This approach to understanding organisational culture is by far the best I’ve found. Once you’ve seen the world this way, you can’t unsee it anymore. The book is an excellent introduction to a simple yet sophisticated methodology for giving leaders agency to nurture and promote the sorts of cultures we need in the organisations we lead. - Dyfed Alsop, Prif Weithredwr / Chief Executive, Awdurdod Cyllid Cymru / Welsh Revenue Authority

I have always described culture as “what people around here do when no-one is looking”. It can therefore be difficult to read and to assess. Gill’s insights around the use of language and discourse provide incredibly useful frameworks to codify culture for those involved in leading change. Essential reading for those contemplating business transformation. - Paul Donovan, Serial CEO, Angel Investor and Venture Philanthropist

Easy to read and rich in ideas, this book will help you to understand how the way we talk shapes the way we think, act and connect with each other. The author combines her academic insights with practical experience to offer ways to understand and shift the culture of your team, department and organization and, most importantly, how to make it better for everyone. - Kathryn Bishop CBE, Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Consultant and Non-Executive Director. Author of Board Talk: 18 crucial conversations that count inside and outside the boardroom

I was genuinely enthralled. I read it in two sittings and was delighted to learn so much, even though I’ve worked with Gill. I remembered how surprised we were to learn what her language work had revealed about our culture. Macro conclusions from the analysis were not just eye opening but actionable; the shock she mentions in the book was real and was truly a catalyst for change. - Barb Agoglia, Founder of FreshEyes Business and Brand Strategy Consultants, NYC. Former VP of Global Brand and Marketing for B2B Payments, American Express

A must-read for anyone interested in organisational culture, in the ongoing challenges of how to measure it, and how to change it. Gill Ereaut provides a practical guide to understanding how a company’s everyday language can hold a mirror up to what people are really thinking and why they are behaving as they do. If you want to transform any aspect of your organisation, you should read this powerful guide first. - Caroline Fawcett, Customer Experience Consultant and Non-Executive Director, Financial Services

For our Masters students in Organizational Psychology, Human Resource Management, and Management Consultancy & Organizational Change, this would be an inspiring and informative text, showing how a method that we introduce to them in an academic context (via methodological and empirical academic papers using discourse analysis) can also be used in organizational practice. In fact, many of our mature students already work in these fields and they would all potentially be interested in this book, even without their Masters student identities.

Gill Ereaut has done an amazing job in explaining and unpacking discourse analysis. The book includes some fantastic materials in the examples and case studies that really bring the discursive approach to life. It’s a great read - I wish it had existed years ago when I started my own discourse analysis journey! - Rebecca Whiting PhD, Reader in Organization Studies at Birkbeck, University of London

A wonderful writing style - clear, unfussy, accessible, able to render complex ideas simply. It’s a very rich distillation of decades of experience. The case studies/examples really made it come alive - these, and how the author uses them to illustrate specific language points, are a really important part of the book’s uniqueness and readability. - Clare Anderson PhD, Bold Leap Consulting

In this interesting and accessible book, Gill Ereaut shows how language analysis can offer valuable insights into the self-organizing patterning of people’s ongoing interactions that we think of as organizational culture. I recommend it to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of how culture ‘shows up’ in the language used by people in their everyday conversations, and what this might mean for their own perspective, practice and performance. - Chris Rodgers, Director, Chris Rodgers Consulting Ltd. Author of The Wiggly World of Organization and Informal Coalitions

Organisations are usually judged using numbers like turnover or profits or return on investment. But this very important book explains how words are at least as important as numbers and indeed often more important, because language expresses and shapes culture, which is the most important determinant of organisational success. - Professor Sir Muir Gray, The Oxford Value and Stewardship Programme

I’ve seen Gill’s methods in action, and I know they work. She’s now done us all a service by writing this clear and fascinating account of how she does it, and why the language people use every day makes such a difference to an organisation’s performance. - Paul Feldwick, Author and Consultant

Gill Ereaut brings linguistic analysis into the boardroom and onto the shop floor and shows its power to clear the obstacles to cultural transformation in a wide range of businesses and public organisations. We all know that language matters: now there’s a way to use this obvious insight to make a difference. - David Landsman OBE, NED, Chair and Adviser, Former Ambassador and Executive Director

Gill Ereaut’s unique approach is like structured alchemy - creating gold (a deep understanding of an organisation’s culture) from the base metal of everyday language. Having experienced the work in practice, I can confidently say that anyone interested in or charged with nurturing a different organisational culture would do well to read this original, thoughtful and practical book. - Michael Coughlin, Public Sector Consultant and Transformation Advisor to the UK Local Government Association