Conscious language guide

The words we choose to use matter. The right words can help people to feel included, listened to, and respected – but the wrong ones might leave people feeling excluded or unwelcome.

But, sometimes, in our ever-changing and complicated world, it can be tricky to know exactly what words to say. For example, if you wanted to talk about neurodiversity in your workplace, would you choose to say “people with autism” or “autistic people”? Or, if you were talking about LGBTQI+ colleagues and their experiences, would you be confident understanding the difference between “sex” and “gender”?

The words we choose also affects how effectively we talk about mental health at work. For example, many of us might casually use words like “mental” or “crazy” to describe things we have experienced – but this might be contributing to negative perceptions of mental wellbeing at work.

This guide, from Healthline Transform, covers a range of sensitive topics and discusses how to talk about them in a way which is empathetic, honest and inclusive. It also features their own style guide, which you might like to adapt to use in your own organisation – for example, in internal communications, job adverts, press releases, presentations, or meetings.