I strongly believe the language a person uses is a window into the story a person is telling themselves.  Whatever that story is becomes that person’s reality.

My belief was confirmed during the opening exchanges of a conversation in the past week with a business owner.

My initial question in the conversation was to ask the business owner what he wanted to achieve from our conversation.  He responded the business was in transition from Point A to Point B and was looking for assistance in dealing with the challenges arising in that transition.

On hearing this, I was suspicious about how far the transition had progressed as the business owner had failed to define where the business was now and what the business was transitioning to become.

As the conversation progressed it was clear the transition had stalled in part because of the lack of commitment by the business owner to go “all-in” to make the transition a reality.  Thus, by telling a story using phrases that lacked clear definition (being Point A & Point B) the owner was avoiding conversations about committing to the transition.

The outcome of the conversation was for the owner to define using simple three-word phrases to describe what the business is today (being Point A) and what it is transitioning to in the future (being Point B).  The business owner committed to start using these phrases when he was discussing the future of the business.