Welcome to our new website!
This is it, take a look around, tell us what you think.
Technology: as you know yourself with technology, it doesn’t always seem to work the way it should. Why is that? Why is it that something that is basically on/off, one’s and zero’s, programmed by us to work in a certain way, can create so many little glitches? Before any of the techie’s launch into a response, yes, it’s very complex, there are lots of different elements sending data all over the place, and of course, there’s the actual hardware receiving, transmitting and interpreting all of it.
Sounds like a metaphor for society, for human interaction in general.
How many times have you been looking at your PC, mobile or tablet and been thinking (or shouting), “I don’t get it, it should just work?”. This is often in exasperation as it was just working 5 minutes ago too, or you are doing the same thing you have always done. It. Should. Just. Work. This frustration partly has to do with our innate tendency to animate or humanise objects in our lives, like when we assign a gender to our car, but it is also that technology has limited responses to how data that cannot be interpreted is handled.
In contrast, how many times have you been with another person, or in a group of people and been thinking (or shouting), “I don’t get it”, or, if you are the one trying to explain something, thinking (or shouting), “Why don’t they get it?”. What seems obvious to us can be utterly confusing to others. It’s our potential responses to these situations that enable great communication or creates the little glitches in understanding that can cascade into larger problems. One of the key evolutionary drivers of humanity has been the development of complex communication. We communicate in complex situations using complex language, using complex symbols, and more so than ever before, we have complex mediums for delivery.
Of course, communication is not just about transmitting, it’s about receiving too and this creates even greater complexity because of the differing values, schemas and varied knowledge that we hold as individuals. There are theories and transaction models which go into all this a lot deeper and distil these factors down to the critical essentials, but it seems that ultimately, good communication is the ability to deliver your message in such a way that it can be understood and that we know it has been understood.
Sounds simple, but it’s not so easy.
We all have good communication skills. We have to, it’s part of being human. But as comfortable and adept at communicating as we are with those we know, or in the situations with which we are familiar, how strong are our abilities to communicate outside these comfort zones? This is the reason that we seek to improve our communication skills, not because we are poor communicators, but because of the increased exposure to varied cultures and environments we now experience in the course of our life and work. It’s little wonder that communication skills maintain such priority. For those that need to grow beyond local or singular ways to communicate, it’s about having a robust set of skills that can be successfully applied in multiple contexts.
But we don’t always want or need someone to understand what we are communicating. This is what happens in learning. What? I know, this sounds counter-intuitive, a lot of what we hear and see about education emphasises good communication; specifically, that we want to deliver our message in such a way that it can be understood and that we know it has been understood. But how do we know when we need to learn? How can we stretch someone’s knowledge if all we do is ensure we communicate in such a way that we are always understood? This just confirms existing knowledge. We should also communicate in a way that offers the opportunity to be challenged, to offer the opportunity to “not know”, to communicate in such a way that creates the opportunity to learn.
Learning is a process, a journey if you like, understanding is a milestone point on that continuous, lifelong journey.
It goes without saying that in training, education and learning, communication is essential, it’s the primary function what we do. At Mind Material we strive to communicate in the most direct, accessible and meaningful way we can. We also want to inspire curiosity and challenge understanding and this can cause varied effects. But we are human, not a machine, with feedback and positive regard, we get the opportunity to listen, develop and create new ways to better communicate.
Welcome.
