The Next Next Common Sense
• Practical Impact Assessment : For each proposed terminology change, they explicitly assessed operational impact—how the change would affect training materials, system documentation, customer communication, and daily operations. • Functional Translation Tools : They developed practical refer- ence tools that frontline teams could use to translate between dif- ferent linguistic contexts, focusing on operational clarity rather than perfect standardization. • Contextual Usage Guidelines : Instead of mandating identi- cal terminology across all contexts, they created usage guide- lines specifying when specialized language was appropriate and when common terminology was required for cross-functional collaboration. Results: Walmart's approach enabled them to maintain necessary specialized language in different operational contexts while creating suf- ficient common terminology for effective integration. Their experience demonstrates how organizations can balance linguistic standardization and specialization during complex transformations.
Mastercard: Linguistic Evolution During Payment Ecosystem Expansion
As Mastercard expanded beyond traditional payment processing to become a broader technology and services company operating across a complex financial ecosystem, they needed to evolve their linguistic frame- work to reflect this expanded identity and capability set. This evolution required developing language that worked across traditional financial services, technology platforms, data analytics, and consulting services.
Key Strategies:
• Core/Edge Language Model : Mastercard explicitly distin- guished between "core language" that needed to remain consistent
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