Evaluation and Control Program Warning Flag 4 – Purple Words

All organizations and individuals have a history and within these experiences reside events which those persons involved would just as soon forget. These experiences typically involved significant loss or other discomfort that negatively impacted the psyche of the organization as a whole or the associated individual(s). Often, some key words and/or phrases become forever related to these painful experiences. Whenever these words are spoken or read, they elicit a strongly negative emotional response as individuals are jolted back into the memory of the disastrous event. Acting on this emotion, these individuals may strike out at or withdraw from the individual(s) using these words. Thus, these words or phrases have come to be collectively known as Purple Words.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

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