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11:28 p.m. - 2002-08-22
Communication
How many ways are there to communicate?

There are two of us on site working on my current assignment. While we were working, we got to talking about the subtleties of speaking Spanish and its derivatives based on the country of origin. Between us we know and have worked with people from most of Central and South America,the Philipines (Tagalog) as well as Western Europe. What shapes the variance in accent and pronunciation? With Romance languages, for example, it is imperative that the sounds be pleasing to the ear. What makes a sound pleasing or otherwise? Hard to say. Some people love rock music while others can only be comfortable with classical; others thrive on an eclectic mix depending on mood and circumstances - like me.

What is curious sometimes is how the same people in the same room may all objectively be exposed to the same expression of an idea but come out with very different interpretations even when they are speaking the same language. Between the actual words employed to convey a thought, the sound of the voice speaking, the emotional context each person assigns to the experience, and the body language of the individuals within the group it is amazing sometimes that anything is mutually perceived.

I have attended meetings where the press have been in attendance to record and report. In many cases, the participants wondered if the reporter had mixed up their notes from another assignment because there was little similarity between the story and the reality experienced by the rest of the group - or is there?

So why am I rambling on about this? Clear communication seems to be nearly impossible these days at work. My new co-worker and I seem to be able to communicate quite well as long as we define our values or priorities at the beginning of our conversations. We both are trying hard to accommodate the other so we have managed to work most things out. Our supervisor, who is not on site, brings different knowledge, goals and values to the table and the context he applies to the information is sometimes a challenge because he doesn't explain what is driving his thoughts in a certain direction. It is difficult to shift gears sometimes to accommodate that and my psychic abilities are limited to my children and family.

Although I've worked with him for over a year and found him a good manager, lately our supervisor often seems angry and frustrated. I actually requested a meeting partly to clarify what I perceived to be some misunderstandings based on the fact that I had missed a lot of time in May and June due to a severe illness and asked if I had done anything to contribute to the anger and frustration I was seeing. The answer was no, but the body language said otherwise. I'm guessing there are other factors that are relative to my project that I am not aware of. This surmise is based on the behavior of our liaison, but I can't address those issues or do any better if I don't know what they are. But maybe I'm not reading that correctly either.

I think that with the pressure of our deadlines we are all cutting short the essential part of effective discussion - creating a mutual foundation on which to build - but it may cost us dearly in the end. It is a shame, since I think we are all trying to do the best job we can and are all feeling that we are not achieving what we hoped.

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