Love is a tricky word….
This post is the first in a series based on my doctorate proposal paper submitted last December and now reviewed by my supervisors and peers. There will be more to follow.
When talking about this research, I notice that the word love is something people see as being hard to talk about in organisations. I guess because it brings with it many meanings and evokes reactions that are complex. I notice that when I’ve started talking to people about this topic, they often spontaneously offer alternative words like compassion, as though love is too difficult to imagine being used in a business context. "Do you think you will be able to do an inquiry about love?" they ask. "Who do you think will be interested or willing to do that?" seems to be the question behind the question.
So, as I begin to think about this topic and how to describe the inquiry, one of the questions I am thinking about is the importance and impact of the words we use. My first reaction, like some of those people who I spoke to about the topic was to assume that words like love would be too hard to use in organisations (by which I really mean too soft and therefore too difficult). I began to wonder whether I might need to use alternatives like healthy, responsibility or sustainability?
And then, as the conversation unfolds it becomes interesting to see how much energy the word love seems to bring to people, as though the word releases something that's pent up and waiting to find expression, an energy with an emotive aspect to it. People get engaged in the conversation, they lean forwards and start becoming a little more available somehow.
So, what language makes sense to you? What would be a way to start to talk about this with others and avoid creating distance?
When talking about this research, I notice that the word love is something people see as being hard to talk about in organisations. I guess because it brings with it many meanings and evokes reactions that are complex. I notice that when I’ve started talking to people about this topic, they often spontaneously offer alternative words like compassion, as though love is too difficult to imagine being used in a business context. "Do you think you will be able to do an inquiry about love?" they ask. "Who do you think will be interested or willing to do that?" seems to be the question behind the question.
So, as I begin to think about this topic and how to describe the inquiry, one of the questions I am thinking about is the importance and impact of the words we use. My first reaction, like some of those people who I spoke to about the topic was to assume that words like love would be too hard to use in organisations (by which I really mean too soft and therefore too difficult). I began to wonder whether I might need to use alternatives like healthy, responsibility or sustainability?
And then, as the conversation unfolds it becomes interesting to see how much energy the word love seems to bring to people, as though the word releases something that's pent up and waiting to find expression, an energy with an emotive aspect to it. People get engaged in the conversation, they lean forwards and start becoming a little more available somehow.
So, what language makes sense to you? What would be a way to start to talk about this with others and avoid creating distance?
2 Comments:
as i read this a tear welled up in my eyes......scary! yes it does make me wake up and lean forward, as if it's the only thing that is really worth taking notice of.
sc
SC, I notice that I am both touched and curious about the way you felt.
I'm curious at two levels too; part of me wonders what prompts us to feel sad, or perhaps it's more accurate to say moved.
The other part of me wonders about your observation that it's scary? Perhaps, in your case, you were a bit caught off guard? I find it so interesting that, as you say "[It's] as if it's the only thing that really worth taking notice of" and yet we are so busy taking notice of other things so much of the time. What is that about I wonder?
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