What Did You Say? What Did You Mean?

Word choice can be critical!

 

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

– George Bernard Shaw

 

Years ago, a colleague named Steve Young (no, not the Steve Young of American football fame) taught me about “controlled vocabulary.” He pointed out that when two parties use the same word or phrase to describe two different things, they are out of alignment and confusion will result: this is a case of “uncontrolled vocabulary.” And, of course, uncontrolled vocabulary also results when one person uses terms or phrases that are unknown to the other person.

Both parties need to have the same definition for key words or phrases: that’s “controlled vocabulary.” I love that term (and now we have a shared understanding)!

 

Moral: Identify and rectify uncontrolled vocabulary.