Brett Rutledge Editorial June 2011

Welcome back Editorial readers! With last months’ apocalypse postponed until a date yet to be determined we can safely turn our attention back to the future. The earth continues to spin on its axis, Christchurch continues to shake and the business world continues to find new ways to make the meaningful meaningless. But rather than concentrate on the big picture let’s spend this month looking at the kinds of things that the little bloke has to deal with…

Namely, the ‘what the?’ moments. Those times when you wonder how the hell it came to this. Where did we go wrong and what can we do about it? How do we stop the miscommunication and misunderstandings that seem to be part and parcel of our daily lives?

This month the Editorial boldly goes where we all go everyday – except I will try to offer some words of advice and maybe even the odd solution. As we are about to find out part of the problem is that we think we have a better handle on things than we actually do and part of the problem is that we don’t realize how much we don’t have a handle on at all. I am going to offer two solutions. The first is simply a better understanding of some basic psychology and the second is Twitter.

What the..?

“It goes without saying … “

If miscommunication is the most common problem in organisations then what might be the most common cause of miscommunication? The reality is it’s very simple: We think we have said more than we actually have. Human beings, at every level of an organisation, always make the mistake of believing they have communicated more than they really have.

The technical term for it is signal amplification bias but a more accurate term might be “It goes without saying” Syndrome.

The vast majority of us tend to believe that our behaviour is much more expressive than it actually is, and this occurs on a daily basis across a wide variety of situations.

For instance, we often think people know when we’re lying when they rarely have any idea. Because we are aware of our lies we assume that everyone else must be aware of them as well whether it be through some body language giveaway or slip of the tongue. We also assume that others understand our goals and what we’re trying to accomplish, when in fact they don’t have the first clue. Most of what we say and do every day is open to multiple interpretations, and when other people try to figure out what we really mean, they are apt to guess wrong.

We are particularly likely to be “sure it was obvious” with people we know well or who we’ve worked with for a long time–we assume our thoughts and behaviours are transparent, when they are far from it. So, ironically, the risk of miscommunication is greater with a close colleague than a brand-new co-worker.

When we assume that other people know what we’re thinking, and what we are expecting of them, we do them a real disservice. Assuming that we’ve been clear about what we wanted, we blame them when things don’t go as planned.

The next time you catch yourself thinking “I didn’t expressly say that to Bob, but it should be obvious … ” STOP. Nothing is ever obvious unless you made it obvious by spelling it out. Remove the phrase “It goes without saying” from your mental lexicon, because it is total rubbish. If something is important, then it goes WITH saying. Make a point of saying exactly what you mean, and asking for exactly what you want, and you will be pleasantly surprised by often you get it.

The #simplydefined Challenge

I want to invite you to be a part of a communication experiment. The world is full of ideas and concepts that we use and discuss everyday but that most of us have very little understanding of. For example, most of us probably don’t know what a ‘planet’ actually is or how a ‘combustion engine’ works or what ‘Einstein’s Theory of Relativity’ is about. They are all things we are familiar with but for most of us they are more abstract concept than practical knowledge.

Could we explain them to someone else? More to the point, could we explain them to someone else in 140 characters or less?

Welcome to the #simplydefined challenge!

I have set up a Twitter account @simplydefined to do just that. I want to provide, with your help, simple and succinct definitions of the sorts of concepts and ideas that we use everyday but perhaps don’t truly understand. Because we are using Twitter as our medium those definitions have to be 140 characters or less and for some of our bigger ideas and concepts that is going to be a real challenge. Because of that challenge we need as many people as possible to contribute. If you are willing to follow @simplydefined then I am willing to follow you.

If you can define something better than someone else then I want your contribution.

Let’s see how big this thing can get and let’s all become part of the 9% of Twitter that is not pointless babble or conversation, self-promotion or spam but actually passes on useful information.

To get things started…

Planet = 1. in orbit around sun 2. enough self-gravity to be round in shape 3. nothing else in its orbit 4. not a satellite

Combustion Engine – spark ignites fuel chamber creating sml explosion. Gas pushes piston, drives crankshaft connected to axle, wheels move

Einstein Theory Relativity is 2 theories, special & general. Special = time and space are relative. General – matter causes space to curve.

Join in and feel free to ask any questions. We will endeavour to get them answered for you!