– a.k.a. why is it better to work as a team and not alone – while all members of the team are doing there jobs independently, in the fertile solitude of creativity/productivity? Let’s approach this topic from 3 different points of view and see how Babelprojekt can help you with the whole question.

#1. The translator

As we all know, translation is a job you need a calm environment for to be able to fully concentrate. Still, human make errors, and that’s inevitable. But in a work environment where all of the responsibility is put on just one person (not just the responsibility of the perfection of the work itself, but also the pressure of potentially being held guilty for something inevitable – e.g.: making errors) this person, so to speak, can go mad. But before that, they will make more mistakes than they would if there were place for the acknowledgment of this simple and natural fact (e.g.: human make errors). Therefore, to be able to deliver a work as – not perfect, but – good as a person can produce, they need to be ensured it is okay if the work they do needs corrections. What can grant that? A supervision of another expert. Cross-revision.

#2. The team

In a professional work culture most of translation agencies and language departments render for their co-workers, there is no space for personal debates or putting debates originating from professinal debates into a personal level. Still, if a team member has to make suggestions for corrections to another member’s work, situations can get a bit… tricky. Even worse, if your colleagues are sending countless e-mails to each other debating a problem they don’t agree about. The reason why it’s problematic is pretty simple: e-mail is a personal way of communication. Even if you write it in an objective and professional way, there is an addressing, a goodbye, which make the whole process look like an interpersonal exchange of views. Interpersonal.

#3. The work

As mentioned above, no one can expect a person to deliver absolutely flawless work under any circumstances – only if they are hiring robots or don’t care about the threathening danger of burn-out. But even if they you do, they have to accept the axioms of human nature (e.g.: human make errors). So if your goal is to keep your colleagues away from burn-out and provide them the environment to „go the extra mile”, being motivated and enjoying full trust (which is key to keep being motivated) while making sure they don’t drown in a huge load of e-mails and making sure to deliver a perfect work for your clients leaving them with no choice but to choose your agency again, what you need is: cross-revision.
In our next post, we will highlight the solutions we implemented in Babelprojekt’s workflow management system to ensure quality, a way to work ultimately professionally with simple and easy manners and without a huge load of e-mails!