Wednesday in the Woods 020 - Snow excuses anymore: Yupik words carefully.
Channel: Licensio, LLC
Date: 2022-02-09

Where do you go when there’s nearly a foot of snow on the ground?  Into it, of course!  But not just any kind of snow…

On this week’s episode of #WednesdayInTheWoods, we’re talking about snow…kind of.  Really, we’re talking about talking about snow - in particular, the commonly-held anecdote that “the Eskimo have more than 100 words for snow.”

We’re not really here to go deep into linguistic relativity and Sapir-Whorf.  But ignoring the ebb and flow of evidence and interpretation, the gist of the idea stands: when miscommunication matters, people do best to minimize the chance of miscommunication at the root - their words.

We see this play out in business every day.  And as I discuss in the video, my (least) favorite example is how we talk about roles for people.  Whether you’re writing a job posting or trying to map out capabilities required for a project, it’s critical that you and your team spend the time to get on the same page about your words.

Snow is snow is snow, right?  Except if you pick the wrong type of snow, you’ll never have a snowman - or your house might collapse.

Similarly, you might think that a developer is a developer is a developer.  But in reality, there are as many types of developers as there are types of snow.  And if you aren’t careful to understand the differences and use the right description, you’ll probably end up wasting more than just your own time.

So when you establish a program, project, or team, take a few minutes to “level-set your lexicon.”  Critically, make sure people feel comfortable openly sharing their questions - or give them an anonymous way to ask without embarrassment.  It may seem a little silly, but you might even keep a document or wiki page full of definitions or examples.  

Organizations rise and fall on the success of their internal and external communication.  And if words are the building blocks of this communication, then you’ll only be as successful as they are clear.  Choose wisely.

PS: Once upon a time, in the same class I learned about Sapir-Whorf, I learned a few words of Algonquin. While I don’t think that means you should trust my pronunciation of “qengaruk” - which I reckon ought to be transcribed phonetically as something like kwen-gah-rook - I gave it my best go.