Watch your Language: The Hidden Power of Words in the Workplace - Blog

We talk of people being ‘pushed’ by others to do things, the ‘pull’ of attraction, ‘pressures’ to act, some ‘standing over’, others under.1 We think of power as a force or a thing—something that can be held, taken and used. We think in terms of lifting weights and burdens and rising up, and often we see the world in terms of cosmic balance—with wro

management is reaching the end of its rope. Humans are not a resource. We are not a tool. Humans are the point.

But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief. Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words.

Every time we name a reality in such a way that we diminish people or possibilities, we are, however inadvertently, acting out a bit of evil sorcery. We are naming people in a way that lessens their sense of possibilities, their self-esteem, their capacity to see hope for the future. At best, Magicians learn to use the power of naming to empower ot

And yet it should be possible to gaze into this alphabet soup and divine patterns. Our attraction to certain words surely reflects an inner yearning. Computer metaphors appeal to us because they imply futurism and hyperefficiency, while the language of self-empowerment hides a deeper anxiety about our relationship to work — a sense that what we’re

The strategic use of language to change thinking is called Languaging.