Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/23 05:51 am

Dear Theresa,

Within a family, as within any organisation or group, different individuals will have different mindsets and values. Parents may be more conservative than their children (perhaps based on their experience of earlier tough times). Children frequently have more liberal social values than their parents.

In fact, we are each unique: with different psychology, history, views and opinions. When talking to each other, we need to fashion our communication so that it is clear and acceptable enough to the other person so they are willing and able to both listen and understand.

Joseph's expression about the deer in the headlights refers to what happens when an animal is blinded at night by the lights of an oncoming car. They stand transfixed and are often killed. When talking to others, we need to check whether they are hearing and understanding what we say or are mentally blinded and immobilised.

I hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Timothy

Theresa Wang - date: 2011/07/22 11:22 pm

Timothy, could you pls further explain what your mentioned about family... or children... is that the way of joking or there were other underlying? same as "The-deer-in-the-headlight" what does that stand for?

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/21 10:23 am

Dear Joseph,

A great example - and I like your recommendation that we all need to be alert for that deer-in-the-headlights look on the faces of those we're addressing. We ignore it at our peril.

Thanks,

Timothy

Joseph Mullin - date: 2011/07/21 10:21 am

Timothy,

You bring a valid point in your reply to Theresa.
It reminds me of the time I was training a group of manufacturing employees who were stuffing the boards and assembling the product. Stuffing the boards means placing the components in the proper locations. There were a large number of women in the group and one who could only speak Russian.

While trying to make the point of the importance of doing
their job correctly in order to improve quality I received the dreaded deer-in-the-headlights stare. No one understood the point. I realized that I was going to have to use a number of analogies to get my point
across.

I used baking as an analogy because you have the ingredients that you put together to make say a cake. Well, in electronics we have the components that need to be put together to make a product.

This experience taught me well that I need to shift my speech and use good analogies in order to have everyone at all levels understand.

Like you stated, even within the same company, departments have their own jargon which can confuse others.

We take so much for granted when we speak that the other person will and should understand us. The-deer-in-the-headlight gaze should be a clue we are failing.

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/20 08:34 am

Dear Theresa,

Well said!

However, all of us need to remember that when talking to any audience it's worth assuming some differences in their experiences, expectations, etc. We need to tune our words for their ears. Even within the same organisation, people from different departments can confuse others if they talk in their own departmental or technical jargon.

Similarly, at home, we can fail to get our point across if we overlook the differences of mindset and values that our partners or children bring to a discussion around the family dining table.

Timothy

Theresa Wang - date: 2011/07/19 08:54 pm

I thought Joseph had right thinking about it, this is very important when corporate having some new leader appointed, particulary who were not from same corporate business environment, that one has to understand to importance of summarize his management viewpoint in a more exoteric languague and easy description, rather than keeping mentioning about jargons. If that is keynote speech from CEO, he/she need to pay attention to it more.

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/19 08:18 am

Dear Richard,

A good point and it has business implications - as well as raising concerns for the visual arts.

Good PR and communications specialists (like good curators) can add value. But many just muddy the water and/or deflect attention from the facts. Of course, in some cases - politics being a frequent exemplar - that is exactly what is intended. However, when confusing the audience is NOT the aim, then jargon and other linguistic smoke-and-mirrors are to be avoided.

Timothy

Richard Letts - date: 2011/07/19 08:09 am

Timothy,

Re the Biennale ... What is it about the visual arts? Dont they trust in the image any more? Did the curators take over entirely? Its not just that the handouts are unreadable, its that they make the art even more resistable.

Richard

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/19 08:07 am

Dear Joseph,

I've observed situations similar to the one you mention. Good intentions (on the part of your CEO, for example) totally negated by words that the audience didn't understand.

In somewhat similar vein ... when I was at business school in the US many decades ago, our European class mates came out of the first exam totally bewildered. They were competent in English and from the best schools in their countries. However, they couldn't understand what the essay question was about. The case involved a multi-modal transport company. However, they had no idea what was meant by "piggyback" transportation. And, why would they. Unless you've grown up in an English speaking country, you may well not know a word, which is mostly relevant to childhood games.

