The words we use influence how we feel, what we focus on, and ultimately what we do. We learned this from Dr Rachel Doern, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London, during last week’s Leaders’ Forum call, when she shared key insights from her book The Resilient Entrepreneur: From Crisis to Enlightenment.
Research in behavioural science shows that language does more than describe a situation. Even when the facts remain the same, the way an issue is framed can lead to entirely different responses.
In many organisations resilience is still described using deficit-based language: coping, mitigating, surviving etc. Even as Resilience First, our own tagline is ‘survive and thrive’, and based on Dr Doern’s presentation, we might need to update that. These words unintentionally reinforce a reactive mindset, they focus attention on pressure, constraint and limitation.
Focus follows language. When language shifts towards direction, priorities, and possibility, it becomes easier to focus on what needs to happen next. Beyond the tone, language is a practical tool for helping people concentrate on what matters most.
Focusing on process
In many organisations, the emphasis is often placed heavily on outcomes: goals, targets and results. While these are important, an overemphasis on outcomes can sometimes create pressure without clarity. People know what needs to be achieved, but not always how to move towards it.
Language can help rebalance this. When we talk about resilience in terms of actions, behaviours, and ways of working, we bring attention back to the process, the things people can actually influence day to day.
Focusing on process creates a sense of control and momentum, it can also support curiosity. When language is centred only on outcomes, people can be hesitant to try new approaches.
Resilient organisations are those that build adaptive processes that enable them to achieve outcomes over time.
When we see resilience as a process, we regard it as a skill, a capability or muscle that we develop over time, as Dr Doern suggests.
Openness
Language also influences our openness to change.
When conversations are dominated by pressure and constraint, people can become more fixed in their thinking. The focus shifts to control, protection, and staying within familiar ways of working. But change requires something different: curiosity. A willingness to explore, to question, and to see possibilities that are not yet fully formed.
Without that openness, even the best strategies can struggle to take hold. When people feel stuck in established ways of thinking, change becomes harder to initiate and sustain.
In this way, the language we choose can either close down or open up the conditions needed for meaningful change.
A more effective way to communicate resilience
There is an opportunity to shift how we talk about resilience.
It is about pairing honesty with direction, moving from reactive language towards something more enabling and action-oriented.
For example:
- From “recovering from disruption” to “adapting and evolving in response to change”.
- From “coping with pressure” to “prioritising energy where it creates the most value”.
- From “we have to handle this” to “we get to explore new ways of working”.
- From “fix the problem” to “what can we learn here?”.
Resilience is not only built through strategies, systems and structures. It is shaped through everyday conversations, leadership language, and how we describe the challenges in front of us.
When we shift our language, we shift attention. That shift in attention creates focus. And when we focus on the process, we create the conditions for learning, adaptation, and sustained change.
By choosing language that combines honesty with possibility, we create the conditions for people and organisations to adapt, evolve and prosper.
