Finding the right words through vocabulary profiles

The past few weeks have been an interesting time where the power of vocabulary is often misunderstood and, more often, underestimated. Every organization/team/social group has a vocabulary that is expected in order to be considered to be part of "the in crowd" or accepted.

The vocabulary you choose will have different axis; audience, emotional content, domain expertise, and learning style elements.

Whether it be your group of friends with whom you went to high school or your college colleagues or your work team or your bowling league, they all will have an expectation of the type of language you would use. Try using your sports event language in your work setting or your work setting language at your next dinner out with friends (ok don't try either of those, just image it). You will get strange looks if not outright shock at work (especially if you are a hockey fan!).

This impact is only compounded by politeness theory and the emotional responsiveness. The phrases like "who dropped the ball" and "whose fault is this" are rooted in anger and the real underlying question is missed by the recipient. In an attempt to diffuse the emotional response, the answer will often be deflective. The real question that should be asked in this situation would be "It looks like we missed something here. What steps do we need to take to bring us back on track?" The first two statements are focused on the who of the problem set while the latter is on the result. While obvious, it is worth stating; remaining calm and results oriented will always yield higher dividends over equal and opposite pair of behaviors.

The other vector to consider is that of domain expertise. As you work with different groups, it will be important to learn their specific language and jargon. This is not to say that you should fake it, but rather, be inquisitive and learn that is outside of your comfort zone to become more effective.

Some examples of terms:

• Program management: expectations, analysis paralysis, risks, issues, etc.
• Development: algorithms, design, multi-threading, "chewing on glass," etc.
• Test: Defects, test cases, scope, static/dynamic, white box, black box, etc
• Configuration management:SCM, trunk, branch, CM, etc.
• Operations: Network/power capacity, SAN, NAS, farms, etc.

While these are by no means the limit of the terms you will likely be expected to know, but it helps distinguish the differing expectations and perspectives between your team members in a software development project. Keep asking questions and be ok with saying I don't know.

The last area is determined by the learning style of your recipient; sensory vs intuitive, auditory versus visual, active versus reflective, and sequential versus global.

• Sensory learners look for facts while intuitive learners look for meaning.
• Auditory learners prefer words while visual learners prefer pictures.
• Active learners prefer to do versus reflective learners prefer to derive the solution.
• Sequential learners prefer order delivery versus global learners prefer the big picture.

Each of these different areas have language that is associated. It is better described with actual examples:

• Sensory active visual global learner would prefer to see how to create the chart that reports the cumulative usage of a service.
• Sensory active auditory global learner would prefer to read the instructions on how to create the chart that reports the cumulative usage of a service.
• Intuitive reflective visual global learner would want to understand why the chart was necessary and then work through the tools to create the chart.

These are a lot of differing areas to try to concentrate on when trying to simply have a conversation. Don't try to focus on all of them at once! Choose one and become proficient. Once you are proficient with one area and then move on to taking on a new area.

Over time, it will become second nature to pick up on people's vocabulary and then being able to mirror it as quickly as their body language.