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Observation one - Foreign languages Have you ever watched a person trying to communicate with someone of another country, someone who speaks a "foreign" language? Observing, you've probably watched as this person tries one or more of the following tactics in an attempt to break through the language barrier: Speaks louder! Speaks slower! Tries enunciating! Uses hand signals! Finally gives up! Do any of these solve the problem? Not really. No matter how "hard" we try to communicate, if we don't know the language of the other, communication is virtually impossible. Needless to say, this applies equally when someone is trying to communicate with us. If they don't know our language, the chances of coming together to form some meaningful understanding are pretty slim. What we often fail to recognize, however, is that even when we do speak the same "words," we still may be speaking a foreign language! And therefore, although it sounds familiar, we continually misunderstand each other! Observation two - personality types You're in the midst of the Monday morning management meeting. John, the sales guy, is at it again! There he goes throwing ideas out a mile a minute, "...then all we'll have to do is nail it! Simple! Everything will just fall into place, and then we'll just..." He seems to be talking more to himself than anyone else; obviously, he sees something, but most of the group is beginning to drift away. Mary, the planning lady, is trying; bless her. She's been attempting to interject something, a question maybe? for the last ten minutes, but John is on a roll. "Huh, John, maybe we need to...," but no luck. And then even she loses concentration, and her eyes begin to glaze over, and on her forehead you can almost see the readout: Information overload! Information overload! Meanwhile, Barry, the HR guy, is shaking his head as he watches the meeting about to disintegrate (again!) and wonders, "How am I supposed to bring them together? What can I do to change the standard outcome-everyone either drifting off to their secret place or getting fed-up and attacking each other! And worse, nothing ever gets decided or accomplished! Not even sharing information! Just a bunch of pissed-off people!" And of course Ann, John's colleague in Marketing, seems to be not only following him, but leap-frogging! "Yeah, then we could get the clients and customer service in a partnership and integrate their efforts into our next sales extravaganza! Wow! And then..." It's as though they're in a "mind-meld-with their own secret language, which only they understand (which, of course, is true). Finally, here it comes-Frank, the operations guy, has just about had it! "Now just wait a damn minute, you two! How the hell do you think we're gonna be able to do even the smallest piece of what you're imagining! We've got to get grounded-take one step at a time, make sure each single step is the best, analyze it and analyze it again, before we even try to connect them together. Then, we've got to make sure it fits perfectly with all of where we've been, back to the very beginning and also make sure it's aligned with where we're going, and everything's got to be tested and re-tested, analyzed and re-analyzed, evaluated, and tested, and analyzed!" John's hot-button just got pushed! "Frank, with all due respect, where have you been my man! You've got to get you out of your cubicle once in a while. Haven't you seen the last management book; it's on all the best-seller lists-I just picked up a copy on the way to work this morning" and he holds up a copy of Just Go For It, And Screw The Rest!-How to Get Way Ahead of the Competition and Make Them Eat Your Dust! "Frank, stop throwing ice-water on anything new and innovative! You're always slowing everything down to a crawl! It'll kill us in the marketplace!" Sound familiar? Most of us have experienced something like this, if not at work than maybe at school or even at home. It seems that no matter how or what we try, no matter what "good" intentions we come to the table with, we get our buttons pushed (or push other people's) and everything goes out the window, resulting in the classic human responses of "fight" or "flight." Human Systems Architecture I've coined the term "Human Systems Architecture" in acknowledgement of two influences. One, the design challenge of classic art and architecture; that is, marrying "form and function." Its modern application is known as Information Architecture and is best represented through the work of my colleague, Clement Mok (Founder, Chairman, and Chief Information Architect of Studio Archetype, now merged with Sapient and the great Richard Saul Wurman. The other profound influence is the work of Dr. Sandra Seagal and David Horne founders and authors of the ground breaking work, Human Dynamics: A New Framework for Understanding People and Realizing the Potential of Our Organizations. Pegasus Commications1997). This seminal work is acknowledged by MIT Professor Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and the concept of "learning organizations," as one of the most important contributions to the field of human interaction. He says, "The work of Sandra Seagal and her associates is seminal! I believe it will have an immense impact upon management, education, and families. Those of us involved in building learning organizations will look back ten years' time and wonder how we had ever proceeded without the understanding and appreciation of the diversity of human functioning that the work of Human Dynamics brings." The following is a description of Human Dynamics (used with permission of the authors): "Human Dynamics is the term given to new understandings of human functioning developed by Dr. Sandra Seagal and her associates at Human Dynamics International in the course of continuing research since 1979. This investigation has involved more than thirty thousand people from over twenty-five cultures. "Dr. Seagal and her team have explored the interaction in people of three universal principles:
"In the human system, the mental principle is related to the mind-to thinking, values, structure, focus, objectivity, perspective. The emotional principle is more subjective. It is concerned with relationships-with feelings, communication, organization, and synthesis. The physical principle is pragmatic. It is the making, doing, operationalizing part of us. "Of the greatest significance is the discovery that the mental, emotional and physical principles combine in a dynamic interplay in people in specific ways, to form distinct personality dynamics or ways of being, each characterized by fundamentally different inner process and ways of functioning in the world. Five such personality dynamics predominate in Western cultures, in relatively consistent, although not equal, proportions. "The personality dynamics do not appear to be determined by culture, age or gender. They appear in every culture; they characterize men and women in equal numbers; and they can be observed at every age level. The distinctions are so fundamental that they can be identified even in babies. "Each personality dynamic constitutes a whole way of functioning. Members of one personality dynamic differ distinctly from those of another personality dynamic in the way in which they process information, learn, communicate, problem-solve, function on teams, and become stressed. Each personality dynamic has specific requirements for learning, maturing and functioning optimally. Each has characteristic gifts and affinities. And the path of development is different for each. Types and knowledge "To know someone's personality dynamic, therefore is to know a great deal about that person. Each person constitutes a whole system. It is important to note that each personality dynamic is of equal value. Anyone of any personality dynamic may be more or less intelligent, compassionate, skilled or gifted. And every personality dynamic has an unbounded capacity for maturation. But the way in which the members of each personality dynamic function is completely different. "The lack of recognition of these differences in human functioning has led to much misunderstanding, conflict, and wastage of individual and group potential - in the classroom, in the work-place, in the home. Awareness of types offers new opportunities:
I cannot recommend their work more highly or enthusiastically! It provides an essential "missing link" to individual and group understanding. When I was delivering "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" training or "Principle-Centered Leadership" workshops, I was confounded by the fact that although people believed they "understood" the content and the "principles," when they tried to apply it with certain others, they had terrific difficulty. No matter how hard they "sought to understand" before "being understood," there was still something missing and their efforts often ended in misunderstanding! I was perplexed and frustrated! Then I remembered Sandra and David's work, and when I began to integrate even just a limited "overview" into my delivery, the results were astounding! People began to understand at a totally different level. Now, rather than speaking louder, slower, enunciating, using hand-signals, or finally just giving up," they could begin to communicate in new "languages"-for different "ways of being"-which allowed for more effective communication. REVISITING THE MEETING Armed with even the most fundamental knowledge of these various "languages" ("dynamics" or "ways of being"), one can approach (translate) situations from a multifaceted perspective. Note, however, as the "guiding principles" suggest, the first level of work is at the "I" level ("me, myself, and I"). KNOW THYSELF! For now, I'll leave it to your imagination how our meeting might play out very differently within this framework (but check here periodically for the updated version!) |
