Meanings Are In People

[Music] thank you in a modern society a manager is a professional Communicator from our research data we know that managers spend nearly all of their working days communicating they hold meetings or interviews readers and reports talk with or listen to other people clearly as managers we're in the people business our success doesn't come from our ability to handle machines and materials we're rewarded for our ability to handle people to get people to do what we want them to to believe is we want them to believe and to know what we want them to know the main tool in working with people is communication yet we don't think much about effective communication communication is taken for granted as doing what comes naturally this is understandable for after all we've been communicating since before we can remember when we began to work for a living we got busy and we couldn't find much time to think about better communication when I talk to managers about their communication their answers suggest that most of them view it as a conveying process material needs to be transmitted from where it has been stored to where it is needed the conveyor simply picks it up at one place moves it over and dumps it where it belongs isn't communication the same the manager is full of information and ideas the subordinate is told what to do and how to do it we use a memo a meeting an order given the right information conveyed clearly the subordinate will know believe and do what we want him to as managers we deal with technical things such as balance sheets equipment other materials however we are more concerned with people we make judgments about people on the basis of what we see we evaluate their competence their motivation in making these judgments about others and ourselves no two of us ever have exactly the same meaning for what we see listen to this hey Charlie five o'clock is quitting time what are you doing [ __ ] for a promotion is it five o'clock already I wanted to get this thing finished oh that's not for me when the work day's over I head for home see you tomorrow see you Harry who does Charlie think he's kidding me he's trying to beat me out that's what he's trying to do I got so interested in this material I didn't realize the afternoon was shot I think I'll finish out before going home clear isn't it that Charlie and Harry had different meanings for what Charlie was doing oh and here's the boss Mr Oliver a third man and a third meaning some bosses might agree with Harry that Charlie was working late to get ahead but they'd consider this good not bad other bosses might share Mr Oliver's meaning I'll have to talk to Charlie this is the third time I've noticed him staying late he must be having trouble getting his work done to the boss Charlie's working late meant that Charlie was having trouble getting his work done on time to Frank Charlie was an eager beaver trying to beat him out for the next promotion but the Charlie staying late gave him a chance to dig into something that interested him one act three men and three different meanings this situation has all the makings of a communication breakdown at nine o'clock the next morning if we're sensitive to them we can find such examples all around us most of them occur because we forget that meanings are in people and not in words and that people's meanings differ for the same event furthermore we often have different meanings when we use the same words let's look at some office incidents that show this the first two incidents involve Virginia a new girl who obviously wasn't told about the jargon used in this company here burn this burn it yes burn it that's what I said isn't it yes sir George yes this is Harry I'll have a copy of those specifications for you I only had one copy with all our Corrections on it so I told Virginia to burn a copy for you okay okay [Music] Harry knew what he meant by burn and Virginia knew what she meant here's another one uh type up this invoice please when do you need it as soon as you can get to it I've got to drop that rush job and get to this right away there's no hurry she can get to it when she finishes that rush job she's on she thought that meanings were in words and she knew the meanings those words had different meanings frequently exist in day-to-day situations in the business world is Mr Oliver in who's calling please Alan Waldo oh I'm sorry Mr Waldo Mr Oliver isn't in now thank you I'll call again situations like this happen every day but look at the different meanings I asked for his name so that Mr Oliver could call him back when he comes in Oliver doesn't think I'm important enough to talk to Jane this is Mr Whitehead let me talk to Oliver oh I'm sorry Mr Whitehead Mr oliverson conference and probably will be all afternoon a top executive calls the secretary says her boss is in conference meanings Mr Oliver is working hard in a series of important meetings Mr Whitehead should know about it Oliver's out on the golf course and she's covering for him And So It Goes communication is hard and has a good chance of breaking down at all times meanings are in people and you don't mean the same as I do all we have to do is tell people what we want them to do and they're supposed to do what they're told we tell them what we need we tell them what is expected of them and they operate accordingly we tell them and tell them and tell them but it doesn't always work like that does it people don't seem to get what we mean they don't understand sometimes they don't even pay attention if communication is simply the conveying of ideas and information why is it that people have such difficulty communicating for example George all I want to know