Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Breaking the Language Barrier at Work
Language is a crucial element to any culture, and that includes the corporate culture of the workplace. Different industries deal with different technical terms, or “jargon,” as they might be called. While this language is familiar to a specific individual’s workplace, as is the case when trying to learn a foreign language, seemingly commonplace terms can create a language barrier when used outside of a specific corporate setting. In an interview with BBC News, Nicola Clark of Investors in People stated that “if used inappropriately, jargon can be an obstacle to understanding, which ultimately can impact on an individual’s performance and an organisation’s productivity.”
At CEC, we created the Workipedia Lexicon in order to provide our clients (as well as the general public) with an understanding of the various terms used in the fields of disability management and occupational rehabilitation. By clearly defining the terms that are familiar to our industry, people who we deal with outside of it can obtain a better understanding of our methodologies and purpose.
Do you feel that corporate jargon creates a language barrier for you (or your clients)? How do you propose it be remedied?
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4 comments:
As a person who spends a great deal of time both professionally and academically defining jargon for others and seeking definitions for myself, I have come to consider jargon as an opportunity to learn from and connect with people. While initially jargon seems to be a barrier to efficient communication, I have found that by asking others to describe and define unfamiliar terms that I often end up not only learning something new about the particular subject but also about a host of other related topics. At the same time, I feel these conversations aid me in establishing or furthering a working relationship with the person. I consider that perhaps the solution to the interference of jargon is to develop a workplace culture where talking to each other about choices of language or terminology is acceptable or even encouraged.
I couldn't agree more with Stacy’s comments. It's probably only jargon if you don't understand it, and if that's the case, learn about it. Obviously it's your choice, but those who fear jargon may hold some of the same prejudice that we find in xenophobics. I once heard the president of your company say in a presntation, "Wipeout foreign languages, learn one." That too seems apropos.
I agree with both of the above comments. I believe a term is only "jargon" if you are unfamiliar with it, or if two people have differing opinions of what something means. In that case, it fosters communication between the two parties to come to a mutual agreement on the meaning of the term. When everyone involved understands the definition of a term and agrees on its use, it ceases to be jargon and takes on meaning as a useful term.
The "anonymous" commentor who remembered what I had said about learning foreign languages flatters me. I'm grateful that someone heard the value in that statement one I have perhaps too often repeated, but I do think it is appropriate to this issue. It was actually a bumper sticker I remember seeing in the early 70s while living in California, a time when "Chicano," was a dirty word. To reduce the negative effects of jargon on our communication, we must endeavor to learn the workplace languages of others. That cross-pollination of occupational lexicons is probably critical in a globalizing economy. Certainly we want people with whom we work to understand human factors and how they relate to the practice of disability management. I find it amusing that some lawyers who have recently cross-examined me recently in court cases somehow think that "disability management" is a set of dirty words. Anyone being injured at work would hope that their employer has an effective disability management program in place, and that through that program there would be an opportunity to remain productive and independent. We want our readership to become familiar and comfortable with the terms associated with disability management. Perhaps the only dirty word in this conversation is "jargon," and we can eliminate that by sharing our words and concepts with one another.
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