Which language should you train a team in, in Switzerland?

A company in the canton of Vaud wants to train its twelve team leaders. Eight are French speakers, two German speakers, and two work mainly in English. HR proposes what seems the fairest solution: a session in English, which everyone understands.

After half a day, the verdict is clear. Everyone is following. Almost nobody is debating.

Understanding is not enough

A management course is not about listening to a presentation. The essential part happens in the role-plays: conducting a corrective conversation, answering an objection, restating a disagreement without making it worse. These exercises require speaking quickly, with nuance, while others watch.

In a language you understand well but speak less, those moments become costly. Participants simplify what they wanted to say, avoid the exposed exercises, or leave the floor to those who are at ease. The course takes place, but not for everyone.

The right criterion: being able to disagree

To choose the language of a session, the useful question is not “which language does everyone understand?” but “in which language could each person contradict the trainer?”. If the answer differs between participants, it needs to be taken into account rather than aiming for the average.

In practice, there are three cases:

• a homogeneous group: the language is self-evident;
• a mixed group where English really is the working language: a session in English works well;
• a mixed group with no common working language: two sessions are better than one.

What we offer, and what we do not

ABP Consulting delivers its courses in French, English and Spanish. This site is also published in German so that German-speaking teams can understand what we offer, but we do not deliver sessions in German, and we would rather say so here than let it be discovered when you get in touch.

For a German-speaking team used to working in English, a session in English is a real option. For a team that only uses it occasionally, we will say so frankly at our first conversation.

Adapting the format to the language

Language also influences the choice of programme. Courses that centre heavily on spoken practice and role-plays require real ease in the language of the session. The manager-leader toolkit copes better with a group of mixed language levels, because part of the work is done in writing and in small groups.

Finally, Team coaching can deliberately bring together colleagues who speak different languages: in that case, the question of a common language becomes a subject of the work in its own right.