Leverage Inclusive Language To Improve Organizational Functionality

(0:17) Hi everyone, welcome, welcome. I hope that you are enjoying our conference so far. (0:22) My name is Laraine McKinnon.

I’m the head of client experience. (0:25) I am super excited to be here with Dr. Suzanne Wertheim, whom I’ve known for a few years now (0:32) and have followed along as she has written and published her book, (0:37) The Inclusive Language Field Guide, Six Simple Principles for Avoiding Painful Mistakes and (0:45) Communicating Respectfully. And can’t we all use that? Welcome, Suzanne.

(0:51) Thank you so much. And I have to say it is the longest possible (0:56) subtitle, but it’s for SEO. It’s not really meant to be read out loud, you know.

It’s just like (1:01) when people are like, communicate respectfully, the whole idea is bring them to my book. It’s (1:04) such a mouthful, but thank you. Delighted to be here.

(1:08) But we, but we love language and we love the intentionality behind the subtitle too. (1:14) And I think that there’s, you know, there’s something really interesting here. (1:18) We’ve had a movement over the last few years around inclusive language.

(1:22) We may have exhausted some people on inclusive language, and I’d like to talk about that. (1:27) But we also have much more to do in terms of reconciling and recognizing some of the (1:34) language that has become embedded, particularly in the American speak. (1:38) But you have done research globally and this is pervasive around the world as well.

(1:43) So first I just wanted to give a brief introduction so that our audience knows how cool you are. (1:48) Suzanne earned her PhD in linguistics from UC Berkeley, go Cal. (1:52) Went on to teach in university faculty and now runs a research and consulting company.

(1:58) I was really struck by the fact that you did global research, particularly for your dissertation, (2:03) and that you’ve done research for US government clients, (2:06) and you have held top secret security clearance. (2:10) Most people don’t talk about it, but it’s true. (2:13) And I’ll tell you the other tidbit that when I was professoring at UCLA, (2:16) I used to get invited to meet the professor night at sororities, (2:21) and they would always introduce me as having been under secret police surveillance in Russia, (2:24) because that was the thing that I would talk about in my class, (2:27) because who’s listening affects how we talk, right? (2:30) And you can be very scientific about it.

(2:33) But that was, I was like, oh, I guess that’s what makes me interesting. (2:36) So they would bring me in for that. (2:38) It is definitely a fun fact.

(2:41) And it’s also perhaps not what we would think about (2:43) somebody doing their PhD in linguistics. (2:46) Although if you do think about the way that the world operates (2:49) and where we’re going in terms of the new technologies, (2:53) the listening tools that are out there, (2:54) the AI and how AI is going to start shaping and forming our language, (2:58) it’s all quite fascinating. (3:01) So let’s start with the current state of language.

(3:04) And, you know, for us at Emtrain and for many of our clients, (3:07) we have been following along in the most recent years. (3:11) In 2020, we saw a real movement across, driven by the murder of George Floyd (3:17) and being more thoughtful about our terminology, (3:21) particularly for, you know, historically language that talked about Blacks and slavery. (3:31) We saw the big movement in engineering to remove terminology (3:34) like blacklist and whitelist from allowances, (3:39) to drop the master and slave from the coding terminology, (3:43) which gave a hierarchy within codes.

(3:46) More recently through COVID and through the advance (3:50) and more people sharing about mental health, (3:53) we are really becoming more focused on not using words like crazy or insane, (3:58) those words of diagnosis in our everyday language. (4:02) And of course, we’ve had some wonderful normalization of terminology, (4:09) pronouns being far more fluid, us asking people for their pronouns, all of that. (4:17) So we’ve had this movement towards inclusive language at the same time (4:20) that we have had a lot of this behavior become politicized (4:24) because of our upcoming election, (4:26) which is like 13 days away or something like that.

(4:28) It’s just, yeah, wild. (4:31) So help us understand where we are in the current state of language. (4:35) I find, isn’t this interesting? (4:40) So I keep, I’m just going to come out with the word bivalent, (4:43) but so basically what I’m finding is it’s like a little horseshoe (4:47) and the most vocal people are on either end of the horseshoe, (4:50) but I think most people live in the middle of the horseshoe.

