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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

get everybody on board

English answer:

to assure, first, that everyone knows what the purpose of the program is and, secondly,...

Added to glossary by Nadia Ayoub
Dec 5, 2009 21:41
14 yrs ago
27 viewers *
English term

get everybody on board

English Social Sciences Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
Educator teams are likely to be composed of people who have not previously worked together. They may have collaborated before but are likely to come from different organizations or backgrounds. So early, intensive work is required to get everybody on board.
Responses
4 +6 to assure, first, that everyone knows what the purpose of the program is and, secondly,...
4 +3 convince everyone of your idea and get them involved
3 enlist the participation of everyone
2 understanding
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

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Discussion

Nadia Ayoub (asker) Dec 6, 2009:
Thank you Bernhard, Kimberlee, Travelin Ann, Mirra, Veronika, Robert, Jack, Fourth, and Laurie, and sorry to have caused all this trouble!
Kimberlee Thorne Dec 6, 2009:
another possibility - persuade/use persuasion After so many debates on my suggestion, I've come up with another option that may be a little closer to what you're looking for. "persuade or use persuasion" to get people to join in on your idea or project, thus "getting everybody on board" (on the same ship). Hope this helps! Kimberlee
Bernhard Sulzer Dec 6, 2009:
@Nadia Thank you, Nadia. It seems that the elements of "getting everybody on board (becoming a member of the team)" are listed in the four points on the bottom of that page, among them getting everybody to 'have an understanding of the programme mandate and objectives, of the styles of the team members, a commitment to assisting each other, and clarity about general administration and organizational procedures.' An understanding of the program strategy is also mentioned earlier as a requirement. I believe all that goes into having a member "on board." The point is being made that this team is diverse, has different skills etc. and I believe team members will use various approaches to achieve the educational goal and not 'one approach', as I argued earlier. The word "exercise" is misspelled (exercize) in that document.
Nadia Ayoub (asker) Dec 6, 2009:
This is the whole site: http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/ve/veg/veg01/veg01c/veg0...
British Diana Dec 6, 2009:
KudoZ rules @ Travelin Ann
Next time you look at the rules, please note that after :
3.4 "The only acceptible means of commenting on another's answer is by using the peer comment feature."
the next rules are:
3.5 "Peer comments must be purely linguistic."
3.6 "No attempt may be made to influence others' decisions."
3.7 "Commentary on askers or answers, and their postings or decisions to post, is not allowed."

Making comments on a contributor's apparent need to parade his ego is definitely not acceptible.
Bernhard Sulzer Dec 6, 2009:
@Travelin Ann I just wanted your input with respect to your answer. Do you understand your "enlisting the participation of everybody" as participation of everybody in and execution of one approach, maybe similar to my paraphrasing: "complete agreement of all participants regarding the execution of certain tasks with respect to a common objective." I believe any discussion here (even if it's long) can help the asker.
Travelin Ann Dec 6, 2009:
@Bernhard You obviously are aware that there is a limit of 100 characters for a suggested interpretation, which is why you chose to write a long discussion paragraph, instead of an answer. We are here - in theory - to help the Asker, not to parade egos.
Bernhard Sulzer Dec 6, 2009:
@Nadia and all participants It seems we're not quite clear on what"on board" is supposed to mean in this context. One entry suggests it means to get/enlist people's participation and defines it as "making sure everybody understands the purpose of the project"; this would, as Robert comments, still be a rather minimalistic interpretation. I believe "on board" mostly means "complete agreement of all participants regarding the execution of certain tasks with respect to a common objective." Mere participation does not guarantee that the team will succeed, even if all know the purpose. If everybody just does what they think is best, it is very unlikely that this could be called a team effort or that everybody is "on board" or "on the same page." I think the "enlisting and participating" is not the problem but, as the excerpt states, that "they come from different organizations or backgrounds." That means getting everyone to agree on one approach is the problem. That requires an understanding of the purpose but also a willingness/commitment to a certain approach and to follow through on it.
Any more context, Nadia?
Mirra_ Dec 6, 2009:
--> Interestingly (last and sorry if you find this boring :) in Italian we have another similar expression 'stare nella stessa barca' (being on the same boat) but it is used only to describe the fact that two or more people face the same hostile/hard/challenging situations. In *this* case, i.e. a negative/dangerous case, the expression also implies a sort of reciprocal moral support among the people involved...

it's curious isn't it? :o)

goodnight and, again, thank you
Mirra_ Dec 6, 2009:
thank you very much for explaining (and for the participaction note :)

The point is that in Italian too there is this expression 'essere (tutti) a bordo" but it implies doing together the same thing, not necessarily (and really) sharing the same convincement.
Seamen collaborate to bring the boat to the same (of course ;) place but they can do it for money, for adventure, for escaping home problems... So the motivational part is not so intrinsic to its figurative origin. And both languages refer to the same image.
Neverthless the committment you use to underlie the importance of convincement phase could hardly be applied to its Italian counterpart (at least, this is my perception about it).

