It’s ALL about the assumptions
I have to admit that this seems so basic to me and perhaps it comes from my time working with ADHD children when, as a caregiver, you take NOTHING for granted in your communication. I found these kids to be brilliant at finding loopholes (perhaps this is all kids).
For those kids and for other folks I deal with regularly, if we don’t agree on our terms – have the same assumptions – then our communication fails. In business, this is also often called setting expectations. Same dealio.
Assumptions are the map through which explanation paths are laid (I love this line…it came to me just before bed last night).
In order to agree, for example, that Interstate 5 treks north through California, Oregon and Washington, we have to agree…have to assume…what the boundaries are for those states and even have to agree that there ARE arbitrary political state lines across the landscape. Generally we take state boundaries for granted, so map makers don’t have to convince us (at least for US maps).
Frankly, even “north” is a social construct, so while we can verify factually that there is a highway laid across the landscape, it’s only the context that allows us to say that it runs “north / south” through “California”, “Oregon” and “Washington”. We could as easily say (in Washington and some of Oregon) that it runs just “west” of the Cascade mountain range.
Why, you’re wondering right now, does this make a damned bit of difference? Well I’m glad you asked…it’s because we regularly try to communicate…to demonstrate a point…so someone else with the expectation that they will come to the same conclusion we do, and outside of agreement on that context (agreement on those expectations) failure is common. Examples:
- “It will take me 1 hour to finish this report.” – There is clarification for “one hour” (some folks believe that 15 minutes past the hour is still on time), and “finish” (is that the first draft, or the final approved draft?).
- “I will clean the kitchen.” – I could take the rest of the day clarifying different interpretations of “clean” (mopping? doing dishes or just loading the dishwasher?), but even “kitchen” may need clarification (where, exactly, does the kitchen end and the next room begin?).
- And a personal favorite “I can create Level 2 web-based training for $20K per finished hour.” This dogged my professional world for better than a year. What’s the industry definition of “Level 2″? What’s the client’s definition of Level 2? Does a “finished hour” include time for participants to take assessments? Does this mean that a half hour is $10K?
I get accused of being unnecessarily literal but I gotta tell you…it takes only a little effort and given the choice between being literal and being vague, I’ll take the former.
~Geek~
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