is what happened just tell me what happened I've been trying to what do you mean you've been trying to all you've been doing is giving me excuses I told you what to do now I want to know why you goofed it up no sir I didn't goof it up I did just what you told me to do no you didn't what did I tell you to do you told me to go out on the line and find out which machine was causing the trouble and pull it off the line I did not I know what I told you to do I didn't tell you to pull the machine I told you to fix it the front office is screaming its head off at me pulling a perfectly good piece of equipment off the line when all it needed was a little bit of repairing you don't yank Machinery like that you fix it that's not what you said to do yes it is you just botched it up look Frank I'm sorry I I did my best to follow your instructions well maybe your best isn't good enough if you told me to fix the machine I would have I know my job and I know mine obviously something went wrong and it cost the company money more than that tension between Frank and George is high and likely to stay that way what went wrong what causes this apparent breakdown in communication let's ask Frank what happened sure I can tell you what happened that guy just doesn't understand plain English I tell him to get rid of the trouble he gets rid of the machine instead the guy's got to be stupid to do something like that you just can't get good help anymore so George is stupid he can't understand plain English that's a typical first reaction to Communication Breakdown but let's see if Frank has any second thoughts about what happened I just don't know I guess I should have gone out there but I can't follow up on everything but if you don't do it yourself it doesn't get done right maybe this job is getting too big for me now the supervisor has doubts about himself perhaps he isn't adequate to do everything his job requires but the chain of reactions to Communication Breakdown doesn't usually end there either no it's not my fault he just doesn't give a damn there's no ambition anymore there's no pride in doing a job the right way like it was in my day attitude around this place stinks those are the three typical reactions to Communication Breakdown the other guy's stupid he just doesn't care or I'm inadequate of course sometimes those are the right answers sometimes people are stupid sometimes they just don't care and some managers are completely inadequate communication training can't help those problems but fortunately there's usually a better explanation let's go back what did Frank tell George in the first place and there's trouble on the number three line the foreman seems to think it's the automatic control I don't know what's causing the trouble but whatever it is get out there and get rid of it okay I'll check and get it out of there seems simple enough happens every day the subordinate doesn't appear to be stupid and his attitude certainly seems all right what went wrong well the supervisor's in trouble because he misunderstands the nature of communication the supervisor thinks that communication is a conveyor that he can just take information out of his head send it over to the other person and dump it in but it doesn't work that way communication is not that simple in fact it's extremely difficult to communicate effectively you don't get meanings across on a conveyor the words you use the gestures you make the things you do don't have meanings in themselves meanings aren't in words meanings are in people we each have our own meanings we learn them from experience since no two people ever have the same experience no two of us can ever have exactly the same meaning for anything it reminds me of an English teacher I once had we were studying Hamlet and I didn't understand certain of the passages after pouring over the text I went up and asked her to explain her answer was always the same means exactly what it says how many times have I told you if you don't understand it go back and read it again the teacher didn't realize that I had to have the meanings or I wouldn't understand the passages no matter how many times I read them that remark she made I told you is the first clue to communication illness Frank has the same problem told you what to do now I want to know why you goofed it up no sir I didn't goof it up I did just what you told me to do no you didn't what did I tell you to do you told me to go out on the line find out which machine was causing the trouble and pull it off the line no I didn't I know what I told you I told you Frank believed that meanings are in words and relied upon the conveyor system of communication and he got into trouble now you may be saying to yourself if this is true if meanings are in people rather than in words what have I been doing all my life I've been doing okay well maybe you have when the subject is technical for example when I first came into this Film Studio I didn't have the same meanings everyone here had I heard people using terms like pan and Dolly I thought at first I knew what they were talking about since I had meanings for a pan or a dolly people in the industry understand each other but an outsider is lost after several rehearsals I learned that a dolly refers to a stand on which the camera is mounted to provide forward and backward movement I also learned what they meant by the term Pan the camera moves right or left this kind of panoramic movement is used to follow some particular action much of the training you give a new employee on the job should involve teaching him the jargon of the organization but now let's go back to the trouble between Frank and George while we watch it let's look for principles