Changing the Language of Business
Recently B Lab and institute B convened a group of entrepreneurs and local B Corporations in a dialogue around business language. Over 30 entrepreneurs showed up 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.
Changing the Language of Business Conversation
Submitted by Dermot Hikisch, Head of Community Development, B Lab
“Metaphors are self-fulfilling prophecies” - George Lakoff
After experiencing a series of communications gone awry at B Lab, from misinterpreted email exchanges, to overly aggressive management by staff, ‘protecting their territories’, I’ve started wondering if the roots of business language used today aren’t suitable for what we’re trying to achieve. 20th century business language appears to be chock full of war and hyper-competitive sports metaphors. Which when used to motivate team members, ironically, cause more harm than good.
“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
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.
“Should it be wrong to want to score a goal? If you take the goals away, can you still call the game soccer?” Jason Robinson, Sustainability TV, referring to the challenges of changing things too dramatically while intending to maximize inclusivity.
“There are positive aspects of sports we can use –at the end of the day we’re running a business. We need to maintain a certain level of energy and enthusiasm so people can makes sales, ‘close’ deals, etc. It’s going to be hard to convey and inspire that energy by removing war/sports metaphors”- Sarah White, Fairware
Sarah and Jason made great points, and in the case of sports metaphors, not all of them are necessarily destructive. It really comes down to linking our language to our core values and the various perspectives that people can read into what we say.
“Think of your values before you think of your metaphors. For instance, establish RESPECT as a core company value, and build your metaphors from there.” - Peter Kubiuk, KNM
Working externally with other organizations also needed further consideration. In particular being sure you meet your clients “where they’re at”, or close to it.
“By using language that moves towards positivity but is close enough to their existing worldview, it can be understood. For instance, let’s think of our metaphor choice as being on a stream, depending on who you’re working with, you’ll need to meet them where they’re at. For instance, if they’re using war metaphors, use sports; sports metaphors, use family; family metaphors, use environment” - Matt Mayer, Conscious Brands
And it wasn’t just our words that get under people’s skin.
“It’s not just what’s said, but how people say it. Passive aggressive tones can really poison a workplace” – Ben Land, Exit West
People also noted the challenges of the language we used when thinking beyond our own organizations to other stakeholder groups, such as customers.
“I hate it when people talk about ‘locking in their customers’. Do you really think that’s what your customers want?” Aaron Vidas, institute B.
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. If we can make the change, having what we say turn into a self-filling prophecy will be a wonderful thing.
The Changing the Language of Business dialogues will continue with stops at the Hub San Francisco, SVN Spring Conference, Business4Better, Sustainable Brands, and online via twitter at #talkBB or visit www.talkbetterbusiness.com