So I suspect that this difference, if it really exists (sorry but I really can't feel it so I still have problems to accept it), could be linked with psychosociological/cultural reasons more than with simple linguistic peculiarities.

I guess that it could deal with a different perception of the undertaking of social responsabilities... :)

-->
Veronika McLaren Dec 5, 2009:
and then they invented "participaction"...
Robert Forstag Dec 5, 2009:
The idea of assuring that... ...all concerned are in agreement regarding aims is an inherent part of the concept of "being on board."
Mirra_ Dec 5, 2009:
interesting... to me it just means collaborate/share the same aim/cooperate.
Instead, everybody here seems compelled to stress that this collaboration phase necessarily follows a convincement phase.
Googling gives ambigous results.
So, I wonder: is this convincement phase really included in the concept of '... on board'?
Or,
ethical localization differences push all these Answerers and these Discussion partecipants to feel that this phase has to be stressed because it is really an unforgettable element in 'getting everybody on board'?
otherwise said
To you, is ethically unconceivable to think that one can appear to be on board even if not convinced, or, this convincement really is semanthically part of the process of 'gettin on board'?
I mean people can 'get on board' even if they're not really convinced. They can have other reasons why partecipate, even opportunistic/selfish reasons that won't ever be disclosed, can't they? But still they can appear/be 'on board' as everyone else.

So, resuming my post, is everybody sure that this convincement phase is really included in the expression 'get everybody on board'?

tnx :)
Jack Doughty Dec 5, 2009:
Or "singing from the same hymn sheet" That's a common form of the expression.
Jack Dunwell Dec 5, 2009:
Hymn Sheet We say "On the same hymn sheet"
Nadia Ayoub (asker) Dec 5, 2009:
Yes now it's clear thanks to all of you!
Laurie Price Dec 5, 2009:
the definition perhaps? Similar to "getting everyone on the same page" -- getting everyone to the same level of understanding or to where they share common reference points from which they'll go on to make some sort of decisions, etc.
Laurie Price Dec 5, 2009:
not sure what you're asking for here -- 'Getting everybody on board' is widely used in human resources & social science texts and in verbal expression --

Responses

+6
4 mins
Selected

to assure, first, that everyone knows what the purpose of the program is and, secondly,...

...that participants are willing to work in accordance with said purpose.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 mins (2009-12-05 21:47:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or, more clearly:

to assure, first, that participants know what the purpose of the program is and, secondly, that they are willing to act in accordance with this purpose.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : Working together towards the same goal.
54 mins
Exactly. Thank you, Tina.
agree Veronika McLaren : getting everyone to the same level of understanding the goal
1 hr
Thank you, Veronika.
agree Bernhard Sulzer : or to "ensure" that... (my pref.) I tend to use assure more for "to assure somebody of something" / I think Nadia's additional context confirms your explanation. Your word "purpose" could be replaced with "objectives."
2 hrs
Thank you, Bernhard.
disagree Travelin Ann : too many assumptions in your definition////the "and, secondly" portion is not there in the source question. Or for that matter, "first" is not there either.
3 hrs
In terms of what "being on board" *ideally* would mean, I think I've provided a comprehensive definition. You have provided a somewhat more minimal definition. We have no way of knowing what the intent is on the part of the speaker in Asker's example....
agree British Diana : O.K., it's a bit long, but it's the meaning here, I'm sure.
15 hrs
It is long, but I think each of the ideas I mentioned are implicit in the meaning of the term--at least in the ideal sense. Thank you, British Di.... :)
agree Alexandra Taggart : "get involved" - that would be enough
17 hrs
Thank you, Alex.
agree kmtext : Everyone understands what's expected of them and gives their full support.
19 hrs
Right. *Ideally*, this is what it would mean. More minimally, it might mean that there is a tacit agreement to not express dissent and to promote whatever the stated agenda happens to be. Thank you, KM.
agree Rolf Keiser
20 hrs
Thanks, Gold.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks Robert!"
11 mins

understanding

This seems to me a bit of a can of worms.
It might be "agreed" , "concentrated", "informed" "beaten over the head" etc.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Travelin Ann : -
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
24 mins

convince everyone of your idea and get them involved

It means that you convince everyone of your idea, and further, get them involved in the process.
Reference:

http://www.downes.ca/post/10

http://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:es-AR:official&q=%22get+everybody+on+board%22++idiom+definition&start

Peer comment(s):
agree Polangmar
1 hr
agree John Detre : this comes closest to my sense of what "on board" means, securing people's agreement, support and participation
5 hrs
agree Liam Hamilton
10 hrs
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

enlist the participation of everyone

by making sure that everyone involved is "on the same page" - understands the purpose of the project
Peer comment(s):
neutral Bernhard Sulzer : please see my discussion entry.
2 hrs
Something went wrong...
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