I’m not talking about English, Spanish, or Mandarin.
I’m talking about the language woven into the way our family, friends, and teams work.
All groups have their own unique culture, vibe, and way of working. Each has their own minimum language: a set of words, terms, phrases, and ideas that you have to know to be part of the group.
In my family, we all know the Dad Jokes my Dad has told for past 20 years. We repeat frequently to give him a hard time. Understanding these jokes is part of the minimum language needed to operate in my family.
My team—now that we’re remote—run a GIF competition every week. We set a prompt, and we each post a GIF to our chat, vote for the winner, and keep a running points tally. You’d be really confused if you saw our chat thread each Thursday when it fills up with 16 GIFs. Knowing the about the competition and how it works is part of our minimum language.
Whether we like it or not, a minimum language is present any time there is a group of 2 or more people. My challenge to you is to see it as an opportunity to inject some creative hilarity into your life and work.