Several years ago, Anese Cavanaugh, wrote a thought-provoking article for Inc. Magazine on the language we use in our day-to-day.
In it, she said:
The lens we look through has a huge impact on how we see the world, how
we see people, our self-imposed (or other-imposed) stress levels, how
much energy and excitement we have for engaging, what we do, and
ultimately the results we get. Language and framing is essential
here--and bonus, they support each other!
This statement resonated with something we believe here at Barry-Wehmiller, namely that words matter. That's why we don't call our people "employees." They're teammates or team members. We don't have a "human resources" department, we have a People Team. People are more than just "resources" for the company. It's why we don't say "reports to" when it comes to leadership structure. We say that the team members are in that leader's span of care.
Every month, our People Team compiles a report
we call a “Heart Count,” to track retention and turnover in our
companies. This naming convention helps us keep in perspective what’s
really important: those team members aren’t just numbers on a page;
they’re more than 12,000 lives in our care, each someone’s precious
child.
As our CEO, Bob Chapman has said:
Several years ago while visiting a military base, out of curiosity, I
asked the general in charge, “How do you train or condition people to
‘kill’ other people?” His answer was, “We don’t, we teach them to ‘take
out targets that made bad decisions.’”
We do the same thing in business. The military uses language to
dehumanize the taking of lives. We refer to people as “head count” to
dehumanize them. When we “reduce headcount” we have de-humanized the act
of hurting people by “laying them off.” We don’t have to think about
their lives, their responsibilities or their family. If we truly cared
about the people whose lives are entrusted to us, we would know the
damage we are doing to people.
The words we use frame the way we think. That's just as true in our daily life at home as it is in our workplaces, schools, etc.
Anese Cavanaugh is the CEO of Active Choices, Inc. She is the creator of
the IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence) and the Positive Energy
Workplace Initiative and a strategist and advisor to leaders and
organizations around the world. She is devoted to helping organizations
support their people so they are able to show up and bring their best
selves to the table, create significant impact in their lives, and
create authentic positive energy workplaces and cultures. Anese is a
keynote speaker and author of Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives and Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want.
This was our first conversation with Anese on our podcast. She is as
insightful as she is energetic and is passionate about making
organizations better places to work and be.