The Same Vocabulary

Naomi Gleit is obsessed with what she calls 'extreme clarity' - making sure everyone has the same understanding of the facts. Not that they agree, just that they understand each other. And her first tool is canonical nomenclature: using words the same way.

She discovered teams were using 'consistency' and 'accuracy' interchangeably. But they're completely different things. You can be consistently wrong. Misalignment on vocabulary was causing people to talk past each other for months.

This happens constantly with children.

'Clean your room' - to you that means everything put away and bed made. To your four-year-old that means toys aren't on the floor anymore (the bed is still chaos). You think they're being defiant. They think they did what you asked.

'Soon' - you mean 20 minutes. They heard 'right after this commercial.'

'Be nice to your sister' - you mean don't hit her. They're confused because they gave her a hug and she still cried.

Naomi's principle: if you're misunderstanding each other, that's an incredible waste of time and emotional energy. Before you get frustrated, check if you're even speaking the same language.