Singing from the same hymn sheet
Replies: 14 - Last Post: Nov 15, 2012 10:08 PM Last Post By: SamPan
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Singing from the same hymn sheet
I wrote a business email this morning in which I'm trying to define a timeline for a complex series of events which are scheduled to happen. In order for things to happen the way they are meant to, its important that four separate companies are all aware of the critical milestones for all four parties, so that nothing holds up the overall process.My original draft included the phrase "I want to make sure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet" - meaning (in my head) that everyone has an identical understanding of the processes & requirements involved.
But none of the mail recipients have English as a first language and, as far as I know, none of them are Christian, so this is a spectacularly useless and inappropriate phrase to use. I redrafted the mail as a result, but I couldnt find an alternative phrase that gave the same meaning quite so simply. Any suggestions?
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meaning (in my head) that everyone has an identical understanding of the processes & requirements involved.
"I want to make sure everyone is on the same page" is the more usual idiomatic way to express this idea. For non-native speakers, however, you might want to just paraphrase: "I want to make sure we all have the exact same understanding of the requirements."
My original draft included the phrase "I want to make sure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet"
I'm a native speaker (American) and I'd actually never come across this phrase in my entire life, though I would probably have understood it from context. Perhaps it's more used in the UK? At any rate, Wikipedia includes it in a list of workplace jargon with a slightly different nuance than the one you gave above: "showing a united front or everyone understanding and saying the same thing to customers or service users."
Edited by: zashibis to acknowledge #1 posted nearly the same answer while I was composing.
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So we are all on the same page, it might be helpful if you found a different hymnbook, perhaps on YC, for your discussion.I agree that paraphrasing may be the way to go. If your email is somewhat informal, you could do a little teaching. "I want to make sure everyone is on the same page, that is, that we all understand and agree on the requirements."
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Interesting.I had already discounted everyone on the same page because I thought that was also too idiomatic, partly because two of the recipients are exceptionally literal minded engineers. The most likely outcome would have been that they would come back with a request to confirm the page number in question.
I had already opted for a completely non-idiomatic direct statement, but I was curious to know whether there was an alternative phrase that would have suited the purpose. I think reading from the same script would probably have worked. Thanks.
Oh, and I'm glad I added the qualifier of
in my head
that nuance of presenting a unified front is one that I hadnt considered, and its good to be aware of.
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William Safire, US political wonk and language maven, in+ Safire's Political Dictionary.+On the same page, a euphemism for "lockstep," is a phrase dated only to 1965 according ot he OED.
He gives the alternatives sing from the same hymnbook or hymn sheet, and sing the same song or tune. He also relates it to "on message."
There's also "on the same wavelength." Maybe your engineers would understand that better--or else ask you for a graph of the wave so they could see it for themselves.
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I'd say "on the same wavelength" tends to refer to harmony of thought, while the other phrases discussed here tend to refer to harmony of action.So at the end of a meeting, if everyone's agreed there's a problem and agreed how to deal with it, then they're all on the same wavelength. But when they go out and actually start dealing with the problem and try to resolve it together, they need to be reading from the same script, etc.
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