In the recent few years, since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada provided their Calls to Action, as a resident in beautiful British Columbia, I’ve noticed that indigenous names of the cities we’re so familiar with appear alongside the colonized names – such as Ch’atlich for Sechelt and Salalus for Madera Park. Additionally, since the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light (yet again) challenges experienced by BIPOC people – such as anti-Asian hate, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the media portrayed the virus and the different names it was called by various media outlets and the former President of the United States and the impact it has had on Asian Canadians and Asian Americans. And so, I’ve been sitting with these thoughts – what’s in a name (China virus vs COVID19)? What is it about the way we interpret words (i.e. the Chinese caused the virus)? Why does the choice of language we use impact us as deeply as it does, and in more ways than one?
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
This quote stands out for me on two accounts:
On a personal level, as a someone who speaks 3 different languages and who understands 2 more, there is something of value and meaning when I speak with someone in a language they own. The flow of conversation is more fluid, there is an intuitive connection (whether its familiarity or apprehension) that gives me an instinctive knowing of the direction in which that conversation may be headed. It serves as a way to build trust and provides a platform to creating connections beyond the superficial conversations of the weather and work. Many a times, I lament that there are no words in the English language to translate some of the colloquial sayings in the other languages a I speak and understand, there are jokes, concepts, and connections that are all lost in translation. Language – it matters in every aspect of our lives – from family to friendships forged, to work and networks we create and lean on to help us thrive.
On a professional level, this quote speaks directly into the work we do at CGCL. We started out by naming our company Changing Gears Consulting Ltd. at a time when we were being asked to join projects that needed some serious pivoting for our clients’ projects to see the light of day. We figuratively were shifting gears or changing gears to move these projects forward at a pace and level of expertise that required direction, precision and ability to deliver on highly visible enterprise-wide projects – and it made sense – Changing Gears Consulting Ltd. was apt. But as we evolved as an organization, we started to consider our values and what we wanted to be known for. Indeed, we wanted to be known as the team that delivered on complex and challenging projects, but we also wanted to be known as the team that did things differently. We wanted more than precision and perfection; we wanted that human element to be our guiding compass. Hence was born our humanistic approach to leading complex projects. As we continued to support teams and organizations navigate the complexities of working in a time of COVID-19, we started to refer to ourselves as CGCL. We wanted to stand for something and use the abbreviation of Changing Gears Consulting Ltd. so that when people asked us what CGCL stood for, we could easily say – it stands for our philosophy – which is to:
- Care with integrity.
- Give with transparency.
- Create through enablement.
- Laugh with authenticity.
Language plays a role in everything we do. Adding a please and thank you dramatically changes the tone of a sentence from an order to a request. Defining parents to be dad and mom vs mom and mom or dad and dad changes the traditional belief of what a family is. Using preferred names and making an effort to pronounce them correctly helps build lasting connections with people. Designing processes and policies to suit the language of the audience it impacts helps create more engagement and user adoption – just see the impacts of how the initial vaccine marketing evolved to what is it now – more inclusive. Plain and simple – language matters. What we name our projects, how we market our projects, the choice of words the project sponsors and change sponsors use – all impact how successfully (or not) we bring our people along with us through the lifecycle of the project. The next time you work on a project, consider the name of the project and take a deeper dive into its name. Consider if the name is conveying the impact it will have on its end users. Consider the branding and identify if you have been inclusive of the end users (what’s in it for them) in the language you have used for communications, training and coaching. As resources, here are some amazing ways to make sure you’re improving the use of your choice of words and language.
- Effective use of language https://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/el.htm
- How language shapes the way we think https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think/transcript?language=en
- The importance of using inclusive language https://www.ted.com/talks/fahad_saeed_the_importance_of_using_inclusive_language
