words are magic

Several years ago I was consulting to a large company in the health care business. I was somewhat of a "business analysis coach" in the role that I had. In one meeting the business analysts were complaining about their elicitation process. The complaints were fairly consistent with many others I had heard: the important people don't show up to the meetings, people who do show up don't contribute, some people high jack the meetings with their own agendas, there is conflict in meetings where there should be only information passed, people come unprepared, etc.
I made a couple of small suggestions. They called their meetings "requirements workshops" as per the IIBA's BABOK and many other sources. I suggested they call their meetings "information gathering sessions" instead.
Why? because anyone attending a "requirements workshop" would have the expectation that the meeting will end up with completed requirements. So people will come ready to make sure that their requirements get included. Others who have no particular requirements or who are afraid to commit to requirements will not show up or will show up and stay silent. Arguments will ensue among those who want their requirements included. In an "information gathering session" the only expectation is that information will be passed.
I also suggested that they change the name they gave to those coming to the meetings. In their invitations they cited "attendees". I suggested that someone coming to a meeting as an "attendee" has an expectation of just attending. If they want the people coming to the meetings to participate in the meetings they should call them "participants".
They made the changes immediately. By the next week as they returned from their meetings and reported in, they told us of the change in the way things were going. People came to meetings with documentation, prepared to answer questions and provide information. There were significantly fewer conflicts, even among those who were consistently in conflict in the past meetings. More people coming to the meetings contributed and responded to questions the business analysts asked. In general the meetings were more positive and the morale of the business analysts rose.
All as a result of simply changing a bit of vocabulary. This proves how important words are and how they affect our expectations, even subconsciously.

Several years ago I was consulting to a large company in the health care business. I was somewhat of a "business analysis coach" in the role that I had. In one meeting the business analysts were complaining about their elicitation process. The complaints were fairly consistent with many others I had heard: the important people don't show up to the meetings, people who do show up don't contribute, some people high jack the meetings with their own agendas, there is conflict in meetings where there should be only information passed, people come unprepared, etc.
I made a couple of small suggestions. They called their meetings "requirements workshops" as per the IIBA's BABOK and many other sources. I suggested they call their meetings "information gathering sessions" instead.
Why? because anyone attending a "requirements workshop" would have the expectation that the meeting will end up with completed requirements. So people will come ready to make sure that their requirements get included. Others who have no particular requirements or who are afraid to commit to requirements will not show up or will show up and stay silent. Arguments will ensue among those who want their requirements included. In an "information gathering session" the only expectation is that information will be passed.
I also suggested that they change the name they gave to those coming to the meetings. In their invitations they cited "attendees". I suggested that someone coming to a meeting as an "attendee" has an expectation of just attending. If they want the people coming to the meetings to participate in the meetings they should call them "participants".
They made the changes immediately. By the next week as they returned from their meetings and reported in, they told us of the change in the way things were going. People came to meetings with documentation, prepared to answer questions and provide information. There were significantly fewer conflicts, even among those who were consistently in conflict in the past meetings. More people coming to the meetings contributed and responded to questions the business analysts asked. In general the meetings were more positive and the morale of the business analysts rose.
All as a result of simply changing a bit of vocabulary. This proves how important words are and how they affect our expectations, even subconsciously.