How do I practice polysemy?

The most direct way to practice polysemy is through a focused exercise: Pick a word you use frequently in your work — 'quality,' 'done,' 'strategy,' 'alignment,' 'simple.' Ask three colleagues to define it in one sentence without discussing it first. Compare the definitions. The divergence will be larger than you expect. Write down the range you discover. You now have evidence that your most common words are less precise than you assumed.

Common pitfall: Assuming that because someone used your vocabulary, they share your meaning. This manifests as violent agreement — two people passionately agreeing with each other while holding incompatible interpretations. You will not catch this failure mode by listening more carefully. You catch it by asking 'What does that look like concretely?' and comparing the concrete descriptions.

This practice connects to Phase 9 (Context Sensitivity) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.