of communication that we can use on our own jobs Machinery like that you fix it that's not what you said to do yes it is you've just botched it up look Frank I'm sorry I did my best to follow your instructions well maybe your best isn't good enough if you told me to fix the machine I would have fixed it I know my job and I know mine what a mess well that's when we booted now wait a minute I can't let it stop there if I don't get this straightened out we'll both be in trouble later George is not stupid and he tries to do a good job I don't know what went wrong but I better get it straightened out between us George come back a minute will you yes sir there's one important point no matter how good we are at communication we'll still miss once in a while when breakdown does occur we can't ignore it or forget it or we'll be in more trouble the next time George I shouldn't have blown up like that I I'm sorry same here look Frank I try to do the best job I can for you I know you do I thought you were saying I was stupid and it made me mad for a minute I did think you were stupid and I realized I was blaming you instead of myself actually nobody's to blame I guess but we sure did get things fouled up I don't understand I thought my instructions were clear as a bell well they were clear to me yeah they were clear to both of us but we meant totally different things I'd like to find out what went wrong what did you hear me tell you well you said or at least I heard that I was to go out and get rid of whatever was causing the trouble on a number three line that's what I meant for you to do but not get rid of the control unit that's what was causing the trouble yes but now wait a minute we're about to start shouting again yeah it's just that I never dreamed you'd why we all got chewed out last week for writing off too much salvageable equipment hey wait a minute I didn't tell you that did I no sir well I'll be well live and learn well there's nothing we can do about this one George but maybe we've both learned a lesson it was clear to me it was clear to you but you didn't mean what I meant what's clear to you is clear to you if the supervisor learned that lesson well it might be worth all the trouble it caused he did learn one important point it usually doesn't help to view communication breakdown as somebody's fault that's just the way the world is the effective manager gets rid of the Notions of blame and fault it doesn't help to ask who was responsible actually if you continually attach blame to misunderstanding the misunderstandings get worse not better because people are afraid to admit they don't understand and they start defending themselves well the supervisor understands the trouble he was in and he learned something about how to prevent it the next time the fact is however that there still was a management breakdown this time and it could have been prevented in the first place the supervisor was operating under the conveyor theory of communication he told George what to do and that was that he assumed that George would mean what he meant under that assumption all that he could do was find out about his problem after it was too late what if Frank had understood that you don't send meanings on a conveyor what if he had assumed that George wouldn't mean what he meant then he would have found out what George meant before the damage was done couldn't the problem have been avoided in the first place like this there's trouble on the number three line the foreman seems to think it's the automatic control I don't know what's causing the trouble but whatever it is get out there and get rid of it okay I'll check and get it out of there no George you sure you understand yeah I'm sure no don't ask him if he understands all the pressure is on him to say yes whether he understands or not ask him what he understands now try it again George this is important now let's check and make sure we're on the same wavelength what are you going to do I'm going out and check the line if I find the problems coming from the automatic control I'm going to pull it off and replace it no no no George that's not what I said yes it is wait a minute don't start an argument over what was really said that's not important what's important is that he gets the right message try it once more I'm going to pull it off the line and replace it that's not what I mean to say don't pull the control unless absolutely necessary there's a squeeze on about excessive Salvage try to fix it if at all possible I think I've got you now find the trouble fix the control if possible if it takes too much or too long to fix it pull it off and replace it okay okay but before you pull it check with me all right Frank well that's much better isn't it it took an extra 30 seconds but it was well worth it Frank still has a good deal to learn about better communication but so do all of us no matter how hard you try misunderstandings will occur but at least your batting average goes up when somebody does goof remember that it doesn't help to place blame even on yourself it isn't anybody's fault the thing to do is to correct the situation the manager's job is to create a climate in which people will feel free to take a look at what causes communication problems and they don't do that if they feel somebody is going to lower the boom on them afterward most importantly we need to remember that the conveyor theory of communication isn't right things don't work that way meanings aren't found in the words we use they're found in the people who use them meanings come from experience our experiences differ so our meanings differ meanings are your own view of the world what's real to you is real to you [Music]