Mind What You Say

Good communication between colleagues and management to employees or those who are trustees to the wider membership is essential for the smooth running of an organisation, either a company or a charity respectively. ?Therefore, communication is supposed to be effective and efficient when it is being used between individuals with one another and within any sized organization. ?The leaders / trustees should ensure that there are less jargon words that are being used in communication with the employees / members in order to avoid miscommunication that may be detrimental to organisational success. ?

In addition, this is vital that the communication delivered and still serves ?its purpose in an organization, for reverent, timely information or disseminating ideas. ?There are times, where insufficient and poor communication occurs, when this occurs it tends to lead to the audience (membership or employees) to being demoralised and having a high turnover, relationships between employees and employers being tarnished, wastage of organizational resources and as well as negatively impact the organisation productivity. ?The intended audience should always be treated with respect as they form a very integral component of the organization. In this blog, the impact of using many jargon words, while communicating with the organisation audience is discussed.

In particular, the words we adopt are the conscious decision to pick combinations of letters to form words that ultimately become a reflection of our thoughts, or experiences and knowledge. Because we are our thoughts; we are our words.? Thereby, often, the only way for others to get to know us (and better) is through the words and the language skills we adopt.? Language skills and the appropriate use of language are the means for engagement with a person and lacking those skills can be an insurmountable barrier for accessing opportunities in the workplace, and other areas of social life.

Success in finding one’s place in a new social context, however, requires more than instrumental use of language. ?Being autistic myself, I find communication and social interaction with others often very hard work and emotionally draining afterwards.? At times, it is the ability to share in an appropriate manner how I feel or want to say, and to understand and respond to what others are feeling or saying.? When I reflect, I know face challenges with a range of verbal and nonverbal skills, including grammar, the correct use of pronouns and responding when spoken to. ?Then there are times, when I feel the nonverbal aspects of communication, such as not directly looking at somebody whilst speaking, I have been sometimes lack or I am frequently confused about facial expressions and the my tempo and intensity of speech may put others off.? Also, if English is not somebody’s second language, then to avoid being poor and ineffective, it is a continuous work in work in progress with the avoidance of a lazy vocabulary.?

With the appropriate language, it is a sign of belonging, that is to say, it is an entry point for inclusion/exclusion, enabling better thriving in society your profession leading to greater opportunities, and better health and legal protection. ?Often the responsibility for success or failure of the understanding of the adopted language is firmly on the shoulders of the minority member, the one who “does not fit in”. ?We must work overtime processing and deciphering our environment, the words spoken to us or the words not spoken to us.?

The process of belonging is clearly visible in the workplace and the adoption by the many jargon comprehension tests for the rest to follow. ?These tests blur language by presenting abstract concepts about the process and the expectations of work. ?Colleagues will sometimes hide business jargon and overly used clichés without thinking about it. ?Peers may take a narrow approach to diversity representing a formulaic set of “ways of doing things around here” and know where the glass ceilings are and how to navigate the hurdles and jumping over hoops.?

I wanted to explain all this because it is at the heart of my experience of autism. ?For me, autism manifests itself in communication, sometimes I may miss the point, often mean taking things literally, that is to saying things directly, and missing nuances or non-spoken / written cues. ?There are times when I experience difficulties with interpreting both verbal and non-verbal language like gestures or tone of voice, or fail to understand sarcasm or tone of voice. ?Other personal challenges include taking things literally and not understanding abstract concepts, and needing extra time to process information or answer questions.

However, especially in workplace settings, we often encounter a language no one can explain, surely this is no longer good enough.? What is considered good practice and inclusive language for us who are neurodivergent, will surely be good for our neurotypicals too.? I am constantly reminded how much jargon remains and is scattered in the workplace, in moderation perhaps this can be useful, but it can be overwhelming and not helpful to anyone. ?If you feel at work your audience may not understand your message, it is far better to substitute different meaningful vocabulary. ?Yet why do people use excessive jargon not just to communicate, but perhaps also to show off? ?The defenders of jargon will say it acts as necessary professional shorthand – it conveys complicated ideas succinctly – and when used well, it does. ?The danger comes from using it out of context, especially when dealing with the wider public. ?It can often distort or confuse.?

Please do not assume that everyone you communicate with has knowledge of your industry’s particular jargon. ?It’s also vital that you use jargon and even acronyms correctly and explain their meaning. ?If you are unsure, make use of a dictionary to help ensure you use the proper words and meanings.? By being accurate and sensitive in our communication it will help to maintain positive relationships, and can be a sign of key professional success.? Often in the workplace, it is important to know the jargon to be successful. ?However, as important as it may be to know what English words and phrases mean, it’s also valuable to know when and how to use them.

