It appears to me that frequently many folks get caught up in the issue of
jargon and cannot see past their biases!
Jargon to seems to be a reflection of culture, childhood, geographical
location as well as the present work environment.
Some suggestions to get beyond both the biases of the facilitator/change
agent and/or the group are:
1- state up front your background and that folks may hear words being
spoke differently as a result of the background.
2- state at the start that should folks hear words that they are
unfamiliar with to stop and ask at any time. This sometimes works
effectively as a stated norm at the beginning of the session. For those
folks that my be intimidated during the session, offer the option of
questioning the "words" at a break or end of the session.
3- ask the group to provide you with an understanding of the use of
different words bases on their experiences and backgrounds as you move
along through your material.
The concept is to be up front at the start of a session if you expect the
use of jargon to be an issue, then mutually control the situation with the
permission of the group,
----------
Subject: Jargon... LO3104
Date: Sunday, October 08, 1995 6:45PM
From: Julie Breedon...
[...sniped by host...]
Does anyone else suffer with me with this.......
...groups who complain about 'jargon'
...don't get me wrong I am not complaining about the groups (well
only a little - I get angry thinking about them - but that is my
problem)
Once a group starts to do this I find I have several
difficulties....
1) I find it hard to communicate as I start to worry about every
word and will they think it is jargon
2) I find myself 'judging' them as anti learning - very unhealthy
response on my part
3) I feel misjudged myself - as if they think I am deliberately
using words they don't know or might be unhappy with
So ... I am not at my best (in fact I can be highly dysfunctional!!)
----------
-- "Everett, Rick" <everett.rick@syncrude.com>