Module 2 · Lesson 2.1
The Continuum of Specificity
Why the level of detail behind a word matters as much as the word.
Key idea
Every word sits somewhere between general and specific. General works between people who share the detail; specific is needed where they don’t and the outcome matters. Settle the meaning once, then the short word works again.
Video coming soon: Alex introduces the lesson
About 5 to 6 minutes. Until it is recorded, the lesson below covers everything in it.
Every word sits somewhere on a line
Most of what happens in a service or knowledge-work organisation is some form of communication: an email, a conversation, a meeting, a ticket, a handoff. That is why the level of detail behind a word matters as much as it does.
Every term an organisation uses sits somewhere on a continuum. At one end are broad, general terms: “collaboration”, “quality”, “ready”, “customer focus”. At the other end are specific, observable terms: what exactly must be true, how you would check it, and who decides.
Neither end is right or wrong in itself. What matters is whether the level of detail suits the people using the word.
When general language works
Harbourline · Kraków
Two experts discussing a shared problem can use a general term productively, because both already understand the detail underneath it.
At Harbourline, two integration engineers in the Kraków Salesforce practice can say “it’s ready for go-live” to each other and mean exactly the same thing. They have built releases together for years. The detail is in their heads, and saying it out loud every time would waste both their time.
When general language fails
Harbourline · Pune
The trouble starts when the same shorthand is used with people who don’t share that understanding.
Say “it’s ready for go-live” to the Pune Service Desk, and it means something quite different. The engineers mean the software works. The Service Desk needs to know whether its analysts can support the service on day one: whether there is a run-book, whether it covers the calls they will actually get, and whether anyone in Pune has seen it.
Nobody is being careless. The word is simply too general for the audience. Both sides believe they agree until the first Monday after go-live, when the phones ring.
Managing an organisation is much closer to the second case than the first. The people who need to act on an instruction are rarely all working from the same detailed picture of what it means. An instruction to “collaborate better”, given to a room where “collaboration” means something different to everyone in it, isn’t efficient. It is just vague.
Try it
Move along the line
The same handoff, said at four levels of detail. Choose a level and see how each audience hears it.
| What is said | It’s ready for go-live. |
|---|---|
| Two Kraków engineers | Enough. They share the detail already. |
| The Pune Service Desk | Not enough. They hear “we can support it”, which nobody said. |
Specific enough depends on who is listening. Settle the meaning once where it is read differently, then the short word works again.
The skill is moving, not staying
The answer is not to make everything specific. A manager who stays permanently general loses the room to words everyone nods at and nobody can act on. A manager who stays permanently specific loses the room a different way: buried in detail when the moment calls for a shared sense of direction.
The skill is moving along the continuum deliberately, as the audience and the moment require. Managers who work well across a complex organisation do this all the time, often without noticing they are doing it.
Specificity is an investment, made once
There is a practical logic underneath this. Getting specific takes effort: time, discussion and precision. So it makes sense to spend that effort exactly where the ambiguity is real, and nowhere else.
Once a term has been made specific enough that everyone shares the same meaning, conversation about it can go back to general language without losing anything. The specific meaning keeps doing its work in the background.
Harbourline did this with go-live. Service Transition and the Pune Service Desk agreed what “Run-book ready for go-live” means: written with the team that will run the service, covering the top 10 expected calls, the alerts and who to call, and walked through and signed off by the Service Desk before go-live. They also agreed how to test it: a Pune analyst who has never seen the service can resolve the top 10 expected calls from the run-book alone.
That took real work to agree. Now, “the run-book isn’t ready” is a complete sentence. Nobody needs to restate what ready means, because it was settled once.
The investment is made at the outset, and again only when circumstances change enough that the old meaning no longer holds: a new kind of service, a new system, a new client requirement. Between those points, the short, general word can be used freely.
Pause and think · your notes
Think of a word or phrase your team uses that people on the other side of an interface read differently.
How Alex would answer
If the answer to question 3 is “yes”, this is a term worth settling once: what it must include, how you would test it, and who owns the meaning. Module 4 shows how.
What to take away
- Use general language with people who already share the detail.
- Get specific where people don’t share it and the outcome matters.
- Settle the meaning once, write it down, and then go back to the short word. Revisit it when circumstances change.
Your progress
Course contents · This is the open version of the course. Your notes, progress and check scores are saved on this device, and in your account when you are signed in.