Organizations and I-Thou Ethics

I teach a class on ethics and communication, and part of that class looks at the ideas of Martin Buber.  Buber distinguished two ways of communicating with others.  I-it communication treats the other person as an object, where you are trying to get something for yourself.  I-thou communication treats the other person as a unique [...]

Ethical Priorities

Ethics in organizations have been in the news so much in the last eight or nine years.  Perhaps I didn’t pay attention before Enron or perhaps the media didn’t pay as much attention, but it seems that there is a new corporate scandal about every month or two.  Because of recent legislation, more and more [...]

Person-Centered Messages

One thing that is important in any type of communication is what has been called “person-centered messages” (Burleson & Caplan, 1997).  Before speaking, think “how is the other person going to hear this?”  Notice I did not say, “how would I hear this if I were in their shoes?”  There is a subtle but important difference.  [...]

Technology, Part 2

Isn’t it interesting that, in addition to the advantages that technology brings, there are also a number of problems.  Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed with the amount of information that comes our way—it becomes harder and harder to find what’s really important.  A number of scholars have also noted that technology makes it harder to [...]

Technology

You probably don’t need me to tell you that technology has brought a number of advantages to workplaces.  Our work is more efficient because of the technology that we have available, and information is at our fingertips.  We have the ability to communicate with people around the world in ways that would have been impossible [...]

Reduce Burnout–Connect to the Mission

I was speaking at a nonprofit last week, and I wanted to share one of the things that I shared with them.  Burnout is a serious problem in nonprofit organizations, just as it is in for-profit businesses.  Burnout reduces productivity, efficiency, and overall satisfaction, in addition to creating stress and anxiety.  One important way of [...]

Equifinality

Have you ever heard the word, “equifinality?”  Look at the parts of the word and think about what it could mean.  That’s right.  It is the idea that there are often a number of ways of getting to a solution that are approximately equal.  Have you ever noticed in situations like that, even though there [...]

Fields of Experience and Miscommunications

One last thing for now about miscommunications.  As we communicate with others, we can only speak about what we’ve experienced.  Even if we know the words, if we don’t know the concepts, we cannot use the words in meaningful ways because words are only symbols.  Because I can only communicate about things in my field [...]

Don’t Listen to the Noise

Another obvious source of miscommunication is noise, which refers to any thing that interferes with a message getting from me to you.  Noise could be mental distractions (annoyance at the person speaking, pre-lunch stomach grumblings, post-lunch sleepiness, etc), a room that’s too warm or too cool, or actual noise in the area.  When the noise [...]