“The Language of Business is Broken”
September 8, 2023

The #3 ranked CEO in the world, Bob Chapman, declared: “the language of business is broken” and I have to agree with him. And sadly, I don’t believe it to be exclusive to business. A change in focus around all communication feels long overdue.

Many of us experience miscommunication or misunderstandings each and every day, and these pretty-understandably lead to mistrust and disconnect. What they don’t lead to, is any focus on improving the language skills (or lack of them) that led to the issue in the first place. It seems crazy to me, that we do something which consistently causes us a challenge, and yet we take no steps to improve it - why is that?


On the whole, it’s because we have no idea. We genuinely don’t realise that we’re the problem, and instead simply assume it’s all the other person or people. Maybe they’re deliberately misunderstanding us, maybe it’s accidental, but if they would just… Does that sound familiar? 


I call the whole piece of work around bringing awareness to our own language, language hygiene, and it’s based on the premise that we don’t come into a communication clean, or neutral. Instead we have various biases and filters that can colour the messages we ‘receive’, and these need to be cleaned up in order to have an authentic and grounded communication. When we genuinely understand this, we can tailor and adapt our language to be appropriate and suitable for our conversing partner, meeting their needs and energy, and ensuring a win:win for everyone involved.


As well as our biases and filters, we also have a whole host of preferences, for example, a global person focuses on the big picture, while a specific person will zone-in-on the finer details. Typically, we’re all somewhere along the spectrum, but each individual will have a preference. If we don’t cater for these innate drives, the person we’re talking to is likely to feel the disconnect deeply.


Another really powerful filter is the level or density of information that you need to achieve a task. We generally consider this in four categories: why, what, how, and what if - and the true power here is in recognising where you are first, so that you can adapt to others. You may be a ‘how’ person, keen to know all of the core details and parameters, the function, the delivery. But if you’re speaking to big, big-picture ‘why’ people who just want to be inspired and who likely think more than a line in a brief is overboard, then you’re going to absolutely need to refine your pitch or briefing. And vice versa of course.


For further insight on all of this, please listen to the Progressing Lives Through Unlocking Effective Communication (4/4): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/progressing-lives-through-unlocking-effective-communication. 

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Mastering the Art of Corporate Storytelling

By Felicity Wingrove • August 13, 2024
Storytelling is certainly a powerful art - both in the creation of intentional stories released into the world to entertain, enthuse, or inspire, and in the internal dialogue which has evolved to keep each of us safe. But it also holds significant weight as an effective corporate communication tool… We recently shared our insights about the importance of determining your truth in amongst the truth when it comes to the tales we tell ourselves as a response to the world around us. But once this has been mastered, storytelling can help you to further connect and engage – whether at Board level or communicating with your entire workforce.

A Tale as Old as Time: Storytelling Myths We Tell Ourselves

By Felicity Wingrove • July 10, 2024
From early childhood we’re taught the ancient art of storytelling. We start with ‘once upon a time’ and end with ‘happily ever after’, and we carry on telling ourselves stories as we grow and step into the world around us. But they don’t always serve us well. And that’s in large part because we’re each so unique and we view the world through our own personal stained-glass window sunglasses. Each pane of glass has been shaped and coloured by our own lived experiences, the culture in which we were raised, and the many ‘truths’ we’ve been taught along the way. And these impact how we interpret, respond and react to the stories we’re told, and that we tell ourselves. We read into a person’s intent, decipher what they ‘really’ mean, or work to sense what’s coming next. It’s all perfectly natural and it’s ultimately how our brain has evolved to keep us safe, but it’s rarely the truth and very much more often our truth. Take a lunch with friends as an example. Imagine walking into the restaurant and seeing them all together over the other side of the room, laughing and having a great time. You walk towards them and as soon as they see you, they fall quiet and look a bit awkward. You could make that behaviour mean that they were talking about you, or that they were planning a surprise birthday party for you. Neither may be the whole truth but just think about how you’d act if you believed either of those stories, how your friends would respond, and how the end of that lunch might look and feel… So few of us realise that our inner narrative doesn’t come from a neutral place, instead, just like our stained-glass sunglasses, it’s moulded by our experiences, self-image, and personal filters. And this is ever-applicable in the corporate world too. Two individuals receiving the exact same email, can have wildly different interpretations, and that comes down to their filters and how they read or process it. When we assume the intent behind a message based on our inner storytelling narrative, it absolutely impacts our response to that message. Our reaction may be defensive, potentially leading to a negative exchange that may have been completely unnecessary in reality. So always pause. And bring conscious awareness to anything that a communication (regardless of its form) brings up for you, and then ask yourself if the messaging you took from it was the truth, or was it your truth?

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