Beautiful words

I’ve been playing with words again, this time prompted by Margaret Geraghty’s Five Minute Writer. The task: write about “beautiful words.”

It struck me how much a single word can hold.

Passion makes me think of an opera singer, a cocktail, and even Jesus. Yet the sound of the word feels oddly passive.

Mother is both creation and comfort — and yet McDonald’s deliberately chose “M” for its branding because the word for mother starts with M in so many languages. A corporate play on care.

Say smile and most people will smile. But say you must smile and it jars. The word loses its generosity.

Love is everywhere and yet we ration it, sparing it like a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape or saffron. Eternity feels the opposite — a word so rare, but when spoken, it evokes endless abundance.

Destiny is another puzzle. I was raised to distrust it — to believe in education, agency, not fate. But what if destiny was something we could imagine together? A collectively chosen horizon to walk towards.

Then there’s freedom. A word that puts me on guard, because so often it’s been used to justify dominance or exclusion. In contrast, liberty makes me think of liberté, égalité, fraternité — a freedom bound up with equality and solidarity.

And peace — is it simply the absence of killing, or does it need to mean more? Was England at peace during slavery?

Beautiful words are never just words. They reveal our histories, our values, our blind spots.

How organisations can apply this

1. Surface the words that matter

• In team workshops, ask colleagues: which words shape your sense of purpose?

2. Explore the tensions in language

• Don’t treat words like “freedom” or “care” as obvious. Ask: how might this word exclude as well as include?
• Example: @theyoungfoundation’s community research highlights how policy words land differently in people’s everyday lives.

3. Create collective vocabularies

• Co-create glossaries of meaning with staff or residents. Let people debate and reshape words together.
• Example: Barcelona’s Decidim platform includes a “concepts” section where citizens redefine policy language collectively.

4. Test alternative framings

• Swap one word for another and see how it shifts a debate. “Security” vs “safety.” “Efficiency” vs “ease.”
• Example: Demos reframed “welfare” as “social security,” shifting the tone of public conversations.

5. Use words as mirrors, not labels

• Treat them as prompts for reflection, not just categories.
• Example: In Finland, Demos Helsinki use future workshops to ask citizens how words like “freedom” or “work” might mean something different in 2050.

Inspiration from elsewhere

• Civil service: Canada’s Policy Horizons uses “framing labs” to explore how words open or close possibilities in foresight.
• Startups: Buffer shifted from “radical transparency” to “default openness,” softening language to fit organisational culture.
• B Corps: Patagonia reframes “growth” not as sales but as repairing, reusing, and reducing impact.
• Local government: Amsterdam’s Doughnut Economy deliberately reframes “prosperity” to include ecological and social limits.

A call to action

Next time you’re drafting a strategy, consultation, or even a team charter, pause over the words.

Ask:

• What histories and values do they carry?
• Who do they invite in — and who do they push out?
• Could we co-create new words that feel more like us?

Because words are never neutral. They shape the worlds we build together.

✨ I’m left wondering: what would it look like if every public service strategy began not with KPIs, but with a conversation about the words that shape how we see ourselves, our work, and our futures?