(4:53) And so what we find is a lot of people who are very resistant (4:57) and will take anything. (4:58) I was just reading on the internet the other day (5:01) where somebody’s stepfather ripped up their little sister’s homework. (5:06) She’s in elementary school and was learning about pronouns as grammar, right? (5:09) So police says to the point where it’s literally just grammar, (5:12) here are the parts of speech of English.

(5:14) And he ripped up with anger and like foaming at the mouth (5:17) and called up the school and yelled at the teacher. (5:20) So that’s happening. (5:22) And then you also have people who, my colleagues who are executives (5:26) and trying to figure out and people leaders (5:28) and trying to figure out what to do, (5:30) call like the gotcha warriors.

(5:32) People who have like no grace and are very impatient (5:37) and are coming in with a lot of lived experience (5:41) or knowing things and don’t have the patience to wait for people (5:45) to come into a different knowledge space (5:48) and start actually practicing new behaviors. (5:53) And so these are the most vocal people. (5:56) And I think a lot of people in the rest of the horseshoe (5:59) is we’re picturing that.

(6:00) So it’s like coming through like a screen or something. (6:03) And so we’re seeing the two prongs. (6:05) But I think most people actually live in the rest of it, (6:08) in the in-between where they’re like, (6:11) I don’t wanna get canceled.

(6:12) I don’t wanna hurt people’s feelings. (6:14) I don’t wanna say the wrong thing (6:16) and have the wrong attention drawn to me. (6:18) I want to create a civil workplace (6:21) and I wanna be part of, I know I’m a good person.

(6:24) How can I get my language to a place (6:26) where the language that I’m using is modern, (6:30) it’s up to date, (6:31) and it is having the impact that shows my good intentions. (6:35) And so that’s the place that I find. (6:38) And I will say that because of all this politicization, (6:42) a lot of people come into my keynotes (6:44) and my workshops with preconceptions, (6:47) especially that there’s gonna be blaming and shaming, (6:50) which I’m very against.

(6:51) And it doesn’t help people with change management ever (6:54) if you blame or shame. (6:55) But a lot of people come in from a very stressed out place. (6:59) In person, I’ll see a lot of stressed out body language (7:02) and visually I’ll see a lot of stressed out stuff, (7:05) including I’ve had to cut Q&A time down (7:07) because people don’t feel comfortable (7:10) publicly asking questions (7:11) or I ask people to pre-collect questions (7:16) in an anonymized way so we can use them.

(7:19) Yeah. (7:20) Yeah, fascinating. (7:22) We have an inclusive language training, (7:25) which is online, (7:26) so somewhat anonymous and anonymized.

(7:30) And then we also have an ask the expert (7:31) where you can ask someone, (7:33) an expert in the field a question. (7:35) And it just strikes me that a lot of people (7:37) do really appreciate learning about certain things (7:41) without the public speaking, (7:43) without having to ask the question (7:45) in front of a group of people. (7:46) And as we’re working with clients in particular (7:50) and thinking through, (7:52) like, should we roll out an inclusive language training? (7:54) Should we have an inclusive language workshop here? (7:58) It really strikes me that it’s compelling (8:03) for organizations who want to drive inclusion, (8:06) but also to something you said, (8:08) who want to have modern managers, right? (8:11) Who want to have a manager (8:12) who can respectfully and appropriately (8:18) hire people from different backgrounds, (8:21) promote people from different backgrounds, (8:23) and have a really productive and collaborative team.

(8:26) And language and the use of language (8:28) is so critical to that. (8:30) And the problem is that language is something (8:35) that we do on autopilot a lot of the time. (8:40) Language is really unique (8:41) in terms of the framework of human skills.

(8:46) And it takes us a very, very long time (8:48) to speak grammatically, right? (8:50) We learn, so we think about (8:52) all the cute mistakes kids make, (8:53) but it takes even longer to learn how to speak (8:56) what we consider appropriately (8:58) according to the cultural norms (8:59) and shifting to be appropriate from context to context. (9:03) And so again, adorable children’s mistakes, right? (9:07) But then the mistakes, like, (9:08) this is part of the stress that people feel (9:10) when they start a new job (9:11) is there’s this whole set of unwritten rules (9:14) at the workplace, this whole set of cultural norms (9:16) that they’re going to have to figure out (9:18) not just what is my work and how do I produce it, (9:21) but how do I fit in so that I am appropriate (9:23) with my colleagues? (9:25) And that is amplified for people (9:27) who are neurodivergent, particularly autistic people. (9:30) So the more that we can have discussions (9:33) about language where we take things (9:35) from sort of this undifferentiated mass (9:38) that you do on autopilot, (9:39) that’s been lodged in your brain (9:41) and make it so that people can see patterns (9:45) that were previously hidden to them (9:47) and discuss those patterns in productive ways.

