
2. If you speak Spanish, be aware of frequently used words in different regions and countries represented in your audience.
3. If you don't speak Spanish, it's a good idea to learn basic greetings and courteous phrases to show respect and humbleness to your audience.
4. Be aware that not all people connected to Hispanic or Latin heritage speak fluent Spanish.
5. Consider the family focus as a primary driver of life and work decisions.
6. Know that authority in the virtual or in-person classroom is given based on a combination of position and relationship - who you are and how you interact with the learners.
7. Build emotional engagement by showing respect, appreciation and consideration to your learners and team members.
8. Understand that religion (Catholicism and other Christian faiths) plays a significant role in the life of most Latin Americans.
9. Study how social groups are organized in the cultures, countries and regions. Some countries have a more vertical structure in social mobility, while others are more horizontal with fewer classes and social differences. This influences the way people perceive authority and process data.
10. Be humble to learn and inquire, facilitate more than lecture, use examples connected with their countries and culture, use role models born in their nations, respect them as equals and focus on helping them know how to use what they learn to be better in their families, organizations, and communities.

Driving learning and change with people from different cultures and languages is an exciting yet challenging journey.

The conditions on the road might change unexpectedly, forcing us to be alert and adjust to the emerging needs. The power of cultural and linguistic diversity in your team helps you find ways to cope with defying weather and road barriers.

Being an excellent cultural and linguistic driver in a global society with higher diversity every day is a good survival role to master. Enjoy the ride!