These days, many companies march to war. Management gathers in “war rooms”. HR hires “headhunters” to win the “war for talent”. Finance “defends” the margins. Marketing creates “battle cards”. Sales “conquers” new customer. In this article, I first explore the general effect language has on our thinking. Then I quote some pros and cons around the martial terminology in business. I conclude with a few considerations.

Language matters

The idea that language impacts the way we think was prominently expressed by the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, originating back to Eduard Sapir ( +1939) and Benjamin Worf ( +1941). It suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ world view and or cognition. This theme of ‘language shaping a world view’ appears only few years later culturally in George Orwell’s dystopian “1984” (written 1948). In the Appendix, Orwell explains the principles of “Newspeak” – the official language of Oceania:

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to de devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible.”

George Orwell. 1984. Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak. First published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd 1949.

More scientifically, Kahneman & Tversky showed 1981 that “framing” a problem has significant impact on the response of subjects. While – in terms of statistical probability – a problem might stay the same, the preference for one or the other solution changes dramatically depending on how the problem is stated. The authors conclude: “The dependence of preferences on the formulation of decision problems is a significant concern for the theory of rational choice.” Starting from Sapir-Whorf, over Orwell, down to Kahneman & Tversky everything implies that our language has impact on how we think and solve problems. This is true for businesses as well: The language used in business has impact on how a company runs.

Praising “War rooms”

In my personal business life, I have experienced so called “war rooms”. While most people might know “war rooms” as a place all information about a project are physically present, my experience was different. I was in “war rooms” that were about strategic targets and battles. The atmosphere can be intriguing, nicely described by Falon Fatemi in a Forbes article:

So what’s the war room mindset? It’s a sense of imminence, confidence, and dominance. It means being blunt, making decisions based on data, and winning battles for market share—not just 60-40, but 98-2.

Falon Fatemi. Why Your Company Needs a War Room. Appeared Feb 7, 2016 on Forbes.com

This sounds energetic, positive, with a sense of open possibilities. Yet, it’s only one side of the coin.

Dismissing “War rooms”

One of my friends leads the CRM function in a big corporation. After a war room meeting, she was urgently approached by a manager: “In the war room, the CEO demanded more results. We need to get this integration into CRM in the next two weeks!” My friend voiced her concerns about timeline, especially given best practices of checking data privacy and security aspects prior to any integration work. The answer was that the CEO seamed clear in his expectation, and her team would be quoted as road blocker if there is any delay. What to do? She was lucky enough to have a good relationship with a senior leader, one of the stakeholders in the war room. She reached out and asked directly: “Was this integration discussed in the war room?” Answer: “Yes, it seems this is really important, please put it as priority!” She continued: “Okay, we can focus on it, but it requires to check on data privacy and security first. Shall we skip this step to speed up?” The answer was as clear as expected: “Privacy and security are key concerns we can’t compromise on. If they delay the project, what do you suggest?” She offered a solution: “I can talk to our DPO and Corporate IT today, and see how we can speed up. I can’t promise anything right now, but I can give you an update tomorrow – and we take it from there.” Senior leader was supportive: “Okay. If you need support, let me know. Please give a progress update latest in the next war room.”

“War room” mentality changes peoples perception. The manager under pressure passed the fire to another team (-> CRM). This team was in danger of compromising on things they should not. Such a compromise would not have been in the interest of senior leadership. Still, it was likely to happen due to the mental state of “everything is at stake, we’re in war, the general demands it.” Scott Killingsworth summarizes it nicely:

War is a matter of survival: the stakes are enormous, the mission urgent, and all’s fair. Exigent pressures grant us wide moral license, releasing us from adherence to everyday rules and justifying extreme tactics in pursuit of a higher goal; we must, after all, kill or be killed. If business is war, survival is at stake, and competitors, customers, suppliers, rivals or authorities are our enemies, then not only may we do whatever it takes to win, it’s our duty to do so.

Scott Killingsworth. War Games: How Framing Shapes Our Conduct. Appeared June 17th, 2015 on Ethisphere Magazine.

Take a mindful approach

Relating to my experience, I do see how a ‘war’ language can spark a fire, create urgency, help to unify and drive business results. At the same time, I believe such a language can have negative, business threatening side effects. These are often hidden – and therefore even more dangerous. I suggest three approaches if a business wants to embrace a martial terminology:

1. Be aware: As a first step, business leaders need to be aware on the effect of language. While business might be seen as rational undertaking, Kahneman & Tversky showed that language has an impact no matter if you believe you are ‘rational’ or you are solving a ‘rational’ problem. Humans are not robots. Mind your language.
2. Consider alternatives: Humans are creative. We can make glass by heating ordinary sand. Imagine an ancient company having a ‘war room’ to form strategies how to increase their share of the ‘sand pie’. Now imagine their competitor having a ‘room of possibilities‘, discussing ways to increase the value of sand by making glass out of it. Guess which company creates more value and strives? In war, you win or you loose, but the world is not a zero sum game. It’s not just a distribution battle. Consider the possibility to change to a positive mindset, through which you create something new for your customers, employees and community. You don’t need the rumbling war-mentality for that. You need a growth mentality with your mind set on positive.
3. Check consequences. As illustrated in the story above, a ‘war’ language can compromise on other company values or be in conflict with your company culture. Be consistent, and mind the negative side effects wrongly guided ‘soldiers’ can produce.

Resources

• Linguistic Relativity. Wikipedia.
• Framing. Wie Sprache manipulieren kann. Podcast SWR2 Wissen, 03.01.2021, by Hans W. Giessen.
• George Orwell. 1984. First published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd 1949.
• Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky. The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science  30 Jan 1981: Vol. 211, Issue 4481, pp. 453-458
• Falon Fatemi. Why Your Company Needs a War Room. Appeared Feb 7, 2016 on Forbes.com
• Scott Killingsworth. War Games: How Framing Shapes Our Conduct. Appeared June 17th, 2015 on Ethisphere Magazine.