On Wed, 12 Jul 1995 mbayers@mmm.com wrote:
[clipped]
> I think that we -can- say just what we mean. Indeed, don't we -owe- that
> to the people with whom we try to communicate? (Okay, so maybe we are
> limited by our vocabularies, but we can come very close, can't we?) Of
> course, it may well occur that you do not have the same meanings for the
> symbols we use in communication (a la Humpty Dumpty). That brings us to
> the value of dialog, and two-way communication to try to validate that we
> have achieved a common understanding. And your last sentence is dead on
> -- we want to achieve not simply the exchange of bits of information, but
> the overall enrichment of our understanding.
It is useful to remember that in any communication situation with two
people involved; the participants are also in a dyad with _conflict_ and
_negotiation_. When meaning and intent are not successfully transmitted,
conflict will emerge between the two participants and a negotiation
process will ensue in the attempt to successfully complete the
transmission of knowledge.
It is also useful to remember that communication is not a 1:1
correlation. Try composing a paragraph and reading it to someone who has
been instructed to repeat it back verbatim as an experiment. Without
paper and pen for notes, you will quickly discover another principle of
communication where it intersects with psychology. The process is known
as chunking and should emerge as a summarization of the initial paragraph
or frustration on the part of your communication partner.
You can see this process repeated within the organization if you are
sensitive to the message distortion or rumor transmission processes.
-- Great Optimism,Dutch
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