The connection between language and strategy
Starting about 300,000 years ago language was used by groups of early human males to overthrow the alpha male of their group.
According to Richard Wrangham, a researcher of anthropology, primate groups differ from human groups in that, typically, a group of primates has an alpha male with subordinate males. Primate alpha males bully lesser males and get what they want (food, females, etc) through force and bullying.
Early humans, were able to break through this alpha male dynamic by removing the bully (essentially, killing him). This was achieved via a collection of males combining their efforts, but this was only possible with language. Why?
Language enabled their strategy! The communication of a shared intent to change or improve their situation, the commitment to it and the basic coordination during the event towards a high risk outcome. A single subordinate male couldn’t confront an alpha male alone – the risk would be his own death. It was only through the shared efforts with others that their situation was improved.
So, according to this compelling theory, we are human because we can strategize, and we can strategize because we have a language to do so (and, I presume, because we removed the alpha-males that held us all back from evolving).
We can envisage a future state, communicate it to others, understand it, and co-ordinate ourselves to achieve it.
Language is a sort of foundation of any strategy, and I thought it is worth looking at the language to see how the use of language is fundamental to the efficacy of our strategic pursuits. I’ve always had an interest in languages, and I’ve often noticed how sloppily and badly it is used in working environments, and, conversely, how powerful it can and should be.
How we use Language
I began by thinking about how we actually use language.
We use language to communicate an intent or something aspirational
We can envisage a future state in our mind’s eye, or sense a visceral feeling within us, and we can use language to communicate this to others.
We are therefore ‘putting it out there’ into the world and making the call for others to engage with that same shared vision.
The clearer the language, the clearer we can ‘cast’ this vision into someone else’s mind’s eye.
We use language to communicate across time & space
Of course we are communicating across space to different people and in different places.
But we are also communicating across time. We’re communicating with ourselves in the future.
Karl Scotland gives an example of the time box that is planted now which is intended to be dug up by people in the future.
In fact, I have my own experience of this. During my university days I became fascinated by hieroglyphics and, in an attempt to imagine what it was like to create such basic pictograms, I created my own hieroglyphics, aiming to express some thoughts. By chance, I found this ‘text’ maybe ten years later. It was completely indecipherable to myself even though I had written the text.
The clearer the language, the better the chances are that we can communicate an intention across space and time.
We use language to understand ideas
Many of our ideas or intentions are complex and abstract. We may need to describe something that are completely novel or difficult to achieve. We may need to communicate with people who have a different view of the world (artists vs builders).
When Kung the philsopher was asked: if he wer4e made king what would his first task. He replied to use correct terminology
The clearer the language, the clearer we know what we’re talking about.
Using language to coordinate ourselves
In any endeavour, unexpected things will happen, and in a large group of people it becomes increasingly complex to achieve things.
In the ‘Art of Action’, Stephen Bungay relates the different ‘gaps’ of understanding
- what we would like to know and what we actually know
- what we want others to do and what they actually do
- what we expect actions to achieve and what they actually achieve
We need to agree and communicate who does what, even as a situation changes in real time and in the face of the gaps of understanding that are naturally inherrent. Again it is language that enables this to happen.
The clearer the language, the better we can organise ourselves and do the right things towards our intention.
Language is powerful but too easily misused
Misuse of language that can impede strategy
Here are a few examples of how language can be misused which will have a negative impact on any strategy.
Fluff
- Richard Rummelt (author of ‘Good Strategy, Bad Strategy’) defines this as a “restatement of the obvious, combined with generous sprinkling of buzzwords that masquerade as expertise designed to mask the absence of thought.”
- Basically meaningless intentions but sounds compelling. Who else has wondered: why am I working on this?
Verbalism
- Nassim Taleb describes verbalism as ‘using language both central to one’s discourse and devoid of meaning; their meaning can change with context or circumstance’
- Basically ill-defined concepts (such as: customer centric / sustainable / democratic) often when no-one can really disagree with.
Jargon
- These are ‘special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand’ particularly outside of the domain.
- Sometimes these words can be an accurate technical term, which unfortunately others don’t understand. But thwy can oftenbe a way to deliberately obfuscate so that management / clients / subordinates are intimated to raise questions.
Rhetoric
- In many companies and hierarchical organisations, there are implicit and explicit hierarchies, and competing agendas between groups or teams.
- There is thus an inevitability to rely on rhetoric (persuasive language) to convince others of supporting their agenda or cause, which may be unaligned (or even counter) to the organisation’s actual purpose or strategy.
Blather
- The amount of language used to communicate is also important to consider.
- Ashby’s Law: “Give a driver too little to do, and they’ll get complacent. Give them too much to do, and they’ll get overwhelmed”
All boil down to a
- lack of linguistic clarity
- using language to bend or obfuscate the truth
So, it seems to be that in order to use language effectively for strategy deployment and strategic thinking we need:
- clear language
- accurate terminology
How we can make language clearer for better strategy deployment
Over the years, I’ve noticed some heuristics which I’ve found helpful. It’s not exhaustive and I really hope to expand this (so please do comment for any other suggestions if you feel that, yes, we need to avoid sloppy language and here’s some more suggestions)
Write it down
- Clear writing = clear thinking (sentence comes from the Latin sentir – to think)
- By writing something you are bringing thoughts into the active part of the brain.
- It’s also important to keep summarizing till it’s just the essence.
Use templates to scaffold the process
- Templates can be used to scaffold thinking, usually developed by people based on their experience and can help to support other until they no longer need the templates.
- OKRs, Lean Canvases, Jobs to be done, etc are templates to structure thinking. Still, it’s possible to add plenty of fluff and jargon!
Co-create
- Co-creation has the advantage of quick feedback but also using the language of the people who will be working on the problems to be solved.
Use clean language
- Remove all technical jargon, base-ball expressions, Latin, buzzwords.
- One good approach is to use 1920’s language – could someone from 1920 understand what you’re trying to achieve
- I’ve found that Non-violent Communication is also a fascinating model and helps to reduce language to observations, feelings, needs and requests (which, as Marshall Rosenberg says, is the basis for most communication).
Aim for clarity, not detail
- As mentioned before, according to Bungay, in the face of uncertainty, many will be tempted to add more detail.
- It’s clarity that is needed, not detail. Even if it’s short and sounds remarkably basic or easy to accomplish.
- It’s important to ensure that something cannot be understood as much as it is important to ensure it is understood.
Check understanding / back-brief
- Never ask ‘does that make sense?’ (it’s all to easy for the other to say ‘yeah’ without thinking).
- Ask someone to repeat back what they’ve understood. If they’ve really understood it, you’ll probably hear a more succinct improvement!
Conclusions
Language is an incredible tool which is what makes us humans and enables us to achieve the most remarkable aspirations.
Language can be misused (deliberately or through sheer sloppiness) which will negatively impact the efficacy of our strategy to achieve something.
My hope here is that by being aware of our use of language, by aiming for clarity and accurate terminology, that we can minimise any chance of misunderstanding and increase the chance of working together towards a successful outcome.
So that’s why I believe that language is the basis of strategy.