Communication: are we on the same page?
By Momoko
The words come out haltingly, stilted and awkward as I try to remember my Spanish when I used to be fluent. Our contact says not to worry and that she will help us with translating during our meeting. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed in myself, but I also know it’s for the best.
How do we communicate? How do we make sure we can establish the same expectations and goals? It’s tricky enough in one language, let alone two.
With communications solely online, it’s also harder to incorporate more subtle aspects of language such as facial expressions or body gestures. How do we make sure not to jump to conclusions or make the wrong assumptions?
Our client is a small coffee cooperative, focused on supporting its farmers with aspects such as loans, certifications, and medical services. At first, we had understood the project to be on financial literacy and financial education. Our initial questions focused on what exactly the client meant by financial literacy – was this regarding budgeting and personal savings? Or more related to business planning and financial reports?
Yet as we started talking during our first meeting, we soon realized that financial literacy was one of three issues the cooperative wanted to focus on. In fact, it was ranked third in priority, while their first priority was to have a marketing and branding strategy to export their “Manos de Mujer” branded coffee to the US. Our scope had completely changed. While we were able to get some initial information in the first meeting, we felt lacking in our knowledge to really help develop a proper marketing strategy.
We start to learn more about the various certifications available for coffee farmers. These include ones I have heard of before, such as organic certification, fair trade, and rainforest alliance. But there are also other certifications such as bird friendly and C.A.F.E practices that are not as familiar. We learn that “Manos de Mujer” (a literal translation would be hands of a woman) focuses on the coffee grown by female farmers. The cooperative hopes that by empowering women entrepreneurs, they can become more financially stable and provide for their families. But there are a lot of details and concepts that are unfamiliar to us as we furiously take down notes.
Today, we have just finished our second meeting. I feel a bit more comfortable now, a bit more familiar, and am excited to delve deeper into our client’s needs. We have a deeper understanding of the coffee production process, where the fruit is harvested, washed, skinned, and dried to create green coffee. We learn more about their product and begin to think about the target customer for this green coffee. Is it importers? Roasters? Buyers for cafes? We ask more questions, learning that the coffee is grown at high altitudes for better quality, and is also shade grown with the help of banana trees. We also learn that the different certifications mean different regulations, such as properly disposing of coffee bean skins to efficient use of water (no wasteful practices).
The path feels clearer. And I keep reminding myself to not make assumptions and to feel comfortable reaching out to our client to ask questions. While the languages may not seem to intersect at first, by continually questioning and listening I hope that we can reach the same destination.