Jean Roberts

Any organisation will have a language of its own.

Now – here’s the problem:

There will be people in any organisation who just don’t know, understand or recognize this Corporate Language and are therefore at a disadvantage.  They also have potential to unintentionally disadvantage others, as well as the organisation.

To summarize, Corporate Language:

1. is separate and different from linguistic differences
2. exists in any cultural, social, commercial, community, educational and political context,
3. has little to do with educational levels or qualifications,
4. is put to effective, ineffective, destructive or no use on a daily basis throughout the organisation,
5. has no origin or originator,
6. is rarely owned or managed by anyone in a position of authority,
7. is rarely identified as a major contributor to risk management and quality assurance, and
8. is rarely subjected to cost analysis.

Corporate language is created almost on a daily basis through informal conversation, meetings, minutes, reports, technology, documentation – and idle chatter.

What to do about it?

1. handle it seriously and with respect – as it has potential to be both a tool and a weapon,
2. arrange for a person with authority to be responsible it,
3. allocate a budget to design and develop an internal glossary of terms – you may wish to call it an internal dictionary,
4. invite anyone to submit entries – which must pass the entry test of clarity, alignment with corporate values, common use and frequency,
5. pay particular attention to the use of acronyms – which can too easily enter and even take over as ‘corporate lingo’ rather than ‘corporate language’,
6. clearly define key terms in common use – eg cost, price, value, margin, capacity, capability, effectiveness, efficiency, performance,
7. include this living document in the intranet, and
8. make this living document a feature in the orientation and induction of new people at any and every level of activity within the organisation.

Measurable outcomes of this initiative should include:

1. Corporate Language is lifted from the obscure to the obvious,
2. an increase in person-to-person conversation as opposed to technological messages,
3. more effective communication and expression,
4. improvement in corporate documents,
5. contribution to risk management and quality assurance, and
6. contribution to the orientation and induction procedure.