(9:50) I find this is the path forward (9:52) to help people feel empowered, (9:54) like they have a toolkit, (9:55) like they can have discussions on their own (9:57) that are scientific and not about blaming (10:01) and shaming again. (10:03) Yep. (10:03) Talk a little bit about that in terms of patterns, (10:06) shifting the habits, (10:07) having that framework or toolkit (10:09) that you could use on the fly.

(10:12) Well, this is why I wrote the book (10:14) and the book is based on things (10:16) that I field tested in my workshops (10:17) and keynotes and executive coaching (10:20) and for global clients, right? (10:22) Everything that stuck, (10:24) not everything that stuck, (10:25) there’s a page limit for books, (10:26) but I put as much as I could in the book (10:28) because what I found is (10:31) since I was teaching (10:32) as a young teaching assistant, (10:34) I started to see resistance (10:37) to scientific facts about language. (10:39) And I was very surprised (10:40) because I was just like, (10:41) I was like 25 or 26 and being like, (10:44) here’s an article about gender bias in language (10:46) and I would see resistance. (10:48) So I’ve over the decades (10:49) tried to figure out (10:50) how can I bypass resistance (10:52) and get people to accept this? (10:55) And that’s where my six principles (10:56) of inclusive language comes in.

(10:58) So in fact, let me just, (10:59) if you don’t mind, (10:59) let me just rattle them off (11:01) because they are shared core values (11:04) that people can come together. (11:07) They are universal (11:08) and they’re universally aspirational. (11:10) Everybody wants to be treated this way.

(11:12) And so it makes sense to people (11:14) rather than this long list of words. (11:16) I’m like, forget a long list of words (11:18) that’s constantly changing. (11:19) You can’t memorize (11:20) this long list of words.

(11:21) People come in freaked out. (11:22) They’re like, it changes, it changes. (11:24) I’m like, but you can have discussions (11:27) using these six principles (11:29) that will help you keep up to date.

(11:31) OK, so the six principles (11:32) are very straightforward. (11:34) So when we are using language (11:38) that is modern, up-to-date, inclusive, (11:41) we are one, we reflect reality. (11:44) Two, we show respect.

(11:46) Three, we draw people in. (11:48) Four, we incorporate other perspectives. (11:51) Five, we prevent erasure.

(11:53) And six, we recognize pain points. (11:57) And that’s it. (11:58) And so when you give people (12:01) these hooks to hang the words (12:03) and the patterns on, they’re like, (12:05) oh, so when I say someone’s hair (12:08) is unprofessional because it isn’t straight, (12:12) I’m not incorporating other perspectives (12:14) and I’m not drawing people in (12:17) and I’m not recognizing pain points (12:20) where people who have textured hair (12:22) have been told that their hair (12:23) is inappropriate.

(12:25) Oh, I’m suggesting, (12:26) and I didn’t mean to suggest this, (12:28) that professional behavior in the U.S. (12:32) is white, masculine, (12:35) middle-class behavior and above, right? (12:37) And so giving people these points of entry (12:41) to understand rather than having to, (12:44) there’s so many dimensions. (12:45) I was talking to someone (12:45) at a global financial institution (12:47) and she was like, we just keep on adding. (12:50) She was so excited to find the book (12:51) and I’m doing a train the trainers with them, right? (12:53) But it’s like, they kept on adding.

(12:56) Think about globally. (12:56) Here’s this group of people. (12:58) Here’s this group of people.

(12:59) And you can’t, it’s too much for people (13:02) who don’t come from a social science background. (13:04) It’s too much to ask people to control all of that. (13:07) But a simple set of shared values (13:09) that they are like, oh, well, (13:10) I want to be treated with respect.

(13:11) Well, I want my perspective incorporated. (13:14) I find this is the way to bypass resistance (13:17) and drop people in. (13:18) Yeah, and I love your example around natural hair.

