quote

Edgar Schein

"We do not think and talk about what we see; we see what we are able to think and talk about."

Info & reflection: It flips the intuitive order perception → language and replaces it with available language/concepts → perception. We don't see the world and then describe it: the set of concepts we already have decides in advance what we're equipped to notice. It explains why widening the vocabulary of a field (organisational, emotional, cultural) isn't a side exercise but a condition for seeing things that before were simply invisible.

note published on 3 november 2026