John Constantine wrote:
> Kathy Wohlert in her reply (LO14183) suggests the existence of linear
> thinking in my statement that communication depends upon the receiver.
>
> Kathy, it is no more linear than your point:
>
> > According to the symbolic interactionist perspective of
> > communication, communication is not so much the exchange of messages, but
> > the creation of shared meaning and understanding, even if not agreement
>
--snip----
> I yield to your expertise as an Organizational Communication consultant
> and am not trying to be confrontational. Do you buy that?
With some trepidation, that I may be stepping into a closed dialog here,
I'll offer another perspective. If communication is the coordinating of
behavior, as some cognitive scientists proffer, then whether or not
someone "gets" what the other one says, coordinated behavior (clumsy
though it may seem) has occurred. When you don't get what I think I'm
communicating, you still have what you understood. When you work to
clarify, through inquiry and advocacy, you're working at a level beyond
communication, using abstract ideas to convey meaning about the
communication process.
[Host's Note: "closed dialogue"? Here on LO? Nope, anything on the LO list
is open for people to join in, anytime! ...Rick]
--Richard C. "Doc" Holloway, Thresholds--Human Development and Networking P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 786-0925 Fax: (360) 709-4361 mailto:olypolys@nwrain.com
"The familiar life horizon has been outgrown, the old concepts, ideals and emotional patterns no longer fit, the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand."
-Joseph Campbell
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>