(13:22) In the U.S., I’d say that this has been (13:25) a real pain point to your point for Black women. (13:30) In fact, we see laws that have been passed (13:33) in New York and California protecting natural hair. (13:39) The discrimination that has happened historically (13:41) or the bias about you don’t look professional (13:43) unless your hair has been straightened (13:45) or people being told to like go home (13:49) and change their hair, really horrible.

(13:53) It does not impact the work that you do (13:56) for the vast majority of jobs. (13:58) And yet it’s just this perception (14:00) around professionalism. (14:01) It doesn’t reflect reality, right? (14:03) It doesn’t show respect.

(14:05) You’re excluding people as opposed to drawing people in. (14:08) You’re having your own, you know, (14:10) very straightforward perspective. (14:12) And you’re not really thinking (14:13) about the potential employee population, (14:17) which is quite broad across race and ethnicity.

(14:19) You are erasing part of a cultural heritage (14:23) when you are asking people to change their hairstyle. (14:27) And you’re certainly not recognizing the fact (14:30) that, you know, that person has probably experienced (14:32) this type of comment before (14:34) and just emotionally very difficult. (14:37) So I was thrilled to see New York and California (14:40) put those in as protected characteristics.

(14:42) We actually did a lesson (14:43) in our Preventing Workplace Harassment course (14:45) on natural hair so that we could ensure (14:48) that, you know, people know why (14:51) and how to be respectful there. (14:54) So love the framework. (14:55) I do think you’re right.

(14:56) Language is always changing. (14:58) I do see that as one of the stresses that people have. (15:00) Like, how do I know (15:01) that I’m not going to say something wrong? (15:04) Can we talk a little bit about feedback, call-outs? (15:10) Like how do you tell someone (15:12) when maybe they’ve said something (15:13) that could be, you know, upsetting to someone else? (15:17) The first thing is, I think, to think about the context.

(15:24) Again, everything for me is I’m incredibly pragmatic. (15:27) In fact, I’ve started moving away (15:29) from when pitching for, like, (15:32) keynotes for executive off-sites, right? (15:33) You know, I’ve started moving away (15:35) from terminology like inclusive language (15:37) because there are so many misconceptions, (15:39) preconceptions, resistances. (15:41) I find that there are a lot of people (15:43) who come to my workshops thinking, or my book, (15:48) they’re forced to read the book, right, by somebody.

(15:50) And they come in resistant. (15:52) And then I get emails from people being like, (15:54) I thought I would get really mad. (15:56) And I thought you were going to attack me.

(15:57) But this is just science. (15:58) And you’re just helping me understand (16:00) how the world works. (16:01) And I’m like, right.

(16:02) So for me, I’m very pragmatic. (16:05) So for calling out, I always recommend calling in instead. (16:09) In fact, Karen Catlin runs a Better Allies newsletter.

(16:13) And just this week, she was talking about, (16:14) in last week’s newsletter, (16:16) she was talking about how people are giving her feedback. (16:19) Then when I was talking about people (16:20) that some of my CPOs are calling the gotcha warriors, right? (16:23) Like who will jump on somebody immediately. (16:26) And it’s not helpful.

(16:28) And people are just coming, like she said, (16:30) they’re just retracting like turtles back into their shells. (16:32) And they don’t want to talk. (16:34) So anything that pushes people to not engage, (16:38) to not be curious, to not be courageous, (16:41) to not move forward, isn’t going to work.

(16:43) So I always recommend pulling people aside. (16:45) And then I recommend using the principles. (16:48) Because the principles demonstrate (16:50) where things have gone off the rails.

(16:53) And I will add to this, that one reason (16:56) I came up with the principles of, (16:58) I still have friends who are academics. (17:00) And they had students who were very enthusiastic. (17:02) And they’re seeing the unfairness of the world.

(17:05) And they’re all fired up. (17:06) And they would overreach, right? (17:08) They would overextend and be like, (17:10) you can’t say bag lunch because brown paper bags (17:13) were part of a racist colorist test. (17:16) And I’m like, oh, but there’s nothing wrong (17:18) with brown bags, right? (17:19) Like, you know, or people will get upset (17:22) that people are even mentioning race at all (17:24) when it’s part of reflecting reality (17:26) and accurately talking about sociodemographics (17:29) when they’re relevant.

(17:30) We don’t want to talk about race when it’s not relevant (17:32) and only highlight the race of people of color (17:34) because that’s centering whiteness, right? (17:36) But there are times that we do need to talk (17:38) about sociodemographics. (17:40) So I would say, if somebody can’t demonstrate (17:45) using the six principles why something is problematic, (17:47) then it’s probably okay. (17:49) But I find that the six principles allow people to say, (17:53) hey, I don’t know if you understand (17:55) the impact of this word.

