To change an organization, change its language
And choose your words wisely
Welcome to the first subscriber-only edition of The Overlap!
I was encouraged by a reader last week. They shared I should write more often. I thought, what the hell. Let’s try it.
Currently, The Overlap publishes every other week. We’re going to try every week.
Here’s what we’ll do. Free subscribers will continue to get The Overlap every two weeks. Paid subscribers will get The Overlap every week.
September 28 (today!): subscriber-only edition
Edit 9/28/22: I accidentally hit publish instead of schedule. 🤦🏽♂️ So it’s out a day early!
October 6: free edition
October 13: subscriber-only edition
October 20: free edition
October 27: subscriber-only edition
Biweekly posts are still going to go out—still public, still free. In addition to these free biweekly posts, I’ll release subscriber-only posts every other week as well. We’ll try this until October 27.
Why stop at October 27?
I have a work sabbatical starting November 7! garden3D offers a 6-week week sabbatical for people who’ve been there for 3 years.
Amazing, right?
My sabbatical ends December 16, and I have December 17 to January 1 off for holiday break.
From November 7 to January 2 I plan to take time off The Overlap. Paid subscriptions will be paused on November 7 and resume on January 2nd. Meaning, you won’t be paying for anything November and December.
Will I get subscriber-only editions in January when you’re back from Sabbatical?
It depends on what the interest level looks like!
If >15 readers subscribe before October 27, I’ll resume your subscription and continue to publish subscriber-only posts in January. More than 15 subscribers tells me “Hey, there’s some interest here! Let’s keep this going.” (For context, The Overlap has 1098 subscribers.)
If <15 readers subscribe before October 27, I most likely will stop the subscriber-only posts. And resume free editions every other week. In this instance, you’ll no longer pay for a subscription.
Why are you doing this?
I want to test my assumption that few readers want The Overlap more often. I see myself writing long-term, so I want to explore asking my most committed readers for their financial support!
My goal for you is that these subscriber-only editions are 🔥.
Thank you for subscribing!
Okay, onto the post.
“Users”
“Individual contributor”
“Key drivers”
“Product”
Every organization uses common words but puts its own meaning to them.
For example. “Product” at Shopify means something very different from “product” at, say, Govrn — a tool that helps DAOs record people’s contributions.
To Shopify, “product” could be used in many different ways:
“Evelyn works on the website builder product.”
“These past flows didn’t have enough product thinking — we should try to understand our user’s pain points better before building”
“Adrian is a product manager, but Jamie is platform manager”
“Our merchants sell physical products”
While at Govrn, “product” could specifically mean their MVP:
“Our product is currently in beta!”
“Product” at Govrn may not carry the same meaning as “product” at Shopify. And I'm intrigued by this—we use “product” so damn often at work and in our industry.
Other common words take on different meanings across different organizations. “Individual contributors” might mean one thing to Meta but another to Metalabel. Same with “goals,” “OKRs”, and “operational complexity.” Even “diversity.” These words carry very specific meaning to the people in their organization, even when we use these words across our industry.
Embrace shared language
As product managers and organization designers, one thing we get better at is creating a shared language.
Here’s an example from my job at garden3D. Every team has an “Air Traffic Controller” role. ATC, for short.
An ATC1 isn’t a project manager. They’re not necessarily a technical lead either. They’re just the person whose sole job is to help their project run as smoothly as possible. They’re aware of everything: deadlines, stakeholders, internal meeting times, client meeting times, team dynamics, client dynamics, etc.
When I describe “the ATC” to people outside of my company, they say, “isn’t that just a project manager role?”
I’m like, “yeah… but we avoid the word ‘project manager.’ Mainly because people who typically hold that as their title make project management their full-time job. While we encourage strategists, designers, and developers to take on an ATC role, we want them to contribute to other projects in their discipline.”
“Hm. I think I get it. But isn’t that just a project manager?”
The point is: “ATC” takes a specific meaning at garden3D, even if it doesn’t entirely make sense to folks outside of garden3D. This specific meaning is helpful to our org, even if it’s confusing/funny to others. It’s clear to us when someone says “Tim is playing the ATC role on Swell.” If it makes sense to us, why change it?
John Cutler says to make language unique to your org:
The big lesson I’ve learned over the years is to make the language unique to your company. When pressed for language, teams hit Google and come back with a model like “performance features, delighters, and table-stakes”. Or “protect revenue, increase revenue”. While helpful (especially to some people), this is never the whole story.
