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What’s behind the name Babel Fish Group?

Posted by Andrew 28 March 2007

You might be wondering what’s behind the name Babel Fish Group? With this being the very first blog post, I thought I would share the story of our name Babel Fish Group.

Sitting in our living room, my wife and I were discussing what would our new company be all about. What kinds of things would we stand for. And, of course, what name would we choose for our new venture. With us believing strongly that ‘the way we talk can change the way we work’ and also that the skills which make facilitators successful can make us all more successful, we started to brainstorm some name ideas. Finally it surfaced. From our worldwide survey of facilitators conducted last year, we asked facilitators to describe a metaphor which in some ways embodies what they do in their facilitation practice. Some of the responses were: Conductor, Chameleon, Dictator(!?!), Yeast, and… The Babel Fish.

Sitting there, we looked at each other and immediately thought what a great name! The Babel Fish had many layers of meaning for us. Babel or the Tower of Babel is the biblical story for why there is language diversity in the world. And of course, The Babel Fish, apart from being a prominent metaphor describing facilitator style, is also a fictional species of fish in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, that can instantly translate any language to any other language. With this name we could see the link, and the light to what we stood for. Ways to creating understanding in the workplace. Ways to work and explore culture and values within organisations. Ways to bring people together effectively in achieving outcomes and change. I guess you could say we’ve chosen the Babel Fish as our facilitative mascot.
So, there you have it. That’s the story of Babel Fish Group.

2 Responses to “What’s behind the name Babel Fish Group?”

1. Keith De La Rue Says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 7:21 am

   Andrew –

   Bravo! Congrats on the new blog – and I love the name. (LinkedIn let me know that your site was up – good timing…) When I worked in telecoms consulting, I always described my role as “translator”. In facilitation, I usually set the scene by reminding people that to facilitate means to make something easy. (Then there is always David Snowden’s nod to another author – Larry Niven’s “Speaker to animals”.)

   All the best with the new venture.

2. Andrew Says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

   Thanks Keith!

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