What’s in a Word Anyway?

So, beyond clear and concise documentation. They can bring people together in a company and facilitate better company cohesion, through a glossary.

The year was 2000.  I’m in a product marketing meeting, looking around this very long table and thinking: I know everyone here is speaking English. I recognize the words. But I’ve never heard them used this way before. I had no idea what that part of the meeting was about. I still have no clue. Later, while talking with other attendees, I realized that almost no one understood what was being said and that no one else was speaking up about it.

Since then, whenever I start a new project, I compile a glossary of terms, both for the specific product or service I am documenting and its broader industry (currency trading for a currency trading app, cybersecurity for HIPAA security, arboriculture for vegetation management, etc.). The terms must be in words that make the most sense to me. Doing this helps ground me.

Occasionally, a client will see my glossary and want to use it internally. For example, they’ll post it to a Confluence page. In fact, it is happening now, the glossary I created for myself is being expanded and used to create a standardized source of definitions for an entire part of an organization. Having that single source of definitions will help ensure that when the team communicates, we are all speaking the same language.

Having an internal glossary can bring alignment in team members and can reduce the tension resulting from difficult communication. For example, there have been many times where I was listening to a heated discussion or an outright argument and realized that the two people involved were using the same word differently. And one of them was usually using the word out of context. The right word, but with the wrong definition. Once I pointed out that discrepancy and we sorted out which version of the word applied to the conversation, the tension and the argument literally vanished.

It’s not magic. We use words to communicate, so when communication gets hung up words are often the culprit. Many times, when two people want to understand each other and can’t, they get frustrated and sometimes angry with each other. The other person just doesn’t understand. When you take away that barrier to connection and understanding, you take away the source of the frustration and anger.