It’s amazing how in business, so many words are completely misused.
When I say, “misused”, I mean, when what people say is 180-degrees opposite of what they actually do in practice.
For example, when a company that’s normally drowning in needless internal politics, suddenly starts inserting the phrase “transparency” in every email that leaves the building.
Or using the word “passionate” as one of your company’s core values, even if walking around your office gives you the same feeling you get when entering a morgue.
Or in the case of the cartoon above, using the words “Talk” and “Communicate” as commands, and not as sincere requests.
Yes, there’s always going to be gaps between what we say, what we mean, and what we actually end up doing. We’re only human, after all.
But if you can help your organization to use language more directly, more mindfully, you can create a lot of value quickly and relatively painlessly.
