Talking: Focus on agenda

Synopsis: Minimizing personal contacts in organizations also minimizes lateral communications, preventing people from just talking to one another to create a common culture.



Differences, most organizations believe, will lead to conflict.

Talking

So they prefer to minimize personal contacts between members of the workforce. Keeping focused on the business agenda ensures a conflict-free work environment. It prevents time being wasted or interpersonal issues being raised. The trouble is it also minimizes lateral communications, preventing people from just talking to one another to create a common culture.

People are constantly talking around issues and solutions - in their minds. It is a conscious, purposive reflection on experience and learning. New perspectives are integrated into existing ideas, abilities and actions. This inner speech includes thinking slightly ahead of the present moment. That is, extending reasoning into the future, where outcomes will be met.

Its decisive power depends on each individual’s links with environmental factors, like other theories or other people. When people are familiar with one another these links are strong, and they are encouraged to share their thoughts and focus on issues and problems.

Culturally defined

Language and culture play a large role in our intellectual development. They actually define us, in how we tend to perceive worlds beyond our sensory data. Colour and shape that we see externally is transformed in throughput, to make sense as the things we see around us.


We assign meanings to environmental objects accordingly. For example, our eyes might see something round and black with two hands. Our minds then interpret the incoming data to mean ‘clock’.

More views

Diversity causes dimensions to multiply. Increasingly societies are becoming composed of various demographic groups. This means that the individual has to contend with more cultures, more languages, and more views than ever before.

Homogeneity among people makes communicating easy. Words, nuances and connotations are easily understood. But getting sense and meaning across those not sharing the same culture and language is harder, obviously because the words or signs that they will correctly understand need to be found.

Weak social and language skills inhibit group discussions. Cultural barriers stop people contributing their own thoughts to the group. Many in the workforce simply await instructions for task assignments.


Effective talk

Just talking outside the business agenda is an important aspect of social interactions. Heterogeneous groups get to know one another’s backgrounds, and can clarify boundaries, and express opinions, intentions and solutions. It helps in teamwork to fathom where one is coming from, or intending to get to.

Diverse people need to be just talking together to share knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and even feelings. It makes them aware of denotative and connotative words. They begin to catch on to undertones, nuances and idiomatic turns of speech.

Their interactions facilitate increasing the multicultural workgroup’s knowledge base and problem solving capability. The team members explore and present fresh angles, processes and options. The group, alerted by disagreements, can focus critical attention on the obstacles that are stalling the flow at work, or may do so in the future.

Cont’d 2…co-constructing knowledge