Words Make Worlds And Make Teams Perform
Changing the language we use can radically move the needle on team performance
Words Make Worlds
I’ve covered the importance of language in an earlier post here and want to revisit the theme because we undervalue it in business as a simple, free resource that can significantly reduce the hidden costs of misalignment, miscommunication and unresolved conflict in teams.
By changing our words we can change our outcome1 and who wouldn’t want to do that in the current business climate?
Language shapes how we represent an idea, event or action to ourselves and others.
Language shapes our thoughts, influences our behaviours, and affects how we connect with others.
We only have to consider how the words on a page of fiction conjure images in our minds and trigger our feelings as we follow the twists and turns of a plot from page to page.
Yet human language is imprecise2.
The Structure and Magic of Human Language
In linguistics, we speak of the surface structure - the sounds, words, syllables, phrases and sentences used to express a thought - and the deeper structure is the underlying meaning of the sentence that we wish to communicate.
The same meaning (deeper structure) can be expressed using different surface structures. For example:
‘John hits Frederick’ (deep structure)
‘John hit Frederick’ or ‘John was hitting Frederick ’ or ‘Frederick was hit by John’ (these are all valid surface structures that express the meaning of a single deeper structure)
Standard models of how the brain processes language usually ignore emotions. Similarly, theories in affective neuroscience focus on how people express their emotions but often overlook language processing
The evidence shows that emotions are stored in the brain as a mix of different sensory, motor, language, and feeling features.
Emotions also work with words and sentence structures in various parts of the brain at different times. This corresponds to the idea that different parts of the brain work together to understand language in real-time.3
By changing the surface structure of our patterns of language - our words and sentences - we can shift the impact of our communication on the thoughts and feelings of others and ourselves.4 This in turn can, with sufficient practice, shift the needle on a team’s performance.
Lessons From High-Performing Teams
Whilst it may be clichéd to seek out stories from the worlds of elite sport and military, they often provide visible results of the outcome of consistent, specific practices.
So let’s start there.
Example 1: Changing Surface Structure In Elite Sport
Consider the impact in a football match of a performance coach changing the label ‘substitutes’ to ‘finishers’.5 Whilst everyone will make their meaning from the word ‘substitute’, in most team sports it is defined as someone eligible to replace an on-field player.
The notion of ‘replacing’ someone can carry a disempowering and somewhat draining energy - intentionally or otherwise - that someone is being ‘replaced’ because they’re not performing as expected or required (e.g. they are injured, having an off day etc.).
When we make the simple switch from ‘substitute’ to ‘finisher’ then most people would sense the energy shift, particularly in a team sports context, that ‘finisher’ brings with it. To me - at least - it feels more direct, more active and more positive. It suggests achievement.6
As a term, ‘finisher’ works positively for both players and suggests an understanding that the player being replaced started that which needs to be finished. Leaving the field of play seems to have fewer negative connotations.
Example 2: Changing Surface Structure In Elite Military
The story of the performance turnaround of the fast attack nuclear submarine, USS Santa Fe is documented in the book ‘Turn The Ship Around’ by L. David Marquet.
A key example is the adoption of the surface structure phrase, ‘I intend to…’ as a way of pre-framing an action or a plan and receiving confirmation that it was OK to execute the action or plan. Rather than an apparent, simple trick with language, this simple shift impacted task ownership to those most able to execute it and get the job done as required.
Similar examples can be found elsewhere in the military such as the US Navy’s Blue Angels aviator’s surface structure ‘Glad to be here’ which is a common and unambiguous way for team members to affirm and embody a high-performance mindset and express gratitude for being part of the wider US Navy organisation
Example 3: Surface Structures In The Practice of Aikido
The word ‘osu’ (often pronounced ‘oss’) is considered to be a contraction of the Japanese words ‘Oshi’ which translates as ‘push’ and ‘Shinobi’ which means ‘to endure’.7
Dojō etiquette, certainly where we practice, encourages the frequent use of the word ‘osu’ to remind students of Aikido to persevere with their training at times when things are difficult, when failure is common and when physical, mental and spiritual strength seems to have deserted us.
‘Osu’ is often heard after instructors have demonstrated the technique to be learned or after feedback has been delivered on our progress whilst being taught or following a grading however direct and harsh it may feel at times.
The words of our Aikido’s founder remind us that:
“The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.” ~ Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido
A loud, embodied shout of ‘osu’ helps us to refocus our efforts, train more efficiently by minimising small talk and remain in a positive state for the remainder of our time on the mat.
Because ‘osu’ is a universal term in our dojō, the impact of its use extends beyond helping to raise the performance of the individual to raise everyone’s level of Aikido.
Everyone’s interpretation of the word ‘osu’ will be different. What matters is that there is a collective consensus that it is a useful convention that helps build cohesion and collaboration where people learn how to work together better.
The power of a single, three-letter word can be surprising!
The Choice Is Yours To Make
The costs of misalignment, miscommunication and unresolved conflict are estimated to be in the region of £200,000 ($258,000 or €237,000) per annum for a 50-person business.
When unpacking how we arrive at that number with clients, they often tell us we are undercooking those estimates.8
Making an impact can be as simple as changing our language patterns and converging on a consensus as to what specific language patterns mean and embedding them.
The link between sports and business has always been interesting. Many believe that what makes people successful in sports can also work in business. However, businesses often struggle to use these lessons effectively.
Applying sports principles to business can be tricky because sports have their own nuanced emotional, social, and ethical aspects. To use these lessons in business, we need to be careful and thoughtful.
The question for any team in business is whether it is willing to invest the time, money and effort to make relatively simple changes to reap the rewards available.
If you are ever in any doubt about this, come to our Aikido dojō and witness how your everyday language can impact your ability to perform the simplest of tasks well.
As I wrote this it made me wonder if other species that we share on the planet experience the imprecision of language too and with what consequences. Gary Larson has anthropomorphised this to great effect in his hilarious The Far Side cartoons.
Hinojosa, J. A., Moreno, E. M., & Ferré, P. (2019). Affective neurolinguistics: towards a framework for reconciling language and emotion. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 35(7), 813–839. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957
Emotions are typically defined as biologically based responses to stimuli or situations, which are experienced as coordinated patterns of physical changes and subjective feelings. By contrast, feelings are the conscious experiences of emotional reactions, which can include physical sensations, thoughts, and perceptions.
Source: Analysing Ollie Watkins’s strike: a wonder goal in nine acts by Jonathan Norcroft, The Times, 13th July 2024 [link]
I accept everyone will make their own unique meaning. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has a view that is diametrically opposite to the one suggested here.
This is one of three theories on the origin of the word https://www.karatebyjesse.com/meaning-oss-osu-japanese/
As a recovering management consultant, the habit of unnecessarily conflating figures to induce the flow of epinephrine to drive a ‘fight-flight’ response in client nervous systems is a habit I have been happy to dispense with.