Your environment shapes you. Words are a significant
part of your environment. If you want positive change
in your work and life, watch the words around you.
words matter! The Words Matter Movement
involves being a practitioner of careful, thoughtful
and deliberate positive communication. It is so easy
to speak without thinking; to not genuinely listen and connect
with people. When words are used in the wrong way it can be
devastating.
Words are a container of power. Words motivate or deflate
thoughts, hopes, dreams and actions. Words have the power
to excite, inspire, sadden, frighten, anger or give hope during
times of change. Language is behavior. What you say matters.
It shapes your environment, your work and your life.
I am particularly aware of the power of words because my
father would refuse to hear negative words. When I was a child
he would say, “I can’t hear you” when I would whine or
complain about something. So, the first time he said it, I
naturally said the same screeching whine only louder. It wasn’t
until he said, “I can’t hear you, I only can hear positive words”
that I realized if I was going to get what I wanted, I had to say
it in a more positive way. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he
was treating the way he communicated with me like a behav-
ioral science experiment. My dad, having an extensive
psychology background, was practicing the B.F. Skinner
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approach to behavioral psychology in shaping my communi-
cation style. The good news is that it worked! It conditioned
me to look for the positive and speak from a more positive
thought process.
When I spoke about this wordplay in a keynote presentation
on change and the important role of effective communication
(conTInUED on PAGE 44)