Workplace Culture Systems
Joanne Lockwood is joined by Ben Afia, a language and communication specialist whose work focuses on making organisations feel more human. They explore how large organisations can become dehumanising through bureaucracy and process, and how changing internal relationships and communication can improve the experience people have with customers.
Ben shares practical insights on building a consistent tone of voice at scale without turning people into scripted “puppets”, and why capability-building in writing and communication is often overlooked. They discuss how formality and jargon can create distance, especially in moments of conflict, and how clarity, simplicity and empathy can help communications land better.
The conversation also covers cultural and contextual differences in how messages are received, including examples from customer service, and introduces approaches like appreciative inquiry and coaching-style questioning to create psychological safety and more constructive change. The episode connects employee experience, brand strategy and customer experience as mutually reinforcing parts of humanising workplaces.
About Ben Afia
One-sentence summary
Ben Afia believes that if we speak to people as people — not as cases, risks or transactions — we protect dignity, reduce harm, and quietly make work feel human again.
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Synopsis
Ben Afia has spent more than two decades noticing something most of us feel but struggle to name: the way organisations slowly sand down their humanity. Early in his career at Boots, working on tone of voice, he saw how bureaucracy, process and politics could create distance — not just between company and customer, but between colleagues themselves. He remembers feeling that quiet dehumanisation as an employee. Since then, through work with global brands, he has paid close attention to language — its nuance, its power, its ability either to include or to exclude. He describes his superpower as a “sensitivity to the nuances of language”, but behind that is something deeper: a refusal to let people be reduced to scripts.
What Ben is trying to change is not just how organisations write, but how they relate. He believes that neglected language becomes a barrier — legalistic, formal, distancing — and that barrier costs people trust, confidence and dignity. When companies “love their customers so they love you back”, it is not sentimentality; it is empathy made practical. He wants workplaces where people feel confident enough to be themselves, where leaders ask better questions, where conflict is softened by clarity, and where communication lowers people’s blood pressure instead of raising it. For Ben, humanising work is about creating spaces where people are seen — internally first, then externally.
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10 Small, digestible concepts for easy learning
1. Dehumanisation often begins with paperwork.
Complexity and formality creep in quietly, putting distance between people.
2. Language is never neutral.
It either invites someone in or quietly signals they don’t belong.
3. Formal isn’t always respectful — sometimes it’s defensive.
We hide behind jargon when we lack confidence.
4. Empathy creates clarity.
When you imagine someone’s real day, you naturally simplify your message.
5. Customers don’t want performance — they want to feel heard.
A solved problem builds trust faster than polished phrasing.
6. Confidence sounds simple.
Clear, direct words often signal greater authority than complex ones.
7. You can’t fix the outside relationship before the inside one.
How employees feel shapes how customers are treated.
8. Language reflects tribe and status.
We use words to include, exclude or signal belonging — often unconsciously.
9. Listening is a business skill, not a soft extra.
Feeling heard changes how people respond.
10. Moments of connection beat moments of individual brilliance.
At our best, we rarely succeed alone.
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The “why” in the story
What they believe is true about people
Ben believes people want to do good work and connect meaningfully. They want to feel recognised as individuals, not processed.
What they cannot unsee
He cannot unsee how easily corporate language creates barriers — how “legalistic or formal” phrasing raises blood pressure and pushes people away.
What they are no longer willing to tolerate
He is no longer willing to accept that poor communication is inevitable in large organisations — or that employees must suppress their natural voice to stay safe.
What they are trying to build instead
He is building businesses where empathy shapes expression, where employees feel empowered rather than scripted, and where customers encounter clarity instead of obfuscation.
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Narrative structure
1. The trigger:
As a young professional at Boots, Ben saw how tone and bureaucracy could distance an organisation from its customers — and from its own people. That early exposure to “dehumanising” complexity planted the seed.
2. The tension:
He repeatedly meets resistance rooted in fear — fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of losing authority, fear of conflict. In tense moments, organisations default to formality and control.
3. The insight:
The breakthrough came when he realised that better customer relationships start internally. Change the internal conversation and the external promise becomes believable.
4. The pivot:
Instead of enforcing rigid scripts, he teaches empathy, perceptual awareness and coaching-style questions. He encourages companies to let people “bring their own voice” within a shared ethos.
5. The destination:
A workplace where communication lowers stress instead of heightening it; where conflict is handled with courage and simplicity; where people feel respected rather than processed.
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Five key takeaways and learning points
1. If your wording raises defences, trust will not follow.
So what: Simplifying language can calm situations faster than asserting authority.
2. Culture shows up in customer letters.
So what: Fixing service begins with how staff feel internally.
3. People rarely remember policy — they remember how they felt.
So what: Emotional resonance outlasts procedural accuracy.
4. Listening creates loyalty.
So what: When someone feels understood, they are less likely to escalate conflict.
5. Being human takes courage.
So what: Leaning into clarity and empathy requires confidence — but earns long-term respect.
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Ten distinct ideas explained
1. Language as inclusion or exclusion
Professional jargon can signal status and control. When overused, it quietly tells others they are outsiders.
2. The negativity spiral at work
Constant problem-scanning keeps people in fight-or-flight. That state narrows thinking and reduces creativity.
3. Appreciative inquiry
Asking people to share moments when they were at their best unlocks energy and shared values — connection replaces defensiveness.
4. Perceptual positioning
Imagining your customer’s whole life — stress, children, limited time — softens your message naturally.
5. Formality in conflict
In tense situations, people reach for longer, more “official” words. Ironically, this escalates the divide.
6. Anglo-Saxon plainness
Shorter, simpler words often feel more trustworthy because they are rooted in everyday speech.
7. Coaching cultures
When leaders ask thoughtful questions rather than issue directives, people think more deeply and act more willingly.
8. Internal confidence fuels external trust
Staff who feel secure are more authentic with customers; authenticity builds loyalty.
9. Tribal language signals
Dialect, tone and vocabulary signal belonging. Being mindful of this reduces unintended exclusion.
10. Human acknowledgement as gift
Simply recognising someone as an individual can shift an entire interaction from transactional to relational.
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How people should change as a result
1. Think
- Move from “What must I say?” to “What does this person need to hear?”
- See every message as part of a relationship, not just an instruction.
- Recognise that simplicity signals confidence, not weakness.
- Understand that employees mirror the culture they experience.
2. Feel
- Shift from defensiveness to empathy in conflict.
- Move from fear of getting it wrong to curiosity about getting it right.
- Replace frustration with patience when listening.
- Feel responsibility rather than guilt about improving communication.
3. Act
- Rewrite one overly formal communication in plain, conversational language.
- Before sending a message, imagine the recipient’s worst day — edit accordingly.
- In meetings, ask one open coaching question instead of offering a solution.
- Replace jargon with shorter words wherever possible.
- Acknowledge a colleague’s contribution specifically and personally.
- When conflict arises, simplify and name the issue clearly without embellishment.
- Train teams in listening and writing, rather than assuming competence.
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One thing to remember
If we dare to speak to people as people, work stops feeling like a machine and starts feeling like a place we belong.