(17:57) Let me explain to you, here are these principles (17:59) of language that lands well. (18:01) And when you say this, it violates this principle. (18:04) And here’s why you might not know about this history, right? (18:08) And so you might not understand.

(18:09) You’re saying articulate in a very complimentary way. (18:12) It’s funny, articulate feels very basic (18:15) for people who have been sitting with workplace culture (18:18) for a long time and trying to figure out (18:20) how to make things more equitable (18:23) and a better workplace for people. (18:26) But I find that there are still a gazillion people out there (18:29) who don’t understand what’s wrong (18:34) with telling a black person that they’re articulate.

(18:37) Oh, you’re so articulate, right? (18:39) So there are times that I’m coming in (18:41) from whatever level I’m at. (18:42) And a lot of people still have a zero starting point (18:45) for a lot of words. (18:46) And so you have to be able to explain the why (18:49) instead of just saying, that’s racist, right? (18:51) It doesn’t help anybody, but you can say, (18:53) oh, you might not understand that there’s a history (18:56) of black people being presumed incompetent at work, (18:59) being assumed that they don’t understand (19:02) how to speak standard dialects, (19:03) that they don’t have a wide vocabulary, (19:06) that they don’t have high levels of education.

(19:08) And when you say articulate as if it’s a surprise, (19:11) here’s what the subtext is. (19:13) I don’t think that’s the subtext you wanna say. (19:15) And then someone can be like, let me put it this way.

(19:17) I’ve got a black friend. (19:18) I’m not saying that to Brad, but I’ve got a black friend (19:21) and I had her do a sensitivity read (19:23) on all the race related stuff. (19:25) I had readers for every aspect of my book.

(19:27) Like whatever identity I was talking about (19:29) that I’m not part of, I asked people to read. (19:32) And she’s like, oh, this book is like, (19:34) hey, you got some spinach in your teeth, right? (19:37) And so that’s the framework. (19:40) She goes, that’s the framework.

(19:42) You wanna say to people, (19:43) oh, you got some spinach in your teeth. (19:44) When you said professional, (19:46) you got some spinach in your teeth. (19:47) You didn’t realize that it’s coming across like this.

(19:50) Let me help you take that spinach out of your teeth. (19:53) That’s what I’m always recommending to people. (19:55) And I’m finding again that using scientific principles (19:58) of behavior that everyone shares (20:01) is the way to bypass resistance.

(20:03) So yeah. (20:05) Yeah. (20:05) So the spinach in the teeth that you would wanna know, (20:08) especially if you’re a manager, (20:10) if you’d like to move up in this organization, (20:12) if you’re working in sales, (20:13) if you’re working with clients, (20:15) if you’re working with vendors, (20:16) you would wanna know (20:18) that there’s gonna be this perception, (20:20) not only of the language that you use, (20:22) but of you because you haven’t sort of had the awareness (20:26) to work in a very connected, global, diverse workplace.

(20:32) And so I think a lot of this comes back to, (20:36) if you wanna have people grow within your organization, (20:41) this is gonna be like a key skill for managers (20:45) over the next five years. (20:46) Like I would expect in 2025, (20:48) that all people leaders managing a team of 50 people or more (20:53) must learn inclusive language. (20:56) Because if they don’t, (20:58) they will not be able to take advantage (21:00) of the diverse perspectives within the organization.

(21:02) They will be unintentionally insulting people. (21:05) They’ll have a lot of spinach in their teeth (21:07) and it will make them look bad (21:08) as well as making the organization look bad. (21:11) And so there’s just such a bit of an aha.

(21:14) Like how can we learn this to our own advantage? (21:17) That’s also, I find often for senior leaders, (21:21) a good way for them to think (21:22) like it’s gonna make them smarter. (21:25) And so that’s something that makes it far more appealing (21:28) for them to read the book. (21:29) This is actually gonna make you smarter (21:31) and make you better at your job (21:32) and make people respect you more.

(21:34) So it is a lot of that. (21:35) And trust you more. (21:37) So what I say in almost all of my talks (21:39) is every single thing that you say and write (21:42) affects your relationships with other people.

