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Martha Angle, VP of Global Culture, Diversity and People at OneStream Software, has helped scale culture work through years of explosive growth, with global headcount increases averaging seventy five percent annually for several years running. The conversation focused on a deceptively simple practice: building a common language that lets diverse teams understand each other and make decisions together.
Common language is the connective tissue of inclusion. Without it, ERGs talk past each other, managers second guess their words, and employees from underrepresented backgrounds spend extra cycles explaining themselves. With it, the same group can move quickly through hard conversations because the foundation is shared.
HR leaders should think about language as infrastructure for inclusion rather than a glossary appended to a training deck. The companies that take it seriously build the language deliberately, teach it widely, and update it as the workforce grows.
Why language is a culture lever
Language shapes what people can think and say in a room. HBR research on diverse teams and psychological safety shows that diverse teams only outperform homogeneous ones when members feel safe enough to surface their full perspective. Shared vocabulary is one of the strongest enablers of that safety.
The HR role is to design the vocabulary and seed it through onboarding, manager training, and ERG sponsorship. AllVoices supports that work through a DEI solution that connects listening to action and a survey product that helps HR test whether the language is landing.
Common language is not the same as scripted language. The goal is shared definitions for the words that matter most: belonging, equity, accountability, feedback. With those nailed down, everything else can be discussed without translation overhead.
Designing the vocabulary
What words deserve shared definitions?
Start with the ten words your team uses most often when discussing culture and people decisions. Belonging, inclusion, equity, fairness, feedback, accountability, recognition, growth, performance, and trust will cover most. Write a one sentence working definition for each. Test it with a cross section of employees before you publish.
The definitions are working drafts, not commandments. Revisit them yearly. The vocabulary that fits a 200 person company will not fit the same company at 2,000.
How do you teach the language without making it feel forced?
Embed the words into the rituals that already exist. Performance reviews, manager 1:1 templates, ERG kickoffs, and town hall slides are all natural places to model the language. Avoid standalone training that asks employees to memorize terms. Adults learn vocabulary by hearing it used, not by being quizzed.
Managers carry the practice. A manager who uses the words consistently teaches their team faster than any all hands. Build a quarterly manager refresher that reinforces the vocabulary with examples from recent decisions. Inclusion work moves at the speed of manager fluency.
What actually works
Use ERGs as language laboratories
ERGs are where the language gets stress tested. The members live the realities the words try to describe and they will tell you when a definition feels off. Treat ERG leaders as design partners on the vocabulary rather than as cheerleaders for it. Equity and diversity mean different things to different communities and the language has to honor that.
The exchange goes both ways. ERGs benefit from the vocabulary because it gives them a shared frame for their conversations with leadership. The company benefits because the language gets sharpened by people closest to the experience.
Hire and onboard for fluency
Hiring panels that use the shared vocabulary pull candidates into the culture before day one. Employee onboarding that teaches the words explicitly, with examples, makes new hires productive in cultural conversations weeks earlier than they would be otherwise.
According to SHRM guidance on mitigating unconscious bias, shared definitions reduce the surface area for misinterpretation in feedback and decision making. The vocabulary is a bias mitigation tool as much as a culture tool.
Use the language in hard conversations
The vocabulary earns its keep when the conversation is hard. A performance issue, an inclusion incident, or a conflict between teammates all benefit from a shared frame. The language gives both parties a way to discuss what happened without inventing terms on the fly.
The discipline is to use the words for the situations that actually fit them. Stretching definitions to cover every situation drains them of meaning. Used precisely, they become the most efficient instrument for repair the company has.
Where Employee Relations Fits
Inclusion incidents need a place to be reported and worked. AllVoices supports that need through an employee relations function that gives HR a structured intake and an anonymous reporting tool that lowers the cost for employees to share what they would not say in a meeting.
How shared language strengthens case work
Cases get worked faster when the intake and resolution use shared definitions. Investigators do not have to relitigate what discrimination or retaliation means. They can apply the words and focus on the facts. The blog on where DEI goes next covers how vocabulary and operational practice fit together.
Frequently Asked Questions About Common Language
How is this different from a glossary?
A glossary is a static document. Common language is a living practice embedded in rituals. The first sits in a folder. The second shapes how decisions get made.
What if our global teams use different vocabulary?
Translate carefully and accept that some terms will not map cleanly. Hold the underlying intent constant and let the words flex by region. Force fitting English terms across cultures usually fails.
Who owns the vocabulary?
HR drafts, ERGs stress test, and the executive team sponsors. Without all three, the practice loses momentum within a year.
How do we update it?
Annually, with input from ERGs and a sample of employees from different tenures. The cadence keeps the language honest as the workforce changes.
What is the biggest mistake?
Treating the vocabulary as compliance. Employees can smell the difference between a shared frame and a corporate constraint. Lead with the why, not the rule.
What's the first step for HR leaders who want to put this into practice?
Start with one team and one measurable outcome. Pick a function where the issue shows up sharply and a leader who is willing to model the new practice. Map the current state honestly: what is happening, who feels it, and what would good look like in ninety days. Share that picture with the team, ask them what is missing from your read, and adjust before launching anything formal. The goal of step one is alignment, not activity.
Once the picture is shared, pick two or three changes you can make inside one quarter. Resist the urge to launch a full program. Run the changes, measure the response with simple pulse questions, and report back. The combination of a focused team, a clear measure, and a public commitment to learn is what turns a good idea into a practice that spreads. HR leaders who try to launch everywhere at once usually end up launching nowhere.
Iterate from there. The teams that succeed treat the first cycle as a prototype, not a rollout. They keep what worked, drop what did not, and write down what they learned. By the time the practice expands to the next group, it has been pressure-tested by people who have a stake in seeing it work. That is the unglamorous work of putting any people-strategy idea into practice, and it is also the work that compounds.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Martha Angle is right that common language is one of the most underrated tools in inclusion work. It looks small. It compounds enormously over time as the workforce grows.
The mandate for HR leaders is to design the vocabulary, embed it in rituals, and update it as the company evolves. Done well, the language becomes invisible because it is everywhere, which is exactly the goal.
Request a walkthrough of how AllVoices helps HR teams move from shared language to shared action.
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