Our organizations benefit from a shared language. So when there isn’t a shared language, create space for aligning on it!
This brings me to an implication I’ve been nerding out on: you can change your organization by changing the words you use. And/or changing the meaning of the words you use.
If you change language, you can change culture
Every organization struggles when trying to change. Old assumptions are usually in the way. To do things differently, the org needs to act on different assumptions. Old assumptions are rooted in the words they use. So, weed out old assumptions and practice new assumptions.
Organizations can start weeding out old assumptions by changing the words they use. Or at least by clarifying the words they currently use.
Some ways I’ve seen this done:
Using “team contributor” instead of “individual contributor.” “Individual contributor” can mean “I contribute individually. My job is to do the tasks I’m asked to do.”While “Team contributor” means “I contribute to my team. My job is to do what’s best for my team’s goals.”
“Platform managers” are different from product managers. Platform managers are folks who work with teams to build platforms. As opposed to “product managers”, who work with teams to build specific features, functionalities, and interfaces.
Using “steward” instead of “owner.” “This person is stewarding this initiative.” If you’re an owner, you execute the pre-defined work. If you’re a steward of an initiative, you’re still accountable for doing the pre-defined work. But when there isn’t clarity, you do your best to create it. When new information comes up, you adapt as you keep the main outcome in mind.
“Ensuring” → Supporting/Stewarding/Guiding. Replacing phrases like “ensure the quality of the work” with “guide the team in producing quality work.” Ensuring a team does great work is very different from supporting them in doing quality work.
“Teaching” vs “Coaching”! To teach is to share knowledge with others. To coach is to draw out knowledge from others. (Throwback)
Changing the words themselves may not result in the change you want to see. But groups changing how they understand, use, and relate to these words is how the change will stick.
Invite others into your ideas for a new language
Say you just get hired as a product leader at a 1000-person company. People are stoked on Marty Cagan’s Empowered, the “must-read for any product company.” They’re inspired to empower their product teams and give them autonomy.
You notice that your org uses the word “individual contributor”, but you prefer “team contributor.” To you, the difference is subtle but important!
You think: “Hm, everyone already uses ‘Individual Contributor’ though. It already takes on a specific meaning. And I notice that Individual Contributors do exercise autonomy. So is this change really necessary?”
You want people to be receptive to the change in name! But you’re not sure if people will welcome it.
So, you propose this to your leadership team:
Hi! We’re aiming to foster more autonomy in our teams. I’ve been excited to see that!
In this vein, I want to propose we rename the “individual contributor” role to team contributor. To me, this highlights a subtle but important expectation of this role that I think we all already share:
“Individual contributor” means “I contribute individually. My job is to do the tasks I’m asked to do.
“Team contributor” means “I contribute to our team. My job is to do what’s best our team’s goals.”
Do folks think this will be well-received? Do you all support this?
You might get reactions like:
“I like the idea!”
“I like the intent of this! But I think ICs already do what’s best for their team and don’t just do what they’re told. So I don’t know if there’s tangible benefit from this change.”
“^^ agreed with ICs already doing what’s best for their team! And, I am hiring a ton of ICs right now. I could see ‘Team Contributor’ making it clear to new hires that their job is to do what’s best for their team. So this change might be great for our new hires.”
“I see! Yeah, why not make this change then?”
You: “So, are folks supportive of this?”
“Yep!”
Of course, your peers welcoming your idea is the best-case scenario. Maybe your peers push back on the idea because there are tons of changes going on in the org — and this can be addressed in a future time. That’s fine too.
My point here is to invite others into changing language with you. Don’t just change the language on your own.
Choose your words wisely
To recap:
You'll hear common words in your org. Learn what they specifically mean.
Make the meaning of those words explicit. If the meaning is implicit, ask for what they mean. If others also don’t know what they mean, define it with others.
Know that changing language can change your organization’s culture.
But changing culture is tricky. It requires the support of others! Invite others into your ideas when considering changing language.
Language is a powerful place to intervene in an organization. Choose your words wisely.
See you next week,
–tim
You can still get a 15% discount (with the code OVERLAP) to Doing Better Work Together. My teammates will be doing a session!
In airports, Air Traffic Controls direct aircraft on the ground and also in a given airspace. In climbing, Air Traffic Controllers are a device that secures a climber to a rope as they climb up. Interesting, huh?