The Value of Being Able to "Wing It" in International Communications
The practicing official was a nervous wreck. Shaking hard enough that scribbling down his own name on the form was difficult. His scorers, standing right behind him to watch his every move, kept interrupting the simulation to point out which steps he forgot to take and which fields on the forms he forgot to fill. Such interruptions only made the official even more nervous. He stuttered through his scripted lines to the foreign "athlete" and made more mistakes when filling out the "athlete's" personal information. Correcting those mistakes meant filling out more revision forms, which created more opportunities to make mistakes.
The setting is a training session for officiating personnel for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The middle-aged men (yes, they are overwhelmingly men) in matching black suits are running around a bunch of Japanese and foreign youths hired to stand in as "athletes" attending the event. The men in suits are supposed to conduct interviews, doping tests, and various other events-related procedures that require trained officials to perform. These officials are, to state simply, on the frontline of international sports' continued battles with unsportsmanlike behaviors both on and off the field.
But at least in their training sessions, the officials do not inspire too much confidence in their abilities to rein in potential cheaters of every kind from across the world in the summer of 2020. Many officials simply could not hide their newness to the profession, forgetting too many steps that are absolutely crucial to ensuring athletes follow proper procedures or fairness in competition processes and results. Indeed, many of the officials are struggling enough to deliver instructions to the "athletes" from an obviously memorized script, that they potentially have little energy left to carefully monitor the athletes' behaviors.
An even bigger worry is the training sessions' overemphasis on adhering to a set procedure and a set script for every possible circumstance. As the test subjects, the athlete stand-ins are of course given scripts as well, on what to do, what to say, and where to go at every step. Going off script, both intentionally and unintentionally, led to the training officials and their scorers frozen in place, as they mentally search for what to do instead of following their own script to the next step. Asking extra questions not given on the script gets the "athlete" a polite prodding from the scorer to "follow the script."
The almost-religious adherence to the scripts given, both on the side of the "athletes" and the officials, make the whole exercise more of a lesson in following directions rather than thinking about handling a real-world situation to obtain a real result. Unless in the stand-ins in the training sessions, the real athletes of the Olympics are bound to have more questions, behave more erratically, and face many more situations that stand-ins can neither think of or be allowed to express realistically. Training scripts are not going to be very useful for the officials handling such "irregularities."
And if the officials are already nervous now, struggling to remember the many dozens of steps to do and things to say to complete the required procedures, imagine how they would feel if the real athletes refuse to cooperate calmly and methodologically as the stand-ins are told to do during the training sessions. Many will potentially snap and be incapacitated from doing their jobs, as their questionable mental strengths are just not sufficient enough to get them through so many possible conflicts they would have with athletes who are confused by the whole processes.
A much better training method would be a much more ad hoc one, one that relies not so much on what script designers think people are supposed to say, but what athletes, with zero knowledge of the procedures, would naturally and organically react to the officials' requests to go with them to complete some procedures. The ensuing confusion of the athletes, manifested in excessive questioning and desire to skip over some steps, may provide officials with much more circumstances that they would have to work with and overcome during the actual Olympics.
Switching to such ad hoc practice sessions will be difficult in Japan, where rules for everything from fashion to business manners, dictate how work is conducted. For rules to exist, a standard way of behavior, on the part of everyone involved, must first exist as the premise. Of course, many foreign athletes, competing in Japan for the first time in their professional careers, would not care to follow whatever codes of behavior that Japanese people have in mind. The faster that Japanese officials and their trainers realize this fact and work with it, the faster that they will be mentally prepared with all the uncertainties of conducting the Olympics.
The setting is a training session for officiating personnel for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The middle-aged men (yes, they are overwhelmingly men) in matching black suits are running around a bunch of Japanese and foreign youths hired to stand in as "athletes" attending the event. The men in suits are supposed to conduct interviews, doping tests, and various other events-related procedures that require trained officials to perform. These officials are, to state simply, on the frontline of international sports' continued battles with unsportsmanlike behaviors both on and off the field.
But at least in their training sessions, the officials do not inspire too much confidence in their abilities to rein in potential cheaters of every kind from across the world in the summer of 2020. Many officials simply could not hide their newness to the profession, forgetting too many steps that are absolutely crucial to ensuring athletes follow proper procedures or fairness in competition processes and results. Indeed, many of the officials are struggling enough to deliver instructions to the "athletes" from an obviously memorized script, that they potentially have little energy left to carefully monitor the athletes' behaviors.
An even bigger worry is the training sessions' overemphasis on adhering to a set procedure and a set script for every possible circumstance. As the test subjects, the athlete stand-ins are of course given scripts as well, on what to do, what to say, and where to go at every step. Going off script, both intentionally and unintentionally, led to the training officials and their scorers frozen in place, as they mentally search for what to do instead of following their own script to the next step. Asking extra questions not given on the script gets the "athlete" a polite prodding from the scorer to "follow the script."
The almost-religious adherence to the scripts given, both on the side of the "athletes" and the officials, make the whole exercise more of a lesson in following directions rather than thinking about handling a real-world situation to obtain a real result. Unless in the stand-ins in the training sessions, the real athletes of the Olympics are bound to have more questions, behave more erratically, and face many more situations that stand-ins can neither think of or be allowed to express realistically. Training scripts are not going to be very useful for the officials handling such "irregularities."
And if the officials are already nervous now, struggling to remember the many dozens of steps to do and things to say to complete the required procedures, imagine how they would feel if the real athletes refuse to cooperate calmly and methodologically as the stand-ins are told to do during the training sessions. Many will potentially snap and be incapacitated from doing their jobs, as their questionable mental strengths are just not sufficient enough to get them through so many possible conflicts they would have with athletes who are confused by the whole processes.
A much better training method would be a much more ad hoc one, one that relies not so much on what script designers think people are supposed to say, but what athletes, with zero knowledge of the procedures, would naturally and organically react to the officials' requests to go with them to complete some procedures. The ensuing confusion of the athletes, manifested in excessive questioning and desire to skip over some steps, may provide officials with much more circumstances that they would have to work with and overcome during the actual Olympics.
Switching to such ad hoc practice sessions will be difficult in Japan, where rules for everything from fashion to business manners, dictate how work is conducted. For rules to exist, a standard way of behavior, on the part of everyone involved, must first exist as the premise. Of course, many foreign athletes, competing in Japan for the first time in their professional careers, would not care to follow whatever codes of behavior that Japanese people have in mind. The faster that Japanese officials and their trainers realize this fact and work with it, the faster that they will be mentally prepared with all the uncertainties of conducting the Olympics.
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