I had yet another call today where someone was trying to convince me that I needed to transform my business. This, of course, was by buying their transformative subscription service that would transform the way I run my operation. After a while, I started counting the number of times the word transformation was used, andI realized that the word had become satiated. This is called semantic satiation. I learned of this in a book by a psychologist named Leon James in the 1960s. The theory is that just as in sensorimotor activity, rapid repetition causes a reduction in the intensity of words as well. The salesperson might have had some impact with my on the use of the word transformation, but after the 30th use, the word completely lost meaning for me.
I remember reading about funny linguistic constructs when I was in college. The famous one, which I believe came from Dmitri Borgmann, was “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” This is a grammatically correct sentence that loses all meaning to the reader. Even though it is technically correct that a proper noun, Buffalo (as in Buffalo, NY), can have buffalo, another noun, it is possible that a person named Buffalo could then engage in the verb buffalo. This is an example of semantically saying that Bison from Buffalo are being bullied by other bison from Buffalo, but it completely loses meaning through satiation.
This is a long way of saying, perhaps we just use some words too much? Transformation being one of them. I think I will change my name to Transform, and my company to Transforming, Inc and move to a city names Transformation (there has to be one somewhere). Then I can literally say that Transform transforms Transform transform Transform transforming Transform. Come to think of it, I just used a form of semantic bleaching. A great book in 1993 by Paul Hopper and Elizabeth Traugott called, Grammaticalization, came up with this concept. Some words completely lose their meaning, or get bleached out. Literally like the world literally. If I listen to a conversation with one of my daughters their friends will use this word, literally like 1000 times in one conversation. I like to say, you mean, actually? They always look at me and roll their eyes. “Dad, you are literally making fun of me!” “No, I am actually making fun of you.” So I wonder if that sales person today was actually bleaching the word transformation? Perhaps he literally does not know what it means?
I believe that a business transformation would involve making a fundamental change to how an organization operates. I would imagine this would necessitate an improvement in efficiency that was quite dramatic. This most likely involves adapting to a market change, creating new goals and targets for the company. The impact of this would require changes in processes, technology, organizational structure and culture. I often wonder if someone says to me on a 30 minute demo call, “We believe if you try our product in your environment that it will completely transform the way you do business,” if they know what they are saying? You are telling me that if I start using your software that I am going to need to change my goals, the market I go after, the structure of my team, my culture and my current processes? I usually say – I am not ready for a transformation right now, try me again in six months.
One clever person told me, “well, if you are not transforming, then you will be disrupted.” Which is to say that I need to be disrupting to avoid disruption. So I need to disrupt the disruption, so that I can transform disruption into transformation. Perhaps I should change my name to Last Name to Disruption and my First Name to Transform and name my company Transformation and move to Prosper, Texas. That would be a fun way to introduce myself!
