Julie Beedon wrote:
>...groups who complain about 'jargon'
>
>...don't get me wrong I am not complaining about the groups (well
>only a little - I get angry thinking about them - but that is my
>problem)
>
>Once a group starts to do this I find I have several
>difficulties....
>
>1) I find it hard to communicate as I start to worry about every
>word and will they think it is jargon
>
>2) I find myself 'judging' them as anti learning - very unhealthy
>response on my part
>
>3) I feel misjudged myself - as if they think I am deliberately
>using words they don't know or might be unhappy with
>
>So ... I am not at my best (in fact I can be highly dysfunctional!!)
>
>Personally I really value new words and the learning that
>understanding them brings, often they help me to develop new
>paradigms because they are different - so how can I develop new
>ways of working with groups who hate jargon -
Julie, I like to use the word "jargon" to describe how we use the language
we are familiar with to exclude others, and I differentiate that from the
language of use connected to any discipline. Note that I attribute
motives of obfuscation to the use of "jargon", and motives of agreement
and clarity to the use of specialized language.
There is no field without specialized language, so if you think you will
be entering an environment in which your special language is not
understood, it might be useful first the explore the special language of
the people in the environment. (Indeed, you may head off another hostile
feeling a group may project, which arises from their feeling that they are
"educating" you.) Once you've had a chance to find out some of their
special language, ask for instances when they have used the language as a
code to cut off other people (other departments, bosses, competitors,
etc.). Once that's out in the air, you can talk over the uses of
language, and begin to share the meanings of your special language.
Perhaps more important, you can offer to do that for clarity at any time
people hear the words as an obstacle to understanding.
Being up front about how people abuse each other with language can be an
important step toward building trust, which is critical to mutual
understanding.
-- Jack Hirschfeld With the clear undertanding that jack@his.com this kind of thing can happen, shall we dance?