The Dictionary of Lost Potential

Words matter. The ones we use; the ones we don’t use. What they mean; what they don’t mean. And everything in between.

They shape our lived experience. They shape our reality. More obviously, they shape our interactions, and allow us to communicate with each other. They connect us through love, laughter, sorrow and pain. They bind communities and tribes together. Knowledge and wisdom are passed on – and down – through generations. As Tom Stoppard puts it, they “can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos.”[1]

But they are not perfect. Used insensitively, they can cause great harm. Bigotry and discrimination cut deep. Words are neutral, people are not.

Nor are they static. Languages are dynamic, living things. They evolve. Yet language is often cited as a major barrier standing in the way of advancement towards greater equity, and away from discriminatory behaviour. A lack of confidence over what to say and how to approach sensitive topics with minority groups seemingly holds people back. Fears of saying or doing the wrong thing can paralyse even the most well-meaning of souls; stifling progress.

Author Pip Williams knows this all too well. Her book, The dictionary of lost words, captured so many aspects of the diversity debate in touching and glorious ways.

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, against a backdrop of the suffragette movement and the First World War, Williams depicts young Esme’s experience as a child and throughout early adulthood. Raised by a single father (Da) with the help of a maid called Lizzie, Esme is starved of decent childcare options and, in acquiescence to her natural curiosity, ends up spending all her time at her Da’s place of work – the Scriptorium – where Dr James Murray was leading a multi-decade long effort to define and capture the English language in all its glory.

However, she becomes fascinated with, and starts collecting, the overlooked words; the ones uttered by ‘commoners’ – usually women – at a local covered market. Here is Esme trying to persuade her maid to help protect these neglected words: “Dr Murray’s dictionary leaves things out, Lizzie. Sometimes a word, sometimes a meaning. If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t even get considered. Wouldn’t it be good if the words these women use were treated the same as any other.”

As an eventual assistant editor to Dr Murray’s dictionary, she is first-hand witness to the uneven role of men and women in producing and influencing what made it into the first cut. The white, privileged men presiding over the English language did their best, but had huge biases and blind spots. For example, the term suffragette and the progressive gender movement behind it was only just emerging as the first dictionaries went to print. Terms like bondmaid sadly didn’t make the cut, either.

Bondmaid

Bonded for life by love, devotion or obligation.

‘I’ve been a bondmaid to you since you were small, Essymay, and I’ve been glad for every day of it.’

-?Lizzie Lester, 1915

Since then, thankfully, many words that help us understand the plight of others and fight for greater equity have been added to our formal lexicon. However, many informal ones sit on the side-lines – waiting for formal approval, yet widely used and to great effect. Acceptance into the Urban dictionary is not the same thing; ricocheting around the public libraries, denied access to private parties.

Williams – a master at portraying several complex ideas at once without overburdening the reader – focuses her story on the injustice of the day, gender (and to a lesser degree class). But it is clear her intended message cuts much deeper, and wider.

“You once made an observation that some words were considered more important than others simply because they were written down. You were arguing that by default the words of educated men were more important than the words of uneducated classes, women among them. Do what you are good at my dear, Esme: keep considering the words we use and record. Once the question of women’s political suffrage has been dealt with, less obvious inequalities will need to be exposed.” - Ditte, (writing to Esme)

Ditte is an aunt-like figure to Esme who gives us a glimpse of this broader, more holistic diversity message.

Without wishing to give the end of the book away, Williams manages to neatly link to the suppression of different races and ethnicities through language. And in her author notes at the back, she refers to having a “troubled relationship with words and spelling” – perhaps inferring she is dyslexic, though this isn’t confirmed. Either way, her continual references to the deformity of Esme’s hands highlights how clearly Williams understands the discrimination across all areas of life for those with disability.

The point is that we are all the sum of many parts and whether it be gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, disability, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+, our prejudices routinely get in the way of us objectively understanding the world, the people we interact with and, in turn therefore, properly assessing what constitutes talent.

Our minds and our processes are riddled with biases and blinkers that are fiendishly hard to switch off. Hiring for ‘fit’, ‘polish’ and ‘like’ is no longer good enough and represents a very narrow-minded view of ability. If we really are entering a ‘war on talent’ as so many management consultants purport, then we would do well to broaden our hiring searches.

Dyslexic thinking[2]

Noun

1.?????? An approach to problem solving, assessing information, and learning, often used by people with dyslexia, that involves pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, lateral thinking, and interpersonal communication.

The above is an example of re-writing the rules; of updating meaning to suit the advancement of understanding that inevitably happens over time. After years of campaigning, Dictionary.com now formerly recognise ‘dyslexic thinking’ as a noun.

It got me thinking about two ideas.

One is to use words to literally save and transform lives; to offer individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds a way out of their birth-driven lottery and a way into the world of finance. We could create a manageable platform whereby individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds could send in work to a group of investment writers, with the exceptional pieces gaining entry to work experience placements and the remainder access to wonderful resources and exposure of The Skills Workshop.

The second idea would be to create a kind of ‘diversity dictionary’. Recognising, of course, that it will always be imperfect – that to some people their ADHD condition is a superpower, but to others it will always be a defining characteristic that holds them back. And to most it will be somewhere in between.

But just as Esme managed to capture both the positive and the negative sides of being a bondmaid (as well as drag the term out of obscurity), we can try to come up with definitions and meanings that capture nuance and stand up to future scrutiny. We can, at least, have a go at drafting more inclusive definitions of core concepts at the heart of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement.

This ‘diversity dictionary’ could help us all understand each other better, and facilitate better conversations. Armed with it, there would be far fewer excuses. It could be created by crowd-sourcing the best knowledge and expertise across the financial services industry. But would applicable far beyond that narrow walk of life. It could apply to new words and terms, or existing ones whose definitions are either widely misunderstood or whose meanings have been particularly fluid of late. With Pip Williams’s blessing, it could be called The Dictionary of Lost Potential.

Please get in touch if you think either of these are worth pursuing and you would like to be involved.

Scrap notes from The Dictionary of Lost Words

“I think sometimes the proper words mustn’t be quite right, and so people make new words up, or use old words differently.” – Esme

“There was no end to the words. No end to what they meant, or the ways they had been used. Some words’ histories stretched so far back that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way around, that the misshapen words of the past were clumsy drafts of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time, were true and complete. But I was realising that, in fact, everything that comes after that first utterance is a corruption.” – Esme

“I remembered all the times I’d searched the volumes and the pigeon-holes for just the right words to explain what I was feeling, experiencing. So often, the words chosen by the men of the Dictionary had been inadequate.” – Esme

[1] The Real Thing, 1982.

[2] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dyslexic-thinking