Excerpt: 302010-03

The most common state in many unaware people…

This article examines how we use language—the words we use in everyday life. We explore one example of an overheard conversation in a coffee cafe and the implications of how we are perceived.

An Overheard Conversation

We are sitting in Peet’s Coffee and turning on our Macbooks to work for a few hours. We overhear two fellows behind us in a conversation, and one guy says, “What do you think of those In Search of Excellence guys”? Before the other person can answer, he says, “I think they’re full of crap!!!”.

Is Our Language Good Enough?

We couldn’t hear anything else they were saying: first because the coffee grinder drowned them out; second, we put on our headphones so we wouldn’t have to hear anyone or noise while we worked (i.e., we prefer Bach to stimulate creativity).

Back to the overheard comment. It stuck with us for a few minutes, enough to make us write some words about this thinking.

A question comes to mind about this statement. It reminds us of “Good Enough” (e.g., hey geeksters: not the software development process) and how prevalent this is in our culture and language. Our question is, “What are you in search of then – mediocrity?”. We see a direct correlation here. We have no idea the context of the conversation, the mood, or anything else except his words chosen and spoken.

Choosing Defines Us

This point is critical to us at Choice Awareness Management for good reason. Our overriding belief is an argument that choices define us: the words we choose and use define us – everything about us. We agree with the coaching sage C.T. (Tex) Johnston (i.e., see Eagle View’s Jed Niederer’s book “Coach Anyone About Anything”), who has commented many times that “We are arrogant and lazy with our language.” Bingo!!!

For us, In Search of Excellence was a unique book (i.e., included in our “American Guide to Success: Ideas to Reclaim, Inspire and Move Your Life” mainly because of the concept. Now more than ever, searching has been transforming for us – meaning now “being in demand of our excellence and others. “

It's curious. We have sloth and pride in our language. We prefer humility and gratitude. We hope that people will learn to listen more closely to what they are saying and what is being said. Why not think more about what you say before speaking?

Questions to Consider

Here is a question for you to ponder: What would your employees think if they heard what this person said and it came out of your mouth to them? Would they question the vision statement that may have you striving to be the best in your domain/industry? The apparent disconnect would instantly be noticed if they heard anything like this. What do you think?

Please accept this comment with favorable intent. We suggest you read more before speaking and think about your words. Then, when you are ready and prepared, use the guiding axiom, “Use your ears and mouth in proportion to their ratio.”

P.S. If mediocrity is what you truly desire, it will appear in various ways. If barely adequate works for you, please re-think the implications for you and those around you.

Try On Some Different Words

We invite you to examine positive and negative words. Reviewing these examples, you may learn something about the language you commonly use.

In Search of Mediocrity