Organisations are navigating increasingly dynamic landscapes, from technological advancements to rapid shifts in consumer demands. We often focus on frameworks, strategies and tools to lead these changes effectively. Yet, there’s one crucial element that’s often overlooked but underpins every successful transformation – language.
Language isn’t just a medium is. It shapes how teams perceive challenges, align their efforts, and commit to achieving a shared goal. More than just words, it reflects the mindset and culture that can make or break an organisation’s ability to thrive in uncertainty.
Language defines the stories we believe about the company we work for, and language fixes the company culture we live in. If the language focuses on the office hero who works all night to resolve an issue, then the culture will encourage firefighting superheroes.
“When you have a large organisation that is firefighting, how do you start to encourage that ‘do it right the first time’ mentality, especially when surrounding teams are still firefighting and undermining the effort?”
This question goes right to the heart of why language matters. The key challenge isn’t just implementing new processes or systems; it’s transforming the way teams talk, think, and act about their work. Without a unified language of progress, even the best-designed strategies can fall apart.
If surrounding teams describe their work as “firefighting,” it’s likely an entrenched culture of reacting to problems rather than proactively solving them. This language reflects the mindset and can hinder broader transformation efforts. To encourage the “do it right the first time” approach, organisations must embed a new language that champions precision, accountability, and collaboration.
That’s why the language of Lean can be so powerful: “Issues” become “improvement opportunities”. A “mistake” becomes the concept of “muda,” which we all have a role in eliminating. Individual team performance is replaced by the performance of the “value chain.”
We need the language:
1) The language of the past to define the right future behaviours
2) The language of shared “concepts” connecting people in shared principles
3) The language of shared principles to break down language and build collaboration
4) The language of collaboration that shares results
