Tony Roscoe, Director at Implexis Consulting shares his observations of the link between language and work culture.
Last week found me in Zurich at a new client’s internal conference speaking about health and safety culture. During this presentation I recalled a comment made by one of the Directors during our first online meeting; the comment was “health and safety is a priority now, because we hurt someone”.
This was a small, throw away comment, but how much do you think that this told me about the culture of the organisation?
You can listen for these cultural clues too. They are often said as a casual remark, as culture is simply “what is normal around here” and therefore, why would it seem in any way odd to make a comment like that?
Once ingrained in a culture, these clues can be difficult to spot ourselves, as we become used to the culture and these sayings. We often talk about a “fresh pair of eyes”, but what can be equally as useful is a “fresh pair of ears”. Asking people about their take-aways from meetings, whether formal or informal, can also be a useful way to spot these cultural clues.
We should never refer to health and safety as a “priority”, it should always be a value. The simplest explanation as to why this is important is this; imagine you are driving home from work and you know that you have to go shopping for food, as your refrigerator is empty.
So, your priority is food shopping, otherwise you are not eating tonight. You get into your car and you are reminded by your car that you need fuel, as you were driving on fumes when you arrived at work this morning. What is your priority now? Has it shifted from food to fuel? Priorities change from minute to minute, whereas our values have more longevity; they can change, but very slowly over time.
What we prioritise is often expressed through our throw away comments.
I was about to present to a client’s board, after being invited to speak by the Health and Safety Director. I patiently awaited my turn to present, and the Director presenting before me ended his presentation with another throw away comment, “well you know, production is king”.
Unsurprisingly, this was a culture where people would take risks in order to keep production going. This unintentional message had come from the top of the organisation, travelling through the different levels, landing with the front line as “production is king” = keep production going no matter what!
It is incredible how ingrained these beliefs become within a culture.
A few years ago, we worked with an electricity company, whose staff could often be heard saying “power in an hour”. This means that they should get clients back on to power within an hour. This belief within the culture drove a whole host of risk taking, as they felt that they didn’t have time to complete a task safely.
Tony Roscoe, Director at Implexis Consulting
As we have discussed, throw away comments can have a powerful effect upon a culture. That effect does not however have to be negative.
Working with the paper company Sylvamo, they use a simple message to overcome the belief that “production is king” that message is “People Before Paper”. On the face of it, this can seem too simple to have any effect, but what leaders say matters, and changing the throw away comments into something that is pro-safety, can have an equally powerful effect.
The words that we choose both reflect the culture that we have and can help to the maintain or create the culture that we are going to have in future. We therefore have to choose those words carefully.
Read more from Tony on SHP, here.
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