Once any group of people spend enough time together they start to develop a common language that is specific to that group. It happens in marriage, where a couple develops a sort of marital shorthand based on their shared experiences, and it happens in teams for the same reason.
My team at work has begun to develop our own set of phrases and expressions. I call this teamglish. So for example, if someone is getting stressed out over something they can’t control, “it’s time for ice cream.” We make regular team excursions to get ice cream.
If a project has been a real pain, it’s been “not so kind”. The best part about Teamglish is that everyone can participate. “Not so kind” came from one of our overseas contractors, but it describes exactly the project that brought it into existence.
Married couples develop shared language after being together for a while. For example, if my wife wants to remind me to stop and ask for directions, or at least turn on the GPS, she only has to say “Chaska” after the time I got hopelessly lost taking a shortcut to Shakopee for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and ended up 25 miles away in Chaska. If I want to remind her that we have an agreed to spending limit that we have to stay under unless we talk to each other first, all I have to do is say “Kitchenaid” I’m guessing if you know anything about kitchen appliances, you know what that was in reference to.
On Star Trek: The Next Generation, there was an episode where Capt. Picard ends up stranded on a planet with an alien that only speaks in metaphors. That must be what it’s like to join a team that has begun to create a teamglish.
There’s an old joke about an old man who is getting comfortable on his first day at the retirement home. He’s invited to join some of the other residents for coffee. As they sit there, different people shout out numbers, and people laugh. One guy shouts out a number, and everybody almost falls out of their chairs laughing.
After this goes on for a while, he asks somebody to explain.
“Well, we’ve all been here awhile, and we realized we all knew the same jokes. So rather than tell them over and over again, we just gave them numbers and shout out the numbers instead.”
“So why did you laugh so hard when the bald headed guy shouted out a number?”
“We’d never heard that one before.”
Well, I better let you get back to work. I hear people shouting out numbers, and I have a new one to try out on the group. Hey guys! 47!
#Teamdynamics