Language is important for so many reasons, it’s how we communicate and understand one another and our world. When teams don’t use a common vocabulary at the very least there will be misunderstandings, at worst it can build walls that can result in siloed behaviors.
The benefits of a common language
Common language can be helpful in creating cohesive and clear organizational cultures. Much like the languages we learn to speak as children, common language at work helps drive understanding and engagement.
Most companies have a common language they speak, as do industries, that’s why it usually takes a bit for new employees to ‘get’ things. If you’ve ever been in a doctor’s office, or in an organization that uses what is at times termed “acronym soup“ to communicate you’ve seen common language at work. It can be daunting to an outsider but those that speak it are able to understand a lot in a small amount of time.
Common language brings speed to understanding
It happened to Shayne and I last night when talking about our expectations for what to do with the content on our website. He used the word ‘release’, like a developer would, to explain that it would be live on the website. My marketer brain took ‘release’ as if there’d be a campaign involved. Granted, marketers don’t tend to use ‘release’ but my brain immediately went into ‘no’ mode, we weren’t ready for that. Release sounded so involved. He sensed my apprehension and we started to talk through what the word means to him in the tech world, and how I took it from my perspective. We decided we’d sit down and align our thinking around phases of work and come to an agreement on what words we’d use.
We are fortunate that we both speak a lot of the same business language to start, so we worked through our initial misunderstanding fairly quickly, and sped toward fixing the issue and defining our language. We’ve just begun working together, so this will crop up as we develop our working life together. We’ll need to watch out for each other as a team to make sure we are aligned and fully ready to define or clarify constantly. We are building our business language day by day.
It improves team cohesion
I worked with a team once that used all manner of different words to explain components of work, and it made it extremely confusing and downright frustrating to approach user needs, train and set any kind of work in motion for development. ‘Navigation’ to some was a ‘menu’ to others. As a word nerd and person who tries to drive transparency, it hurt so much to see this happen. There were major disconnects between teams on what work needed to be done simply because they didn’t understand what the other needed, and development wasted time on the incorrect effort based on their understanding.
One of our key values is integrity, so in the end I had to disengage from that team. I wasn’t going to push ideas and help upon them without consent, in the end I felt like I was wasting their money because they didn’t have the appetite for the change needed, and the system wasn’t setup in a way they could change. To me, it was one of the key issues the team had, and a fairly easy one to start addressing to knit the team back together.
This issue of common language affected every part of the team, from the individual in charge of search, to product, to development. Getting the team to speak the same language would have broken down the silos that existed.
It breeds trust
Trust is currency in all aspects of life. And when communication between management and staff, or from team to team or departments gets foggy, it can stall productivity. Consider this in a military or medical field. A lot of Amy Edmondson’s work, has to do with the dynamic of fractured relationships between the nurse and the doctor i.e. the medical team that all has trust that their input is needed and valued, makes fewer mistakes, or the military officer who takes input from the people with real battlefield experience tends to do better.
By adopting and adhering to a collectively understood language, you're enhancing comprehension, comprehension fuels trust and efficiency. A powerful example of this is Dr. Lara Boroditsky’s work on how language shapes thought.
How to establish or introduce common language
Introducing common language to an organization takes time and effort, and doing so should be planned out and thoughtfully considered.
The key is to understand what, if any, common language is actually needed. Maybe you don’t need an acronym for everything, just a way to explain how work flows from say, in draft to release, or an approach to business like “flexible hours”.
Once it’s identified that it’s needed, introducing common language can be done by
Being clear on the need that’s being met. What are you trying to explain?
Explaining the benefits of common language - speed to understanding is one of the most important benefits.
Helping people to use and explore the common language
If possible, lean on industry standard words so interactions with agencies and new employees isn’t daunting
Ensuring leadership use the language to evangelize it through the organization
Ensuring that leaders all respond in the appropriate way to the common language when it is used around them
Including this common language in your communications
Including the common language into cultural artifacts like ways of working, team charters, agreements, or contracts.
Being open to revisiting language. All languages evolve, industry terms shift, keeping open to change is key to staying on top of the markets your organization is operating in
The goal is to have the language become native to the organization, but it’s vital to make sure it’s not over-engineered. You want enough to get understanding and work done, but not so much that an outsider spends months figuring out what people are talking about. It’s already hard enough to start a new job without having to learn an entire language. Doctors, lawyers, etc. all go to school to learn the language of their craft.
Without common language it is much, much more difficult to get to a shared understanding. And like the client that didn’t have a grasp as a team on usage, it is very easy for assumptions to be made and messages to be interpreted in ways they are not meant. Common language can help to carve away some of these misunderstandings and help teams communicate and deliver effectively together.
If you’d like help to establish or talk through common language issues with your team, we’d be more than happy to help. Please contact us with questions.
We’d also really love to hear how your team has established a common language, if you’d be willing to share. We want to build a community of continuous improvement and learning, and would love your help in understanding more ways to tackle these important needs for business and life.
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