Gloriously Ordinary stories
Gloriously Ordinary Language is about action, and these are the stories that prove it.
The moments and experiences that have moved people to think differently or take action. The things people have noticed or done differently since being part of the Gloriously Ordinary Language programme.
We share these stories to help build our movement - to show what's possible when we pay attention to the words we use.
I attended a five-day coroner’s inquest last week and was required to give evidence as an organisational witness. The hearing related to a tragic situation where someone died, that happened more than two years ago. The person’s family of the person felt badly let down by just about everything they had experienced. They were really angry, had been for a long time and it’s difficult to imagine a more difficult relationship to be part of.
The coroner concluded the inquest and there were no findings or recommendations relating to our organisation. In fact, we were credited for the role we played in supporting the person concerned. Following this, the family’s legal counsel expressed gratitude on behalf of the family for the way I had given evidence, stating that it made them feel a lot better. In preparing for this, I thought a lot about Gloriously Ordinary Language and how to frame my evidence within that context. The evidence I gave in terms of content did not change at all, but the language I used to frame it did, and I found the comments of the family moving and completely unexpected.
Anonymised example from a senior manager who took part in the Gloriously Ordinary Language programme
Here in Hull we wanted to focus on better describing what Adult Social Care is and so we have used the Gloriously Ordinary Language programme to help us to re-write our ‘What is Adult Social Care?’ leaflet. This wasn’t an easy task for us and in all honesty we did have differing opinions about the language we wanted to use, but we kept referring back to ‘would we use this language around our kitchen table or in the pub with our friends?’
What really helped us was bringing our initial draft to one of the Gloriously Ordinary Language sessions to get feedback from Tricia, Bryony and the wider group. Whilst the thought of doing this was quite uncomfortable, knowing that your work is going to be critiqued in front of you, it didn’t actually feel uncomfortable at all! Everyone was really kind and supportive. It was so useful spending time talking about what we had written, why and thinking about the impact of the language we had used, something we now do all the time with the things that we write! We hope that sharing our first draft helped everyone else to also think about how they describe the purpose of Adult Social Care.
Clare Gargon, Service Development Officer
Adult Social Care, Hull City Council
… more stories coming soon!