There is a delicate balance of when to use business jargon or any jargon for that matter. ?When communicating, aim to minimize buzzwords, avoiding slang words and phrases, expanding acronyms, explaining jargon, removing biases, and expressions that discriminate against groups of people based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and ability.? Therefore, there is a delicate balance of when to use business jargon or any jargon for that matter. ?Good communication is a case of the following key soft skills:

• Mindfulness – noticing what is happening in the present moment, without judgement;
• Collaboration – working with your colleagues to produce something greater than the sum working separately;
• Empathy – understanding your and colleague’s emotions and interacting with them on a day-to-day basis;
• Acknowledgment – noticing something favorable or an act or achievement by your colleagues;
• Interdependence – depending on and trusting our colleagues, we cannot do life alone; we were made for each other.
• Active listening – intent of understanding the audience concerns and meaning, and providing appropriate feedback;

In hindsight this is what I could have written and hope you can read between the words and phrases what I am trying to say:

Heads up guys.? Hope we are speaking from the same page.

Today, I bring to the table, CULTURE. In these difficult times, can we collaboratively join up the dots. ?We are now in a new normal of a perfect storm of post Covid, the cost-of-living crisis, the Gaza crises, the Ukraine crises and the impending snow on the horizon. ?That sets our storyboard to fuel us to facilitate change. ?So just some low-level fruit to mean win-win and squaring the circle on Culture. ?That said, today, let us sneeze the day and drill down some key takeaways and game changers about Workplace Culture. ?I think this starts with you; this is not a tick box exercise or a one-size-fits-all task.? So let us have a deep dive:

1. Nasal Gazing

Now for the beginning of the end, do you know your core skill strengths? Are you utilizing your time wisely? ?Are you raising your and the bar? ?Are you doing projects that are not in your wheelhouse? Are you fire fighting and juggling your projects in the air?? By the business end of the week, have you achieved your short-term goals?? Have you achieved your deliverables with flying colours and what are your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)? ?Have you gone off-piste with non billable time?? What's on your radar for next week? ?Park your thoughts for a moment of time.

2. Co-worker Synergy

Let us unpack this.? How are your team's dynamics? ?Can you bring your full self to work?? Weekending, do you plan a team bonding session? ?Are you leveraging up your human resources for prospective projects in the pipeline?? Do you know team's dynamics? ?Are we playing to our strengths, and reaching out for assistance in areas of weakness? ?Do you employ a NPS (Net Promoter Score) a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) as measure of engagement?

3. What makes others tick

We need to circle back, grow in emotional intelligence, spend time at the water cooler with your co-workers. ?Enthusiasm versus experience? ?Morning or evening? ?Gen-X or Millennial?? Single parent or career? ?Coffee or water?? Do they play hard and work hard? ?Are they kind or brutal? ?Football or Water Polo? ?Are they different to my paygrade?

4. Keep others in the loop

Together we should reach out when we need help. ?Keep pinging messages to one another in Teams. ?Tweat a kind message to a colleague, post an awareness notification and hope it goes viral. ?Use emojis for Gen X. ?Re-engineer your paid breaks. ?Give shout-outs to others.? Implement feedback loops. ?Who have you put on the back burner? ?Do you chat to your co-workers under a non-contractual framework?

5. Group think-tank

Bring it home, is it possible to empower your coworkers with a brain dump session on collaboration? ?Can we work together and do some blue sky thinking ? ?Are we prepared to think outside the box? ?Would we prefer to reinvent the wheel rather moving the goalposts with creative thought?? Do we have values aligned with our mission statement? ?Do we know our core competency and skillset? ?Do we operate in an inflexible environment with no balance between home and work?

So are all your ducks in a row? ?At the end of the day, at the close of play, this is proliferated with business jargon. ?Is it all a no-brainer or a deal breaker? ?Should we learn to kick into touch such language or face the blue screen of death.? Must you action it or take it offline, your choice?? Please reach out, please click below in the comments box or ping me a DM your thoughts.? Until we touch base again, kind regards, Martin

PS: Only two workdays until many of us will need to schedule another agenda-less one hour-long meeting. ?Will the top of the page agenda item be resolved, will we be wrapping up early, in record time, in 50 minutes. ?Time to grab a coffee or the momentary water cooler time and then heads down. ?Others may be pleased by this turn of events, but I cringe, bracing for the line that I know is coming up: “I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life back!” ?Together, purposefully, let us move the needle and show people the real deal of EDI (Everybody Doing It).? Moving forward, the ball is