Globalization Breakdown

If you want to scale globally, start by localizing it.

What if your global training isn’t failing because it’s wrong — but because it’s not localized enough to be right?

When we think “localization,” we often think translation. But that’s only step one. In my 20+ years building learning experiences for K12, corporate, and international audiences, I’ve seen how much gets lost between “right words” and right understanding. That’s why my globalization approach is actually a localization approach—one which centers on trust, cultural fluency, and the learner’s cognitive world. From there, I layer in scalable systems and stakeholder buy-in — so learning becomes relevant, then spreads, and succeeds. So how can we design global learning systems that actually work — across time zones, mindsets, and human experiences?

Globalization and Localization are two very different things. And while it pains me to do anything slowly, Globalization is not something I choose to do in one fell swoop. Globalization is too often executed with abandon: Let’s go global. Add all the languages to the app. Put translations on the website. BAM! We’re global! But it doesn’t work well because whether you’re selling something, or offering a service, you end up losing most of your localized markets by doing it that way. Globalization, especially in training or education, needs to be intentional—locale by locale. It’s for the same reason huge companies like McDonalds or Target test things in markets before rolling out nationwide or globally. In essence, a solid globalization is comprised of tens or hundreds of individual localized rollouts. The research and data point to the overwhelming advantages of increasing by one locale at a time. But I did that even before I knew all the research on it. I did it because it only makes sense to consciously understand a training audience before adapting to them—it’s a basic level order of operations.

For me, in many cases, the catalyst for globalization has been driven by multiple companies from a country or area reaching out asking for the ____ (whatever training element it may be) to be available in their language. Whether that is the precipitator, or something else, first, I do my homework. Before even beginning a localized rollout, and certainly before marketing one, I get all the data on the needs in that area--and the perceived needs. I use that to inform my go-forward plan. And with that data, I get a good look at the actual people there. I don’t do mass surveys. I go there. I talk to the people. What do they value? How do they approach this thing? Is it the way we do in a certain US market or different? What motivates them culturally? I find that they either do have a need and know it (easy), they do have a need but don't think they do (more challenging), or their perceived need is inaccurate (they think they need this, but they really need that—really challenging). Once I have a better understanding of how they think and what they perceive as important or valuable, then I can A. decide if a rollout is productive, and if it is, B. create a plan to do so.

It’s important to note that even if I work for a company that has already determined a rollout is going to be a solid endeavor, worth the time and expenditure, and capable of success, I still do all of the above. Because just because marketing stats show it’s a beneficial market for us, doesn’t mean they see the learning challenges that entering that locale will present. So after I have a sense of the culture,  I have some goto consultants who are either native to an area or who have native-level fluency (from having lived there or some similar immersion in that locale). Often, one of these people will be someone who has also taught the language. And, I discuss the project with them. We hit on points like industry phrasing, cultural considerations (for example, say your training says “make eye contact”…but in Japan that would be rude, with Native Americans it would be highly uncomfortable, and in dog training, it would get you bitten—a lot). These discussions with language and cultural experts (not anthropological PhD’s, people who have lived the culture) give me my foundation for taking any product or service (learning design or otherwise) to a new locale.

The simple baseline is this: know your audience. Whether you’re teaching pre-schoolers or NASA engineers, you have to deeply understand them in order to know what will cause them to learn. I have chosen to take on projects and jobs which allowed me to develop relationships with a wide variety of learners. I have a formal education in pedagogy and andragogy. I understand learning—how it begins in infants, how it cognitively develops in children and adolescents, how it is precluded by competing biological processes in teens, how that affects learning in young adults, and how all of that cognitively coalesces in mature adults (22-26 on up). Even in adults, learning psychology exists as a field because different factors play in depending on backgrounds, age ranges, and personal goals (the realm of learning where curiosity can actually exist). Because I deeply understand the entire cognitive progression of learning, and the intentional application of evidence-based learning methodologies within it, I can create learning that reaches multiple audiences at once. I build that in. I put these safeguards in place to make sure no one is lost due to what they came in with (or came in lacking). So, knowing your audience means you are not continually firefighting cultural barriers, learning differences, or language nuances gone wrong, because you’ve proactively addressed those by creating the learning for those particular human beings.

I can’t just take some training material and “globalize it.” Well, I could, but it would be highly ineffective and counterproductive, costing a company and learners hundreds of wasted hours, and resulting in learning gaps that would incite major problems down the line for other departments that would have to clean up my mess (IT, Customer Service, Quality, and more). Because I have rolled out training to various groups so many times, I now have a solid grasp of multiple global and internal corporate cultures, and how to ensure they are learning effectively. Even so, I wouldn’t do a mass rollout to all of them at once. It would be irresponsible, like just ditching SWOT or risk mitigation, and outright inviting problems to come on in down the road. But my little two week process to understand a locale, then adapt or build training targeted to them (and/or in their language), means I get to see immediate results when it is launched.

If I truly know my audience, whether I am adapting current / legacy training or building it from scratch, I already know design and layout considerations that need to shift to be effective for each group. And I spend almost zero time going back and “fixing it,” which allows me to launch locale two, three, and so on, in succession. It may take a couple of years to fully globalize a learning program, but it would be done on a solid foundation that caused all locales to feel honored, to feel as if this was “made for them” (because it is), and that trust is an upward spiral — cognitively putting them in a space to welcome the learning instead of resisting change. This embeds change management into the training system, and fosters epistemic curiosity over information seeking—but that’s going to have to be another series of articles for another day.

At the end of the day, I don’t globalize learning — I localize multiple learning experiences. And this localization isn’t just about adjusting content — it’s about adjusting perspective. When we see the learner’s world as valid, valuable, and different from ours, we stop designing didactically from above and start designing purposefully alongside. That’s where real learning begins.

The truth is: we can’t “scale understanding” if we’re not willing to slow down enough to understand whom we’re scaling for. Globalization is not just a language barrier problem — it’s a human one — so localization becomes the foundation for its success. For learning to take root, investment has to be deep, and it has to be personal. Localization done right doesn’t stop at making training “accessible.” It makes it absorbed. Integrated. Owned. My audience is wholly invested.

If I am going to expand a learning program successfully, or any program for that matter, I am absolutely going to make sure my foundation is rock solid. My goto mantra that steadfastly guides me in these endeavors?

Globalization scales content — localization scales understanding.