e-mail Talleres de la imaginación here - or - Return to Index page
According to Wikipedia The English speaking market addresses between half a billion and one and a half billion people, whilst Spanish is spoken by around half a billion souls. There are many other languages to address, but the 'linguistic imerialism' of world commerce imposes the dominant language of North America upon all of us!
One advantage for people for whom English is a second or foreign language (ESL or EFL) is that they can adopt a new 'virtual identity' - an alternative personality - when using English, because they have to access ideas in one language, and imagine that same idea in another context.
Inevitably there will be errors, omissions and additions as ideas are exchanged between people who share a common language. These alterations are amplified when participants are working in a language other than their native tongue.
Ordinarily, misunderstandings are a nuisance - an obstacle to clear communication. But during brainstorming we try to suppress habitual social inertia by taking teams out of their usual habitat, and isolating them in a conference room (often in a remote, luxury hotel) with a moderator from outside their familiar social and cultural environment.
To have a really happy workforce,one has to do more than hold an occasional "cheese and wine party" (social events where employees are 'cheesed off' [dry or stale] are allowed to whine [complain] to their bosses!)
Over the years, employers have tried many ways to make work, if not fun, then at least less of a bore or chore.. Playing music, having group lunches, picnics, parties and sports activities after work are all familiar, and all can more or less successful, mostly depending on the motivation of the group leader. But whatever we try to do to make work exciting conventionally and routinely tends to loses its novelty after a while.
That is because people come to work because they want to achieve things - not just to play games and have trivial side-shows.
Money is important, up to the point where people can live comfortably without too much hassle.
More money may be nice, but excess pay is surprisingly less motivating than a feeling of achievement. people expect more and more out of their work today.
People want to contribute; they want to see that their contribution is making a difference; they want to learn; they want to grow; and they want to feel that they are part of a successful enterprise that is making a difference in the world.
It is achieving great things that really keeps people coming back to work every day. To make that kind of progress, we have to innovate, of course. But beyond 'tinkering at the edges' we have sometimes to 'think out of the box' and create from our experience new, imagined futures. That is what makes us human.
Team-building vacations and paintball fights may be fun, but are not very linguistically intensive nor entirely suitable for people with disabilities, in the way that Talleres de la Imaginación Workshops are, nor will they lead you to think of innovative new products and services. Read about ATCSEN and XRG sample projects (or indeed, t-im.es itself) which emerged from what at first seemed apparently crazy ideas exchanged between people of different backgrounds, connected only by the thin ties of work - often short-term, casual or even voluntary work. Ideas in these projects have come from Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Turkey, Cuba, Puerta Rica, Nigeria, DR Congo and probably many other corners of the earth too.
Once a project has been concieved, t-imes can help you set up some tele-working facilities, and participants are free to come and go, to attend t-im.es organized residential, conference or seminar events, or simply arrange to meet privately on an ad-hoc basis. Projects can be 'in house' [within a company - with only employees participating] or social networks. YOU ar in control. t-im.es is only a facilitator - a catalist in a CatB process To start, all you have to do is email info@t-im.es, telling us who you are (an individual, a social group, a corporate entity or whatever) and you too can participate.
If you are not ordinarily resident in Spain t-im.es can help you arrange your visit and find you a suitable business hotel (with meeting rooms and transport included) in any part of this beautiful country, or alternatively
- we can assemble a team to visit you…
- If you or your colleagues want to learn Spanish (or rather, Castiliano, it's purest, most understood form) here in Spain, or
- you would like a multi-lingual (English French Spanish) business presence to address the Spanish and Latin American markets, we can help by providing
- bilingual staff,
- serviced office space in Las Rozas de Madrid (the capital city of Spain),
- plus, of course all the legal and technical advice and assistance you will ever need from within our extensive network of small and medium enterprises (SMEs or PYMES in Spanish) - so you know you will pay only the fair local market price without the language premium which large companies and bilingual expatriates often charge!
Meanwhile, please also visit the site of EOS UK
e-mail Talleres de la imaginación here - or - Return to Index page
April 2009