I started thinking about the idea of trading languages a while back when I learned about Swahili. I had learned that Swahili is comprised of about 20% Arabic words and that it may have been because of its use in trading in east Africa, making trading across cultural groups more efficient. I noted that much like in trade, when working in project teams, having a common trade language can help make communication much more efficient as those involved work together towards achieving an outcome that is acceptable and (ideally) beneficial to everyone. It’s also a great way to aid in your cross-team negotiations and create a more inclusive language when working together towards a shared outcome.
Breaking it down
In the context of trading goods, I want to communicate the value of what I have and determine the value of what you have so that we can determine trading ratios that are agreeable. In this type of situation, it helps to have a language or elements of language that allow us to communicate value in order to aid in our negotiation. Also, when we speak of negotiation it can mean a tangible thing like a resource and less tangible things like a concept or an identity. E.g. negotiating the use of a meeting room versus what something like taxonomy means to the communications team versus the IT team.
Especially when we work with other teams, we find ourselves in this situation. We all have resources that we have on offer and resources that we want from others. These resources typically take the shape of time, people and outputs, which become important when there are interdependencies between teams as they work together to achieve project objectives. When we have a shared vocabulary, it can help everyone involved to more clearly communicate what they value, which can help when negotiating resources towards achieving outcomes collaboratively.
Another aspect is inclusivity. When we make an effort to create shared understandings through the use of each other’s language it makes us all feel like we are part of something bigger. It also us allows to bring in a diversity of ideas and ways of interpreting problems, challenges and their solutions. This sense of belonging can motivate us to be more collaborative and maintain a team spirit where we are all working with each other instead of working at each other.
When something goes wrong we become less focused on who’s to blame and more focused on learning from it and fixing it for the next time we come upon that situation. Inclusive language can help us communicate those lessons learned and come up with those best practices in a way that makes everyone feel like they are invested in the process and outcomes.
Some things to keep in mind when considering your trading language are:
- Make a list of outcomes that are shared between teams. E.g. data output
- Discuss with the teams what terms they use to describe those outcomes. E.g Calculation versus Display versus Publishing.
- Try to understand where in your project/task process each fits in to get a sense of its importance to each team. For some teams, a term may represent a very important outcome as a result of their process, while for others it may not be very important at all, so this will help you navigate reactions from different teams in discussions and negotiations.
- Identify terms that may be confusing or that may have conflicting definitions and agree on which definition will be used for which term. This will help to reduce misunderstandings and conflict as these terms come up, especially when they are related to output. If the same term has different definitions for different teams, yet is equally important as part of a process, make sure you clearly identify the context that each term will be used in.
- Create a glossary and revisit it often. By creating a record of the different definitions and contexts, it can become a good reference resource as we adapt and change behaviour in a team. It can also become a good tool when onboarding people into a project or when starting a similar project with similar elements. Just remember that it is a living document and it should be allowed to evolve in the same way that language evolves as we use it in different contexts or as processes and values change over time.
Developing a good trading language has a lot of advantages. Not only can it help us work across teams more effectively, but it can also help with the diversity of ideas as people are able to engage in a healthier and more relevant challenge function in group discussions and negotiations, as well as creating better integration of work products as a result of more cohesive working relationships.
Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash
