I studied Modern Languages at university – one of the great things about learning other languages is you develop a much greater appreciation of the beauty and nuance of words, particularly when there no direct read across between two languages for the same concept. For example, English has 1 word for love, Greek has 6 to represent the different kinds of love, e.g Eros for love relating to sexual passion, Philia for love relating to deep friendship… So you can see what I mean about nuance.

I’ve always been fascinated about the impact of a very subtle change or addition of a word can have on a message. Consider “Take Back Control” for example – it’s the word “Back” there that makes all the difference. Or “Make America Great Again”, it’s the word “Again” similarly that captures the hearts and minds of its intended audience. “Take Control” and “Make America Great” is bland in comparison.

So here’s a thought to start the week…when you next find yourself in an idea generation session, or when you’re trying to solve a problem, or identify a resolution, rather than saying:

“How could we fix this?”, ask yourself, “How might we fix this?”

It’s a very subtle, nuanced change, and is at the centre of design thinking, and it can make a real difference in generating new possibilities – might is less rigid than could, it is lighter, it encourages broader thinking as well as more ideas.