Reground

Reconnect abstract words to observable examples, measurements, and actions, so people can actually tell what counts as an instance.

You and your partner agree you need "better communication," and you've agreed on it for a year. Nothing changes, because neither of you could say what a unit of better communication actually looks like. The phrase is fluent and empty: it floats above the marriage, unattached to any observable moment, so there's nothing to practice and no way to tell if you're improving.

REGROUND means reconnecting abstract words to observable examples, measurements, and actions, so you can tell what counts as an instance. The cue: everyone uses a term comfortably but nobody can identify what would count as a case of it. For the abstraction, produce five anchors: an observable indicator (each person restates the other's point before responding), a positive case (last Tuesday's money talk), a negative case (the Sunday conversation that spiraled), the mechanism (restating slows escalation), and an action implication (institute the restate rule in hard conversations). Add a boundary case to test the edges. Keep the anchors that discriminate the concept, not just decorate it. It works when both of you would classify a new conversation the same way. The safeguard: don't let one vivid example define the whole category, and don't pile up illustrations without gaining precision.