Language: Private conversations and public words
Image taken from the front cover of Helen Borten's children book - Do you hear what I hear?
Continuation from- Reflections on a sprint funding process: The Facilitator. The Group. The People. & Me.
Because I was watching, it was easy to see how much our language can help or hinder a process. I don’t think I would have been as aware of this, if I had been in the process.
In this philanthropic sprint, I've watched language transform, shape, and sometimes challenge connection. Words sometimes invite people in or accidentally push them away.
Keep language alive and real...
When the room is intimate, language flows differently. It's raw, spontaneous, filled with shorthand and shared understanding. But when those same thoughts need to reach beyond the room - to other funders, to potential recipients, to the wider world - something changes. I felt that the language became more about how people want to be seen rather than what they were really saying.
I am just as guilty of this. My waffling from the sprint process have been read and re worked a hundred times. The challenge isn't just about making language simpler, it's about making it alive and real.
I don’t think it’s about dumbing down complex ideas, or taking away uncomfortableness as we learn but connection is important. Making space to continually talk about language is important.
A question I want to ask more is ‘what do you mean by that?’
How do you check in about language when you are in a group?
To return to the first blog in this series please click here - Reflections on a sprint funding process: The Facilitator. The Group. The People. & Me.
