Researchers have identified the need for common language as an essential ingredient when it comes to caring for our wellbeing, so that conversations about what enables us to thrive and what causes us to struggle can cascade through our homes, our workplaces and our community. By changing the discourse about a topic like wellbeing, you can positively impact the topic itself.  As our words create worlds, the first step towards creating positive change is focusing on the words that we want to grow as part of our everyday conversations.

The simplest way of scaling change more broadly is to talk about it. The more we talk about it, the more legitimacy it holds. However, to spread the conversation well, we need to develop simple, sticky language.

Some siblings just play extraordinarily well together. Like brothers Chip and Dan Heath who co-authored Made To Stick. They found these simple traits which all sticky ideas share:

• Sticky ideas are always unexpected. Novelty and surprise are our core brain’s needs.
• Use curiosity gaps to keep your listener’s attention. Present powerful facts, figures and questions as your opening line, and you’ll have poked your audience’s interest.
• The best way to get your ideas to stick is to tell great stories. What are some personal experiences of physical distance + social connection during quarantine that you can share to demonstrate you get it?

Every action is proceeded by a question. That means that before each step we take, there is a conscious, or unconscious, question that shapes our next steps. If we want to have conversations that spark change and take a generative approach (helping people see old things in new ways), then we need to get conscious and intentional about the questions we’re asking.

Feedback loops – the means by which a system talks to itself – hold the key to ensuring a living system continues receiving and connecting information inside and outside, at the top and at the bottom, and across and within the system, to prompt self-organization in ways that support its resilience and growth.

Like a thermostat in a house, feedback loops continually guard a system against being “too hot” or “too cold” by signalling deviations from the goal and providing information to help a system speed up, slow down, or hold steady when it comes to its approach to creating change. Feedback loops can be formal (e.g. surveys) or informal (e.g. conversations) but should always be diverse so you can track and fan the flames of positive change as needed.

For example, Professor Warren Nillson recommends considering the social field – the quality of relationships out of which a system grows – by asking: “What are people saying?” “What does the climate feel like?” “What’s working well?” “What needs healing to move forward?” “What’s emerging?” and “What do we want to build for our shared future?”

Researchers have identified the need for common language as an essential ingredient when it comes to caring for our wellbeing, so that conversations about what enables us to thrive and what causes us to struggle can cascade through our homes, our workplaces and our community. By changing the discourse about a topic like wellbeing, you can positively impact the topic itself.  As our words create worlds, the first step towards creating positive change is focusing on the words that we want to grow as part of our everyday conversations.