In 1862, the French Novelist Victor Hugo wrote a book - Les Misérables.
Shortly after handing the book to his publisher, Hugo went on a vacation.
Curious to know how the novel was doing, Hugo wrote just one letter to the publisher.
"?"
The publisher responded by saying just this.
"!"
This brief exchange between the two men has intrigued information scientists, scholars and researchers for more than 150 years.
It exemplifies the power of shared understanding.
Isn’t it interesting that with all the advanced information systems today, we still end up with miscommunication and misunderstanding?
In every delayed project, customer complaint, policy failure, industrial accident and a failed marriage the one thing that always stands out is ‘communication problem’.
What is more, we try to address communication by supplying more information (rules, instructions and training).
But understanding has little to do with information. In fact, more information only leads to more frustration and confusion.
Understanding is a matter of how we process meaning and meaning making is not a cognitive process.
If only the meaning of our words lived in our brains, we could have done away with misunderstanding through dictionaries, ‘soft skills training’, or crew resource management four decades ago.
How we process meaning and how we arrive at shared understanding takes a different approach.
Word meanings are embodied and it is only through a conversation that we can surface what is hidden in our bodies.
So the starting point to understand another person is to ask the question - what do you mean?
And it is only by visualising our words, we begin to realise the embodied nature of our words and the incredibly complex process of shared understanding.
Visualising our words helps because we think and feel in images. Long before we could speak or write, we were communicating in images.
Try this today.
Draw something on a whiteboard and invite others to share their meaning.
But how will I know that we have arrived at a shared understanding?
... when the other person says ‘I see what you mean.’
Join us on 20th Feb 2025 1500 UK time where John Flach and I will engage in a dialogue about:
- Why do we struggle to understand each other?
- What does 'understanding' even meaning?
- What it takes to understand?
Book here.