Uh, Say What?
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“I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
- A statement most often attributed to Robert McCloskey, U.S. State Department spokesperson at one of his regular noon briefings during the worst days of the Vietnam War.
The other day I was sitting in our weekly status meeting with about six or seven of the other consultants in my, um, “area of expertise”. (Like doctors, in the consulting world, it’s called a “practice”. Which sorta begs the question: when do we quit practicing and actually, er, get on with it?)
Now, it’s no exaggeration to say this is a pretty smart bunch. Having just joined the practice myself, whenever we get together I try to listen closely so I can learn as much as I can. You know; the ol’ “fly on the wall” bit. It’s a tried-and-true learning technique.
So like I said; I’m sittin’ there, listening to the conversation and taking mental notes. About the, um, only problem was, I had no idea what they were talking about! I mean, some of the terms I understood. And I knew they were talking about a chemical process that had to do with several of our current projects. I got that part, at least.
But as to the specific details of the conversation, well, I felt a lot like ol’ Ginger up there in that hilarious Far Side cartoon. I was reduced to just listening for my name.
Can You Run That By Me Again?
A while back, at a job-networking mixer, I remember once asking some fellow what he did for a living. He responded with a lot of technical jargon that had to do with network configurations, programming languages, and assorted other “computer stuff”. I looked at him and said, “You know, what I just heard was, “Blah, blah, blah, blah!”
Luckily, he laughed. But I think he got my point.
[Note: It was one of those "moments of insanity" I've mentioned before. (It's true: Hello. I'm Bob, and I'm a smart-aleck.) Usually it's kept well under control, but sometimes... well, all I can say is, fortunately it doesn't happen often enough to get me seriously hurt. Nevertheless, don't try this at home!]
On another occasion (same event; different day), I asked to see the resume of a fellow Doc I had just met. After briefly studying all five densely-typed pages, I had to ask him, “OK; but what the heck do you do?” He knew exactly what I meant. Together we were able to rewrite it so it was a bit more readable to those of us who weren’t in his highly specialized area of expertise.
See, many times we get caught up in our own areas of expertise (or maybe we’re just showing off - but that’s a subject for another post), and the language or the terms we use begin to take on more and more specialized meanings.
Communication 101
C’mon, admit it. I’ve done it; you’ve done it; you’ve heard others do it too. So what’s the problem?
Oh, no problem, really. Unless, of course, it begins to exclude others from the conversation. That’s where we might begin to get into trouble. Why? Because nobody likes to be excluded!
See, there’s three parts to every communication. (Actually, there are more, but let’s just focus on these three right now.)
- Words - units of language that carry meaning
- Meaning - content carried by the words
- Context - discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation
The thing is, the meaning and context of what we say is just as important as the words we choose to say them with. So when we talk to people; when we write, when we send an email - when we communicate - well, let’s just say we need to be sure we have all three.
Otherwise, it might be just “Blah, blah, blah, blah.”
You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!
10 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Robert Michel
Nice points. Jargon is the enemy of understanding, no doubt about it. The safest approach is to assume the audience knows nothing about your subject matter. It’s fairly easy to ratchet up the technical talk in a meeting or a presentation, but it’s difficult to simplify on the fly.
blah blah blah blah smart aleck blah blah blah what Brad said.
I think the biggest challenge is that a lot of meaning and context are inside the listener’s head, and unless you know the listener well, you don’t really understand those two elements, and that’s what generates the blah blah blah effect. Blah blah.
@ Robert - Thanks for dropping by, and welcome to the Middle Zone!
@ Brad - Yes, I’ve heard that advice many times. Unfortunately, it’s so easy to forget in the heat of a presentation, or even in a simple discussion!
I know there’s a whole group of people who absolutely HATE PowerPoint, but for me that’s one of its values - it forces me to think in simpler, more universal “bites” and leave the jargon on the cutting room floor.
@ Mike - You got it in one, buddy! Sometimes you can see the “deer in the headlights” effect in their eyes, but sometimes not. Blah. Blah. :-\
Hi Robert, I’ve tried the listen out for your name technique and it can seriously backfire if you wake up from your daydream with absolutely no idea what they’re all talking about!
I think Mike’s right about knowing your listener, because you can achieve blah blah even with no jargon and the plainest of words if your material isn’t relevant or interesting to them.
Joanna
Robert,
I, too, am a subscriber who finds your blog valuable.
In addition to the techniques mentioned in your block, I would also suggest that you also keep slang and idioms to a minimum when you don’t know your group. Last month, I got an E-mail from someone who didn’t understand the phrase “Marshall your forces”. She demanded to know who Marshall was and why I brought him up. You would think I would learn, but no.
I recently made a comment on a group that I was “playing devils advocate by saying thus and so” and boy did I get jumped on! No one understood that a devils advocate deliberately states the opposite in order to start a conversation/discussion. (I am still smarting from that one, can you tell?)
No slang, no jargon, no idioms. I am learning:-))
@ Joanna - Yep; been there too!
That’s why it’s so important to give some thought to who’s really listening. In fact, this particular forum makes it even more complicated because of the international aspect of our audience. Sometimes things just don’t translate all that well.
@ Kris - I don’t think you need to eliminate them completely - after all, reading is supposed to be learning as well. But you do need to be careful to explain them, at least in context, or you’ll leave your readers floundering.
[...] Oh, and you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks, and a tip o’ the hat to ya!As a follow-up to my last post, I have a few questions for [...]
We have a good rule of thumb in our dept amongst the phd students, which is if you can describe your thesis in under 2 minutes to someone outwith academia, then you know you have a good handle on your project. When you are engaged in a project of that magnitude, you are invariably asked at dinner parties the polite question of, “What is your research on?”. Often the person asking the question doesn’t even actually want to hear the answer, but occasionally you get someone who does, and you don’t want to lose them while explaining some complex literary theory or your convoluted methodology.
It took me about 2 years to master my dinner party answer, and I now precisely what my thesis is all about. I’m not convinced the two are mutually exclusive
Two minutes! Wow! In business they tell you about the “elevator speech” - 30 seconds or less. Think you can rise to that challenge?
But you’re right. I always thought the hardest part of any paper was the abstract - condensing a bazillion pages of research to one paragraph! But it was a good exercise nevertheless.
In fact, that’s a problem I have right now in my new consulting job. Coming up with a coherent description of what we can do for a client isn’t so easy when the actual work can be pretty, well, “fluid”, if you get my meanin’. :-\
But hopefully I’m learning.