[Dalya’s Note: This blog post was written by Rik Klingle-Watt. Rik Klingle-Watt is creative director at institute B, a high performance accelerator and consultant for businesses that put profit and societal value on equal footing.]
Crush the competition. Bury the hatchet. Killing two birds with one stone. 20th century business language appears to be chock full of war and hyper-competitive sports metaphors. Which when used to motivate team members, ironically, can cause more harm than good.
Recently, institute B, a high-performance accelerator and consultant for social impact benefit corporations was chosen to launch the first in a series of conversations around North America to delve into the everyday terms we hear and use, and what we may want to be saying if we really intend to create a sustainable society.
Initiated by B Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems, the evening saw over 30 entrepreneurs take part including several B Corps and many companies working in the sustainability space.
It began with institute B partner Manfred Vollmer interviewing Dermot Hikisch of B Lab on the changing language of business. Dermot explained how metaphors are self-fulfilling prophecies and that the words we use pre-determine the mindsets we go into business with, and the results we see as the outputs.
He went on to discuss that after personally experiencing a series of communications gone awry at B Lab, from misinterpreted email exchanges, to overly aggressive management by staff, ‘protecting their territories’, whether the roots of business language used today aren’t suitable for what we’re trying to achieve.
“Our business culture needs to move past these terms that convey conflict, and assume a predominately male sensibility. We need to develop a new lexicon that is much more inclusive and much less hostile.” From- Calling a Time Out on Sports and War Metaphors
After grounding everyone in the motivation to dive deeper into this ignored issue, attendees gathered together to share ideas on what works, what doesn’t, and whether the language we currently use everyday could be changed.
With War and Sports metaphors so engrained in our psyche, many of the entrepreneurs felt removing them outright may limit our ability to motivate and properly convey what we are trying to communicate. However, there was agreement among all participants that the spirit of business a company chose to operate under drove many of the terms then used in the workplace.
Rather surprisingly, participants brainstormed a significant number of more constructive terms than negative, even though the majority of attendees recognized that they were using 20th Century terms more often, and for some, almost exclusively.
Overall, participants were excited by the dialogue, which heightened awareness for creating a positive impact through our words. With so many tired terms deeply rooted in the business world, a change like this won’t happen overnight. However, if we can make the change, having what we say turn into a self-filling prophecy will be a wonderful thing.
Examples of 20th Century Destructive Business Language
“Crushing the competition”
“Deadline”
“Execution”
“Guerilla Marketing”
“Killing two birds with one stone”
“Pain point”
“Take no prisoners”
“Ground Zero”
“Bury the hatchet”
“Embarking on a campaign”
“Unsuspecting target”
“Headhunters”
Examples of 21st Century Constructive Business Language
“Rowing in the same direction”
“Low hanging fruit”
“Cross Pollination”
“Enrollment”
“Engagement”
“Eco-system”
“Building”
“Harvest”
“Hosting”
“Nurture”
Changing the Language of Business dialogues will continue in the coming months at the Hub, SVN Spring Conference, Business4Better, Sustainable Brands, and online via twitter at #talkBB or visit www.talkbetterbusiness.com
Watch the highlight video here:
http://www.instituteb.com/index.php/thinkslashbe/metaphors-are-self-fulfilling-prophecies
So true! Words are so important for getting the message out. Phrases like “rallying the troops” and “reading the riot act” came to mind as I read this article. As we add more love to businesses, our language will reflect it and show our connectedness, as in “we’re all in this together.”
Hmm … two comments:
I don’t agree that sports and war deserve to be lumped together. Outside of big-money professional sports and corrupted school sports, competition in sports typically happens between friends who “crush the competition” on the field and have beers together afterwards.
Linguistically, I don’t want to replace one set of buzz words and stock phrases with another set! Ultimately “ecosystem” and “low-hanging fruit” and “enrollment” and “engagement” are as anti-social as “pain point” and “take no prisoners.” All of them are words people hide behind and barriers to open communication.
Thanks for your points, Barbara! I wonder what others think…