(21:44) So just the fact of having a conversation (21:47) with somebody that doesn’t go off the rails (21:49) is actually a net positive. (21:51) Every time you interact with somebody and it’s okay, (21:55) it actually builds trust, (21:56) builds a strong relationship. (21:59) But when you throw in problematic language, it chips away.

(22:04) And what happens with problematic language, (22:07) this is why people have to bring in experts like me (22:09) to figure out when there are these leaky buckets (22:13) that are related to language, (22:15) they’re not connecting the dots. (22:16) And they don’t understand that they’re losing employees. (22:20) They’re losing job candidates that they really wanted.

(22:24) They’re losing market share. (22:25) They’re driving people away with their website, (22:28) even their intake forms. (22:29) I mean, there’s so many places that language is ending.

(22:33) It’s not just damaging relationships, (22:34) it’s ending relationships. (22:36) And that can be invisible to people (22:38) because in the business context, (22:40) when somebody is alienated (22:41) and repelled by problematic language, (22:43) they almost never tell you, right? (22:46) They almost never tell you. (22:47) They just disappear.

(22:49) And I know in sales, ghosting is a huge issue, right? (22:51) And so a lot of the time for the ghosting (22:54) is somebody looks at you and they’re like, (22:56) this person hasn’t considered me at all. (22:58) It’s all about them. (23:00) They haven’t taken me into consideration.

(23:01) They haven’t thought about what my experience is like. (23:04) They don’t care about me. (23:06) And they don’t care about me (23:07) and they haven’t taken me into consideration (23:09) is death now for any relationship, business or personal.

(23:14) Let me throw in one more thing about managers. (23:16) I consult with employment lawyers too. (23:19) And in my book and in my workshops, (23:22) I talk about linguistic distortions (23:24) that distort reality.

(23:26) And what I find with managers (23:27) and also people in people organizations, HR people, (23:31) that if they don’t recognize linguistic distortions, (23:34) they’re amplifying legal risk. (23:37) So the distortions are in particular inflating language (23:41) where someone who’s behaving just fine (23:43) is described as if they’re behaving badly, (23:47) abrasive, offensive, insubordinate, rude. (23:49) It’s the same as whistleblower retaliation, right? (23:52) And it’s most often aimed at people (23:54) from underrepresented groups, but not always.

(23:56) It could just be someone who hasn’t been there that long (23:58) and is trying to point out, (24:00) oh, at my old company, we had a problem with that. (24:03) How dare you come in? (24:04) You’ve only been here five months. (24:05) And it’s like, but I’m just trying to show the problem.

(24:08) Conversely, people in power positions, (24:10) and it might mean they belong to dominant groups, (24:13) are often have their bad behavior described (24:16) as if it’s acceptable. (24:17) And so I see this in particular with sexual harassment (24:21) and bullying and things that create a toxic workplace, (24:25) things that are lawsuit friendly. (24:27) If you go into discovery as a lawyer, (24:30) managers and HR people aren’t equipped (24:33) to recognize these distortions without training.

(24:36) It’s hard to pick it apart. (24:37) Once you see it, you see it, you’re like, (24:39) oh, that’s inflating language. (24:40) Oh, that’s softening language.

(24:42) That’s not, you should take it as a compliment. (24:44) That’s sexual harassment, right? (24:45) And without that, what I’m finding is (24:48) that they’re really amplifying risk, (24:50) risk of employee demotivation, (24:52) risk of employee departure and risk of lawsuits. (24:56) So this is another reason for managers (24:59) to upskill themselves so they can CYA.

(25:04) And it’s just better for the company, (25:06) but also they don’t get pulled into a bad situation. (25:13) That’s a legal situation that they could have nipped right (25:15) in the bud if they had seen things more clearly. (25:18) You bet.

(25:18) Absolutely. (25:19) Couldn’t agree more. (25:20) We’re founded by an employment lawyer, litigator, (25:23) and we are weaving in this inclusive language (25:28) in our Preventing Workplace Harassment course.

(25:31) We’re talking about it in the context of discrimination. (25:34) And we’re showing these examples, (25:35) these workplace video scenes that show (25:37) a problematic behavior and then often the way to remedy it. (25:41) How do you as a team hold yourself accountable (25:45) to this inclusive language? (25:47) How do you yourself hold yourself in check? (25:50) I, like many others, have often used the word crazy.

