It's only words

 “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Widely attributed to George Bernard Shaw.

 The Stories

 South Wales – 1974: This was a time in my life, to quote my late Dad, when I had more hair and less brains than a sheep.

 I was 19 years old and after three years working in a Pharmaceutical Company in my native North Devon, a largely rural and isolated English community, I accepted the post of Deputy Packaging Controller at a well-known hair cosmetics company located in a small South Wales town at the foot of Rhonda valley, named Pontyclun (pronounced Pontyclean).

 Pontyclun is about 40 miles from Barnstable as the crow doesn’t fly. Crows don’t fly in straight lines, they fly in little circles, and there is absolutely no reason why a crow should fly in a straight line over the large expanse of water known as the Bristol Channel.

 I left North Devon, armed with a strong Devonian accent, and a tendency to revert to Devonshire dialect. For example, I would not say, “where are you going?” but rather “where be ‘e gwain to?” or “how be ‘e?” instead of “how are you?”. It’s old Anglo-Saxon. The “e” is an abbreviation of the old English “ye”.

 It is unsurprising then that the Welsh, not being terribly Anglo-Saxon, had some difficulty understanding me, and I, them.

 I consciously moderated my accent and eliminated the dialect, to avoid a very lonely existence. After six months there, I wanted to go home for a break. To do that, I needed to call Cardiff Railway station and find out the train connection time table to Barnstaple. I could have waited for an Internet connection, but that would have taken somewhere close to a quarter of a century, so I opted for the telephone. I rang several times, but was consistently told, “Oh no boyo, we don’t go there”. The “Welsh”, I muttered to myself.

 During a night out in Cardiff, I was asked where I originated, and after some effort, I passed the message, “Barnstaple”, pronounced by the receivers as “Bainstiple”, with the last syllable an octave higher, compared with my (correct) Devonian pronunciation, a drawled “Barrnstabul”.

 Next day, I called the railway station, and enquired about trains to “BainsTIPLE”, a place I had only recently heard of, never visited, but apparently originated. I got all the information I needed.

 A Friday night, Ayr, Scotland – 1985: I was setting-up a Consultancy Office for Pira, the Packaging Industries Research Association, in Glasgow. I lived in Ayr, as it reminded me of Barnstaple, pronounced “Barrnstabul” by the way. One Saturday evening, trying to make a few local contacts in my new abode, I was talking with a bloke in a pub who was explaining something about his work. He spoke in a broad Ayrshire accent, and I was desperately trying to understand and tune my ear to yet another new tongue. He continually mentioned someone called “Ken”. After 20 minutes or so, he asked me what I thought. That’s when the problems started, they usually do…

 To try and avoid a complete faux pas (is that French or English?), I sought to confirm my understanding. I enquired, “Ken is your boss, is he?”. The guy looked at me with a passive blank expression, finished his pint and left the pub without saying another word. The “Scottish”, I muttered to myself.

 It was some weeks later that I learned that “ken” is Ayrshire dialect for “know’. “Do you ken”, or with the accent, “D’y Ken”, meaning do you know, or do you understand. Well blatantly, I didn’t understand, or in Ayrshire, “I didna ken” at all. The guy was also self-employed, so he didn’t have a boss……

 The Loire valley, France – 1988: I was at the home of the parents of my recently wedded wife and was speaking with my brother in-law. His English, at that time was not very good, but still better than my, almost non-existent French. We were both hopelessly trying to communicate in each other’s language. He asked me, what I have for breakfast. I wanted to say toast, but I didn’t know the French word for toast, so I used the word for bread, i.e. pain. However, I didn’t know whether it should be “le pain” (masculine) or “la pain” (feminine). All that was, and still is, a complete mystery to me. So, I said, “la pain”. My brother in-law looked at me with wide eyes and then roared with laughter. I had just pronounced Lapin, meaning “rabbit”. I have rabbit for breakfast!

 Clearwater, Florida, - 1994: I had just taken-up a new position as QA Director in a Medical Device company based in the South of France. I was visiting our Clearwater subsidiary in the USA, where I had QA responsibilities. It was my first, of many visits, to the USA. I was in a sandwich bar with two colleagues for lunch. One an American, whom I will call Jim, because that’s his name, and one French, who will be known as Pierre.

 We had ordered a sandwich each, and then Jim asked, “Do you guys fancy chips?”

“Chips? I don’t see or smell any chips” I responded.

“They’re over there on the counter? Replied Jim

“I can’t see any”, I said, desperately looking for the fryer.

