Brazilian way of planning
Jamile asked me for help translating the action planning presentation to recruit volunteers who would work during the Olympics. She said that the whole team must speak English, but even so, the HR team was not following the planning required for the volunteer selection process. She supposed they were not understanding English. Then she concluded that the solution would be to do the presentation in Portuguese for HR. I began to translate the presentation with her and it became clear to me what was not being understood: it was not the language, but the planning itself.
Being Brazilian and working with foreigners from different nationalities, I see how Brazilians understand planning differently. Brazil is a country where planning is still being developed. A place where corrupt politicians want works to overshoot deadlines, and for completed works to have only a short lifespan so that it is necessary to spend even more money doing it again. The thinking is focused on the short term. Brazil is a people who have learned to live in crisis and to be creative in dealing with this crisis. It is often difficult to follow planning due to various external factors.
It was not just the HR team that was having problems with planning. All areas were having trouble. The technology team needed the facilities to be ready to test the technology. That’s why they were in Brazil, almost 4 years earlier, in meetings with the city hall. It was common to hear from the mayor that he also hoped the works would be ready on time.
Every day I could see people of various nationalities crazy about the way Brazil works. I suggested to all my students who worked there that they explain, in the smallest detail, in a very didactic way, the planning, and explain why it is important to follow the planning. But, above all, that they too were open to listen to the Brazilians in this sense, because in this land there are problems that only the locals understand, and being thus, it is much easier that they solve them.
In the final days leading up to the games, many things were still not ready, while other things that were ready were having problems. It was at that moment that every international confederation really understood the Brazilian vocations. Brazilians are extremely efficient at the last minute and have the creativity to deal with various adversities. The games happened and in fact were a great success.
What would you do if your team did not follow what you say, or more than that, if it did everything different from what you proposed?
Writer: Marcelle, Brazilian, is the founder of the Fala Brasil School, which offers an innovative teaching model based on the individual needs of foreigners trying to establish themselves in Brazil, and is part of a growing movement in favor of more sustainable and socially responsible companies. She believes that a better world begins with how to do business and how to trade between different cultures.
