Let’s Watch Our Language

During a podcast I recorded last week with Capgemini’s global insurance lead, Seth Rachlin, we went on at some length about a pet peeve of mine: the insurance industry’s archaic and often downright unfriendly language.

While I’ve hit this topic before (most notably here), I haven’t exactly seen much change in the past several years, so I’ll keep harping on the problem. I realize that not everyone focuses on language as much as I do — coming from a family with half a century as copy editors at the Wall Street Journal will shape your perspective — but I believe that insurance’s insular language limits our ability to entertain outside perspectives.

As the saying goes, “We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us.”... continue reading >