“But they have ships”, Pierre countered, (the French pronounce chips as ships).

“Ships?” Questioned Jim,

“Yes, look over there”, replied Pierre pointing to the counter,

“Ah you mean crisps”, I replied to Pierre,

“Criptpiss!” exclaimed Pierre with much exuding of saliva. “Crisps” is an oral nightmare for a French person, rather like “le yaourt” (yogurt) is for an English speaker.

 Jim and I both looked at Pierre and shook our heads.

 Then Jim militarily marched over to the counter grabbed a packet of chips/crisps/ships in one hand and pointing at it with the other, said,

“Guys! In the US of A, these are chips! You are in the US of A, so these are chips, right!”

To which I said, “Crisps”, and Pierre said, “Ships”.

Jim said, “Look, call them whatever you want, do you want any?!”

Pierre and I both declined. Jim said “Geeze! When are you guys going home?”.

“Americans”, I muttered to myself.

 After consuming one very large and truly wonderful sandwich in Jim’s office, Jim asked, “do you need to use the restroom?”. I replied, “No thanks, I am not tired, but I will go outside for a fag”.……I’ll leave you to work that out.

 La Ciotat, France – 1996: I had just come from a bad meeting. I was angry. A French colleague, who spoke excellent English, remarked that I was nervous, which I was most certainly not. I was angry and being described as “nervous” just made me even angrier, and the angrier I got, the more my French colleague insisted that I was indeed nervous, until in the end I bid my French colleague a very Anglo-Saxon “Au revoir”. The “French”, I muttered to myself.

 When I got home that evening, I recanted the story to my wife, who explained that my colleague had attempted to express that I was agitated, and indeed I was. To explain, the “equivalent” French word for nervous is “nerveux“, which means to be agitated or under tension.

 Bonn, Germany – 2011: I had asked one of my German Engineers, who spoke excellent English, to work on a problem with a view to proposing a solution. Later, I enquired whether he had time to work on it and whether he thought a solution was possible. There was a great deal at stake. I understood from his reply, that he was going to work on it “eventually”. Now, while I like to think of myself as an understanding boss, I do not take it lightly when one of my people tell me that they are going to do what I asked “eventually”. I told him this, in no uncertain terms, and he repeated that he thought he would have something “eventually”. I completely lost my temper, that is, banging on the desk loss of temper, but the Engineer just looked at me with an expression of passive bemusement, repeating the word “eventually”. The “Germans”, I muttered to myself.

 Later I found out much to my embarrassment, that the “equivalent” German word for “eventually” is “eventuell”, which in the context above, means “potentially”. The Engineer was trying to tell me that he “potentially” had a solution, which was great news. I bawled him out!

Analysis

Firstly, the language we speak, how we speak it and the words we chose to use are a direct reflection of not only our recent and less recent history, but also that of our forebearers and our forebearers’ forebearers. A skilled linguist could likely tell you more about your history, and that of your parents, more accurately than any DNA test. Further, as the prominent historian Simon Schama points out, “you are your history, and your history is you”. All the true examples I have provided of various, and hopefully humorous communications and miscommunications, are easily explained through history. Our language bears witness to our past. 

The English language is spoken by approximately 1.5 billion people in the world, that’s 20% of the total world’s population. Of these only around 360 million speak it as their first language. English is the majority language in only 18 countries in the world, and many of these countries are small ex-colonial islands. 

It is not surprising then that there are many forms of English, among the native speakers and also among those that speak English as a second language. Consequently, words can have very different meanings subject to the country, region, industry or discipline. 

To make comprehension even more fun, pronunciation varies, there are regional and national dialects, and some second language speakers may make errors, as I habitually do in French. 

And it gets even worse in companies, including small companies, where different departments will develop their own acronyms, word definitions and alternate names for people and things, thereby frustrating cross-functional communication, and widening the departmental cultural divide. 

It is all quite natural, just human nature or may be just nature, as even birds do it. For example, sedentary species of birds, those that do not migrate, breed and spend their lives in relatively small localised areas, tend to develop minor differences in their calls and songs from one area to the next, i.e. they develop regional accents, and given time and isolation accents lead to dialects, and dialects can lead to new languages. Although, it is worth noting that often it is the language of the larger community that evolves quicker leaving the isolated community with an older, and in a way a more authentic version of the original language, which is then subject to its own slower evolution. 

So what’s the point?

