Critical Factors of Innovative Organisations No. 5
Openness does not occur in the space of the speaker.
‘Why is it so?’, Adam asked me one day when I was talking about openness again.
Well, when a speaker speaks, he does not just exercise his vocal cords. He also exercises his eyes and ears to read, hear, seek, probe and pick up information about the listener to determine his level of interest, support, and commitment to the message.
We are all social animals. We make stories about the listener through the information we pick up in our interactions and conversations. We also make stories about ourselves as speakers. Most of the time, these stories are not even true. There is nothing wrong about this. This is just a part of our inheritance as humans, and we use it very efficiently. We do all these - concluding, deciding, and reacting - in split seconds.
‘But won't the listener behaves like a speaker since he also listens and reads for information during an interaction?’, Adam asked.
I replied, ‘That’s true. That’s why things can become so vicious when conversations are entangled in circles of fantasies, and no one seems able to get out of it at all to keep the conversation at what it is rather than what it should be'.
‘This is scary. If this can happen between just two people, what will become to the organisation and the world if everyone does it?’, he exclaimed.
‘It is already happening - fightings in the family, politicking in the office, shootings in the schools, killings on the streets, and sanctioning less worthy countries. These manifestations arise from taking in what we believe to be true and not what is the truth’, was my reply and I continued, 'The people in such organisations and from such societies enjoys only a poorer state of life. They are less child-like, more risk adverse, and unlikely to bring in fresh mentalities since doing so problematic in a world that is authentically unreal'.
This is the bane of organisations and societies, arising from the stories they have made and held dear to.
Openness does not occur in the space of the speaker.
‘Why is it so?’, Adam asked me one day when I was talking about openness again.
Well, when a speaker speaks, he does not just exercise his vocal cords. He also exercises his eyes and ears to read, hear, seek, probe and pick up information about the listener to determine his level of interest, support, and commitment to the message.
We are all social animals. We make stories about the listener through the information we pick up in our interactions and conversations. We also make stories about ourselves as speakers. Most of the time, these stories are not even true. There is nothing wrong about this. This is just a part of our inheritance as humans, and we use it very efficiently. We do all these - concluding, deciding, and reacting - in split seconds.‘But won't the listener behaves like a speaker since he also listens and reads for information during an interaction?’, Adam asked.
I replied, ‘That’s true. That’s why things can become so vicious when conversations are entangled in circles of fantasies, and no one seems able to get out of it at all to keep the conversation at what it is rather than what it should be'.
‘This is scary. If this can happen between just two people, what will become to the organisation and the world if everyone does it?’, he exclaimed.
‘It is already happening - fightings in the family, politicking in the office, shootings in the schools, killings on the streets, and sanctioning less worthy countries. These manifestations arise from taking in what we believe to be true and not what is the truth’, was my reply and I continued, 'The people in such organisations and from such societies enjoys only a poorer state of life. They are less child-like, more risk adverse, and unlikely to bring in fresh mentalities since doing so problematic in a world that is authentically unreal'.
This is the bane of organisations and societies, arising from the stories they have made and held dear to.
Here is a video to understand the brain makes meaning:
Here are the links for the other critical factors of innovative organisations:
This article was 1st written on 20 Sep 2008 and updated on 7 Jul 2010.
Copyright 2008 and 2010. Anthony Mok. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2008 and 2010. Anthony Mok. All rights reserved.
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