Speech Acts

Some sentences describe ("the door is open"). Others do something the moment they are said: a request, a promise, an offer, a declaration. These are speech acts, and they are the building blocks of all coordinated action. A team does not run on information; it runs on the requests and promises people make and keep.

Most breakdowns at work are not information problems. They are missing or broken speech acts: a request never actually made, a promise never actually given, a no never actually said.

Speech acts were named by the philosopher J.L. Austin, expanded by John Searle, and brought into the practice of organizations by Fernando Flores and Chauncey Bell.