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Slacker= Innovative: Words Matter
Written by Buddy Hobart on October 21st, 2009
I realized how words matter and how important it is for leaders to take control of the message and the vision, or it will be controlled for you. Here are just two examples that have passed my way:
Every single company we have worked with on strategic planning in the last year has had some kind of conversation regarding the development of a sustainable/green initiative. Words matter….as little as 10 years ago these conversations were between “tree huggers”, not corporate executives. Substitute the words….tree hugging = sustainable business practices.
In another recent post, I referred to a recent meeting with a wine maker in Napa Valley. I was surprised to learn that pairing food with wine is a relatively new idea. Before Napa Valley was a respected wine region, it was unheard of to pair food with wine, since the wine should have been able to stand on its own. The wine establishment at the time thought this was a “radical” idea that was a desperate attempt by an upstart. Fast forward to today and we know how innovative this simple idea really was at the time. Words matter….radical = innovative.
In Gen Y Now we try to expose the myths about Gen Y, and one of them is that they are slackers and lazy. Words matter. If a Baby Boomer asked questions and tried to find a simpler way to solve a problem, would we call them slackers? My bet is we would call them (us!) innovative. Words matter and there is a great chance we are not using the right words to describe Gen Y’s attempts to be as productive as possible. Let’s challenge ourselves to use the word INNOVATIVE. It is entirely possible that slacker = innovative.
Albert Ciuksza Jr. on March 15, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I couldn’t agree more with this point.
My boss and I had some early challenges because I would often look ways to automate very manual tasks. At one point, he actually called me lazy. I asked him how long it took him to do the task I was attempting to fix and he responded, “four hours.” I asked him if he would rather spend four hours or 15 minutes on it and he said, “15 minutes.” I then asked if he thought wanting to do the same work in 1/16th the time should be considered lazy or an effective use of time. He hasn’t called me lazy since.