(25:54) I have worked very hard to get it out of my language. (25:57) I replaced the word crazy with wild. (26:00) I was on with a client two days ago (26:04) who I heard her use the word wild, (26:07) and I thought, oh, she’s also done this work.

(26:09) She’s really intentionally using that word instead of crazy. (26:13) I notice in your book, you’ve got a whole set of, (26:18) like, use this, not that. (26:20) We have some of that in our inclusive language course (26:23) as well as in our Preventing Workplace Harassment course.

(26:26) Those awarenesses, right, so that we can avoid (26:29) some of that language has been super helpful for us. (26:34) So I do encourage folks as teams to work on this together, (26:37) whether it’s rolling out the Emtrain training, (26:40) using Suzanne’s book. (26:41) It’s an opportunity for us.

(26:43) It’s almost like a little bit of a game. (26:45) Like, it’s almost fun for us to challenge one another (26:50) and challenge ourselves to use the appropriate language. (26:53) And I think what’s been sort of interesting for all of us (26:58) is to come to our own conclusions, (27:01) listen to what we’re saying, (27:02) and start to have that own context (27:05) without having to be told that’s not a great word anymore, (27:08) to actually realize it ourselves.

(27:10) It’s like an enlightenment that can happen for us (27:13) in our own use of language. (27:15) I think also just coming from teaching intro linguistics, (27:18) language is filled with patterns that, (27:21) it’s almost like a colorblind person, right? (27:23) Can’t see the number, right? (27:26) But linguistics and linguistic anthropology (27:28) is teaching people regardless, (27:30) like I can show you the pattern (27:32) and then once you start to see it, (27:34) how did I not see that before? (27:36) Once you see it, you see it. (27:38) And that feeling of being able to recognize (27:41) things you couldn’t recognize before is so empowering.

(27:44) And one last positive thing is, (27:50) people tell me, especially leaders, (27:54) that they didn’t know that such a small change (27:57) would make people feel so positively. (27:59) They get feedback where someone will pull them aside (28:01) and be like, (28:02) I noticed you don’t say guys in meetings anymore. (28:05) And I just have to say, (28:06) I feel so much more comfortable.

(28:08) It makes me trust you so much more. (28:11) I noticed that you’re using the accent (28:12) in my name all the time and I’m so grateful. (28:15) Like I feel so seen.

(28:18) Or I’ve noticed that you switched to spouse and partner (28:20) and my partner is non-binary (28:23) and it’s so nice to realize (28:25) that you are keeping me in mind (28:27) when you talk about these things. (28:29) The amount of warmth, people don’t recognize it. (28:31) The feedback is so little, (28:33) but I promise you that when people (28:35) have been forgotten about and marginalized, (28:38) and then you’re using language that recognizes them, (28:41) I promise you that they are feeling so warmly towards you.

(28:45) It builds up so much goodwill that you, (28:47) the tiniest change can build up enormous goodwill. (28:50) So I want to end with that. (28:52) Yeah, absolutely.

(28:53) And I think the importance of that (28:55) is it drives greater engagement. (28:57) It drives greater loyalty, right? (28:59) You are going to have people (29:00) who choose to stay at your organization (29:03) because you’ve made it a safe and comfortable space (29:06) and you are going to reduce your turnover. (29:09) And not only that, (29:09) you’re going to have everybody (29:10) who’s there doing that good work (29:12) tell their friends you need to come work here (29:14) because this is a good place.

(29:16) And that solves a lot of retention issues. (29:19) It solves a lot of our growth and innovation issues. (29:21) So there’s so much more downstream impact (29:25) to inclusive language that we can all recognize.

(29:27) Thank you so much for sharing your expertise, (29:29) your book, highly recommended. (29:32) And for those folks who are clients (29:34) who’d like to learn more inclusive language, (29:37) micro lessons and preventing workplace harassment (29:39) is right there in your content library for many of you. (29:42) And if you are not yet an Emtrain client (29:44) and want to have a conversation, (29:45) please do let us know via chat.

(29:48) Amazing. (29:49) Thank you, Suzanne. (29:50) Thank you so much.

(29:53) Our next session will be on (29:55) using our code of conduct training to spot risk. (29:59) We’ll have the Chief Compliance Officer from ARM, (30:02) Michael Green, (30:02) speaking with our CEO and founder, Janine Yancey. (30:05) Join us there.