Timothy

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/19 07:54 am

Dear Theresa,

You're right. Jargon is a particular issue when a company crosses language and/or cultural boundaries. Even within a single language, there can be significant differences of meaning for a single word - which adds to the jargon risk.

Thanks,

Timothy

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/19 07:51 am

Dear Phadke,

Thanks for your comment. This Potshot seems to have struck a cord with a number of people.

Thanks for your note re G+, which I received some days ago. However, I've been very busy with "must do items" but hope to get to the "like to dos" soon.

Best wishes,

Timothy

Joseph Mullin, MBA Principal - date: 2011/07/19 01:45 am

Timothy
Great post!
It brings back to what they tell you in public speaking know your audience. IF your audience does not understand the corporate jargon then using it is a disservice to you and your organization. Also within the organization you have to remember to whom you are speaking.
A story to illustrate this
I was working for a design and manufacturing company who just hired a new CEO. To get the company to know him he called for an all hands meeting. During his speech he used not only used jargon not related to that industry but also words that most manufacturing people didn't understand. I was sitting in the midst of the manufacturing people and constantly translating so that they could understand what he was saying. Needless to say this action was disruptive to the speech. He asked what was more important than his speech and I answered the translation so that everyone could understand your points.
The point was well taken by the new CEO and I could stop translating.
I think we often take for granted that when we talk we will be understood by all. But we must remember that jargon is like speaking a whole other language.
I can not wait for Rosetta Stone to come out with a jargon series.

Joseph Mullin, MBA Principal - date: 2011/07/19 01:45 am

Timothy
Great post!
It brings back to what they tell you in public speaking know your audience. IF your audience does not understand the corporate jargon then using it is a disservice to you and your organization. Also within the organization you have to remember to whom you are speaking.
A story to illustrate this
I was working for a design and manufacturing company who just hired a new CEO. To get the company to know him he called for an all hands meeting. During his speech he used not only used jargon not related to that industry but also words that most manufacturing people didn't understand. I was sitting in the midst of the manufacturing people and constantly translating so that they could understand what he was saying. Needless to say this action was disruptive to the speech. He asked what was more important than his speech and I answered the translation so that everyone could understand your points.
The point was well taken by the new CEO and I could stop translating.
I think we often take for granted that when we talk we will be understood by all. But we must remember that jargon is like speaking a whole other language.
I can not wait for Rosetta Stone to come out with a jargon series.

Theresa Wang - date: 2011/07/19 12:28 am

This one deserved to be considered when globalized company trying to build continuous leadership or development advantage, how to lead and train their working force/or working leaders in developing market.

Phadke Subodhkumar Narayan - date: 2011/07/18 06:14 pm

My Dearest Dr. Timothy Sir,

I loved this potshot from my heart. Simple. Easy to read. East to digest. Easy to follow. Easy to adopt.

Hope global "web readers" are reading this and adopting it.

In fact "simple & easy", two words, I am also driven in my own life. Be it in home or in office or in society or in nation.

Thanks a lot for this potshot. Thanks a lot for keeping me in "trust circle". I hope by now you must received "G+" invitation from my end. Over there, you can create "trust circles" of your choice for home, for office, for business, etc. and you can share & empower. Recently, I added Larry Page (Founder of Google Inc.) in to my "trust circle".

Sincerely I remain,
Phadke S. N.

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/07/18 02:57 pm

Dear Ijaz,

My apologies: the comment immediately below was from me.

In my haste to respond, I forgot to insert my name.

Timothy

- date: 2011/07/18 02:55 pm

Dear Ijaz,

Lovely to hear from you - and thanks for your comment.

I think all large organisations (whether for-profit or not-for-profit) have an internal language, which is meaningful and helpful to those inside but is vague (or worse, meaningless) to customers and other outsiders.

In that sense, we all need to be multi-lingual: fluent in both profession-speak and also in customer-speak.

Best wishes,

Timothy

Ijaz Rana - date: 2011/07/18 02:12 pm

Dear Timothy,
Lovely article.
You could not be more right.
Through out my three plus decades with KLM Airlines, we were constantly told ( trained ) to always avoid using the industry Jargons with our clients.
Unfortunately, most of the times we ignore petty actions that can result in big ( adverse ) consequences.
Once again, a great article & thanks for bringing it up.
Best Regards.
Ijaz