Makings of a Good Translation Team: Organizing the translation team by assigning each team member to play the appropriate roles based on that person's unique skills is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for producing high-quality translation. An effective translation team may comprise as few as two members. An in-house coordinator working with an outside independent translator may also act as checker. The translator may then act as proofreader. But whatever the composition of the translation team, the members will frequently need to consult together about problem points. Particularly important is "backward consultation," in which the downstream team member confirms any corrections he has made with the upstream team member he received the work from. Most frequently, the checker will make some alteration in the translated text received from the translator. Minor cosmetic changes or unequivocal errors such as those involving numbers or misspellings need not be confirmed through backward conferral. But when such changes are important and involve the structure or meaning of the text, they should generally be confirmed with the translator. This is particularly important when the native languages of the translator and the checker are different. Based on my own experience, I believe that failure to practice backward conferral is the most frequent cause of translation degradation.

Communication, Conferral and Quality: If translation is a team effort, quality control is as well. Quality control takes place on the individual level and the team level. On the individual level, each member of the translation team seeks to improve his own skills, background knowledge, work habits and work attitude. On the team level, quality control is pursued in two ways. First, the translation team is physically organized in the most effective way given the composition of the translation team and the distribution of skills and roles. Second, team members consult effectively with each other. Good communication skills are therefore important because they ensure effective consultation, which is critical to achieving high quality and avoiding degradation of quality. Communication skills have both physical and psychological aspects.

Physical Communication: Wise organization of the translation team and effective deployment of team roles given the skills and experience of the team members is perhaps the most important means of ensuring good physical communication. But each team member can often find ways to improve physical communication by anticipating the needs of the other team members. For example, by drafting the original in clear Japanese, the writer can enhance the effectiveness of all downstream members on the team, not just the translator. Or, before sending the draft to the translator, the coordinator should read through the draft just to make sure it is clear and free of any mistakes. When possible, the coordinator can shorten the turnaround by noting the official translations of names and other proper nouns. A translator should draw the checker's attention to problem points by highlighting the relevant text and, when advisable, prepare a reference glossary for the checker and other team members. Likewise, the coordinator can anticipate any problems the translator might encounter by proofreading the draft before sending it, correcting errors, clarifying ambiguities and providing relevant reference material. This is the nature of teamwork. It makes it possible to get the job done better, faster and more easily for everyone involved.

Psychological Communication: If a checker disagrees with a translator on some point, they should confer in order to find a solution based on objective, rational grounds. Problems which arise in translation are ultimately technical and therefore must be solved through a rational approach based on logic and evidence. The use of dogmatic compulsion or incivility undermines this rational, evidence-based method of solving problems and damages the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the team and the quality of the final product. The members of successful teams strive to improve their personal and communication skills just as they strive to improve their technical skills.

Improving Psychological Communication: Modes of communication reflect more than personal skills. Experts in organizational psychology and business ethics have shown that incivility and sarcasm contribute to the degradation of work quality, the flight of good employees and the erosion of business profit. In recent decades, doctrines such as that of Ayn Rand have become fashionable, particularly in the financial industry. These ideas rationalize what is essentially psychopathic behavior. They have contributed to a cynical contempt for customers, the public interest, a monotonous train of financial crises and the most precipitous destruction of trust in the financial industry seen in generations. If you believe incivility or unethical behavior may be hurting your organization's bottom line or the effectiveness of your work team, you may wish to have your staff read the following: Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, by Paul Babiak, PhD et al, Moral Intelligence 2.0: Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success in Turbulent Times, by Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel, Ph.D.; Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.; Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, by Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.; How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie; Surviving Job Stress: How to Overcome Workday Pressures by John B. Arden, Ph.D.; Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, M.D., Ph.D.; The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and The Enchiridion of Epictetus. (A very good modern rendition of Enchiridion is Sharon Lebell's translation, The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness (HarperCollins, 1994).)