This story was reported in the Wall Street Journal the other day. I guess Goldman is doing this because emails leak — or in their case — may surface during legal proceedings against them. And all that dirty talk isn't helping their already rather soiled reputation. But given how most people I know in their industry actually talk, there is a lot of hypocrisy here. On the other hand, an interesting research project (given this is now an explicit norm at Goldman) would be to see if, as a result of sanctions for violating the norm in writing and what will no doubt be new training material, if this new norm leads them to yes fewer cuss words in conversation. It just might — that would be an interesting demonstration of how norms in a company can change through explicit management action.
Tag: profanity
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Power Players and Profanity: Talking About Talking Dirty on NPR
I have been blogging a bit here about the strategic use of swearing (see here and here), which was originally inspired by Dan McGinn's great post at HBR on "Should Leaders Ever Swear?" This was followed by a podcast at HBR where I talked about about the same subject. NPR got wind of all this and I was interviewed for a story that aired on NPR yesterday, on All Things Considered. It is called Power Players and Profanity, and it a four minute segment that covers characters from Carol Bartz and Michelle Obama, to President's Obama and Bush, to General George Patton. Here is a little excerpt from the transcript:
Gen. Patton was once quoted as saying, "When I want it to stick, I
give it to them loud and dirty." Sutton says that's consistent with the
idea that words are just tools in an executive toolbox."Sometimes, when you really need that wallop, you want to
get out the word. But then there's other times when you don't want to
give it to them 'loud and dirty,' because you embarrass them. You get
them all cranked up and you've got a mess on your hands."This comment was inspired by inspired by by psychologist Timothy Jay's work on
the evolutionary value of swearing. As noted in an earlier post, he wrote: Taboo words persist because they
can intensify emotional communication to a degree that nontaboo words
cannot . Fuck you!
immediately conveys a level of contempt unparalleled by nontaboo words;
there is no way to convey Fuck You! with polite speech."Finally, a comment about the experience with NPR; I was interviewed on Friday by Lynn Neary, on tape, and had felt as if I had not answered a couple of the questions very well. NPR's great editing made me sound much more coherent than I was, and I appreciate it.
P.S. The link to the story has both a written summary and the audio.