I wish that someone would have given me say, 100 bucks or Euros (I’ll take metres or yards, no worries) for every time I have sat in a meeting where after 30 minutes or so of discussion, it became painfully evident that everyone in the room had a completely different understanding of the key terms being used. The most commonly misunderstood word in my experience in the Medical Device Industry is “validation”. Other frequently used terms where interpretation varies considerably are quality, yield (which is not production minus rejects), reject, risk, benefit, specification (I kid you not), conformity (as against compliance), deviation (as against discrepancy), calibration (a minority understand this one) and even customer. 

These words may be defined subtly or significantly different depending on the circumstances and the objectives of the company, project or meeting. 

Prior to starting certain strategic team/departmental meetings spending some time clarifying the meaning of certain terms would save time, avoid misunderstandings and the resultant futile and damaging arguments. As every lawyer knows, often the real discussion lies in the definition of the terms themselves. 

In addition, a company glossary of terms, including acronyms, does help to maintain a company language, and thus culture, allowing equal understanding for all, including the new employees. One wonders how many new employees are too afraid to ask the meaning of certain commonly used company terms, so as not to exhibit their ignorance, and then they perpetuate terms and acronyms that they do not understand or misunderstand. I will admit that as a new employee, in my younger timid days, I did exactly that. Worse still, new employees become old employees, and how do you admit that you do not understand, or have misunderstood, a term or an acronym that you have been using for years? 

Further, even with the main terms properly defined there remains significant scope for misunderstandings based on culture, education, departmental barriers and perspective. So, what can be done to improve our comprehension of each other?  

The most obvious solution is to only employ people from the same culture, class, region, nationality, religion, sex, age and education in one large department headed by someone from the same mono-cultural background. However, there are three problems with that,

a)   The company will die from either lack of innovation or poor decision making as the group will believe, with absolute confidence and arrogant ferocity, its own bullshit,

b)   There will always be one solution to every problem, and it might not be the right one,

c)   You will die as a person from sheer and utter boredom, and if you don’t well maybe you should think about it. 

Another interesting aspect of the impact of language is provided by linguistic philosophy, which hypotheses that not only do we speak with words, but we also think through words. So, either words frame our ideas, or ideas frame our words. My guess is that we talk like we think, and we think like we talk. Either way, ideas, concepts, and language are all interrelated, inseparable siblings from the same parentage. For example, if you want to study Quality Systems it’s wise to do it in English, whereas cooking is best done in French. To provide original thought, or more accurately a different perspective, and be able to communicate and develop that within a company, its employees need to demonstrate both linguistic diversity as well as a common company language. Two opposing forces that somehow need to be married together in a vibrant, innovative, team of diverse freely communicating individuals concentrated on getting the right things done right.

 Therefore, a prerequisite for successful companies in today’s world is a multi-dimensional team, inclusive of linguistic diversity. However, as described above it does present its own challenges. It’s in meeting these challenges that a company can build momentum and become a great company. Rather like cooking, truly great dishes are those which bring together several often-opposing ingredients and marry these together in harmony. That’s what successful companies need to do, and there is no right or wrong way of doing that. 

However, here are a few suggestions:

·        Use recruitment to try and build diversity into the team, i.e. persons from a range of backgrounds, regions, culture, socioeconomic groups, disciplines, genders, age etc.,

·        Ensure a few key terms are properly understood throughout the company and wherever possible avoid jargon or if it must be used then ensure everyone understands it and not just the specialists to avoid elitism,

·        Breakdown departmental barriers wherever they exist, instead encourage openness, interdepartmental communication and focus on company wide goals and above all avoid the “Inform on a need to know basis” and dogmatic adherence to Management by Objectives,

·        Encourage regular formal and informal team get togethers, the more spontaneous (and natural) these are the better. Learn to laugh at the cultural misunderstandings for they can be great fun and will help to bring the team together, but, do not tolerate any form of discrimination without becoming overly politically correct. People do need to laugh but conversely avoid the inflammatory Charlie Hebdo type humour.

·        Make a habit of verifying understanding by getting the listener to explain in his/her own words what the talker was trying to explain, prior to deciding whether there is or there is not agreement. 

Yes, it’s only words, but it is what we communicate with, and the quality of our communication depends on a common understanding of the words we use. Talking is one thing, communicating is quite another and building an integrated constructive culture with the all-important diversity is yet another. But that is what success in the 21st century demands, so it is wise to take words, and culture, very, very seriously. 

And that’s the point! 

Bob Hill

President

Hill’s Consultancy Company

[email protected]

linkedin.com/in/robert-hill-20218a14a