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**Business Book Awards 2025 Finalist**
The unspoken rules and unquestioned assumptions that make up an organization’s culture are so well hidden that, once we become insiders, we stop noticing them. They’re just ‘the way we do things around here’. But shared internal language – ‘the way we talk around here’ – both reflects and sustains the unconscious patterns of thought, behaviour and interaction that add up to culture. So examining an organization’s language is a powerful and pragmatic way to shed light on its culture.
Gill Ereaut describes how to uncover organizational and team cultures through paying close attention to the language used by insiders. Discover:
• How and why an organization’s internal language can point to the silent assumptions that underpin its culture
• How to use language patterns to identify unconscious rules and norms, often rooted in the past, so people can work out which still serve the organization well, and which don’t
• Practical tools to help everyone reshape unhelpful shared habits of thinking, and generate effective, continuous and positive change.
If you’re responsible for guiding an organizational or team culture – or if you’re trying to thrive within one – find out how listening to language can help you map, understand and even inspire change within that culture.
If you’re a leader, manager, or anyone interested in improving workplace culture and communication, The Way We Talk Around Here is a must-read. It’ll change the way you listen, the way you speak, and the way you have conversations at work. - NetGalley 5*
The book shines in its practicality, offering clear strategies for leaders to identify outdated cultural norms and use language to drive meaningful change. While it focuses deeply on linguistics, it provides fresh insights into how small shifts in communication can transform an organization’s culture.
Accessible and thought-provoking, this book is perfect for leaders, HR professionals, and anyone looking to improve their workplace dynamics. It’s a quick, actionable read that challenges you to listen more closely and use words as a tool for cultural transformation. - NetGalley 5*
As a Team Leadership Coach, I am often surprised at how little attention is given to how we frame our conversations for growth and performance. This book gets to the heart of the matter and balances academic research with experience to offer a lens on how we talk to each other. - Amazon 5*
Gill's warm, clear, informative style had me nodding along from start to finish – and frequently pencilling notes in the margins as 'Aha!' and 'Eureka!' moments strike...Language is "the depth on the surface". Gill's book (which to my knowledge, is unique) will help you tune in to the language surrounding you. Perhaps for the very first time, you will begin to see how it might be holding back the entire organisation – and with some small but significant changes, could also have the power to set it free. - Amazon 5*
Drawing on a powerful combination of theory, including Edgar Schein's model for organisational cultures, and practical application described through case studies, this book shines a unique light on how to analyse and understand the deeper reaches of organisational culture, thereby enabling, if required, a profound and sustainable shift to be put into effect. - Amazon 5*
Gill Ereaut is a linguistic consultant specializing in analyzing corporate cultures and their effects. She founded UK consultancy Linguistic Landscapes Ltd in 2002, pioneering the commercial application of language analysis to organizational challenges.
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Section I: Why the way we talk around here matters
- Chapter 1: The public and private faces of organizational culture
- Chapter 2: How can we think about organizational culture?
- Chapter 3: What’s so useful about organizational language?
- Section II: What organizational talk can tell us
- Chapter 4: Turning everyday language into data
- Chapter 5: Culture question 1: Who are ‘we’ and what matters around here?
- Chapter 6: Culture question 2: Who are ‘they’ out there and what do we think of them?
- Chapter 7: Culture question 3: How do we ‘do’ relationships with each other and with ‘them’ out there?
- Section III: How we change things around here
- Chapter 8: Pulling the analysis together
- Chapter 9: Working with what emerges
- Chapter 10: Into the future: a cultural health plan
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Index