My Life in Practice

Have you ever said something in a team meeting and gotten blank stares? Or polite chuckles?

I admit the reason passed over me most of the time because my team was quiet in general. For context, I was the only American on three teams composed of folks from all over India. It also doesn’t help that I have crowned myself the queen of butchering idioms.

One day I was chatting with a good friend and former team member. He joked about my use of idioms and how he never knew what I was talking about. I took that as feedback even though that was not necessarily his intention. It stuck in my mind, and I wondered what others on my team thought. The following Monday, I decided to ask a few trusted team members what they thought. What I found was that this was a sentiment shared across my teams. Another good friend and my lead analyst said that he would google what I said and if google could figure it out, he just moved on. Not exactly a great foundation for clear communication.

Here are just some of the examples I can remember using frequently:

“…from soup to nuts”

“…goonies style of personnel management”

“…there are lots of flavors of M&M’s doesn’t mean everyone agrees on the best flavor”

Sometimes the terms idiom, metaphor, and analogy are also conflated to mean the same thing. In the spirit of this topic, lets pause to define the terms.

Now we can revisit the examples I gave earlier and talk about what my intention was and why it can be problematic.

“…from soup to nuts”

I will be honest; I understood the intention but not the etymology.

• Intention: meant to convey “…from beginning to end”.
• Etymology: It comes from how multi-course meals were structured, starting with a soup course and ending with a nut course.
• Problems: This is primarily problematic since its reference point is cultural and even I didn’t know it’s origin.

“…goonies style of personnel management”

• Intention: meant to convey an “at all costs” style of leveraging people.
• Etymology: directly from the phrase “…Goonies never say die.”, from the popular American movie “The Goonies” from 1985.
• Problems: This is a deeply cultural reference and may only make sense to someone old enough to know that movie.

“…there are lots of flavors of M&M’s doesn’t mean everyone agrees on the best flavor”

• Intention: meant to convey that there may be many good ideas, but that doesn’t mean there is consensus on the “right” choice.
• Etymology: I’ll let you google this one as the original phrase is NSFW
• Problems: The origin is deeply problematic since the original phrase is NSFW. Otherwise, it does not necessarily convey the message.

Why does this matter and what do you do now?

Today business is global, which means more and more team make-ups are multi-cultural and globally distributed. Communication should be clear to all parties, or else context should be provided. One of my key phrases has always been that “words have meanings”. Which is a bit surprising given how poorly I was communicating meaning.

A key insight I keep coming back to is that some of the “normal” phrases we use in America have very problematic origins. I’ve sought out the etymology of those phrases to ensure I am not perpetuating biased language.

Can you change this? Absolutely!

The first thing I started doing was slowing down and recognizing when I was using an idiom, metaphor, or analogy. I also challenged my team to call me on it, being clear that this was a safe environment and I wanted the feedback. I also created a Microsoft Form so they could respond anonymously. That is the next step, be open to feedback. It’s highly likely you haven’t noticed that you are using these phrases without context.

Have you experienced this? Any key phrases you are using that might not be clear?

I’ll leave you with a great table that ChatGPT prepared for me (his name is Chatty McChatterson 😉). These are all meant to convey the idea of starting quickly.

Type	Good Example	Why It Works	Bad Example	Why It Fails
Idiom	“Hit the ground running with the new product”	Clearly conveys starting quickly; business-friendly	“Hit the jackpot with the new product”	Gambling idiom; may confuse or mislead culturally
Metaphor	“Launching the product is like igniting a rocket”	Evokes energy, forward momentum; universally understood	“Launching the product is like taming a dragon”	Implies danger/aggression; abstract or culturally loaded
Analogy	“Launching the product is like planting a garden: prepare, plant, nurture”	Stepwise, clear, relatable across cultures	“Launching the product is like wrestling a bear”	Intense imagery; may intimidate or confuse international teams

References

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Analogy. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analogy

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Idiom. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiom

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Metaphor. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor