Every human being is a unique result of intricately interrelated genetic, environmental and cultural factors. These factors influence nearly every aspect of a person’s personality and behavior, and communication behaviors are no exception. In practical terms, understanding others in the workplace requires being able to communicate with them in ways that will be effective, appropriate and appreciated. Dimensions of Cognition Interaction Preference: Extravert vs. Introvert Some people are energized by being around people and seek out interaction as an enjoyable, relaxing activity. Others have to spend energy to interact with people and need to “recharge” by getting away from people for a while. About 10% of the population lies at each extreme, but most people fall somewhere in the middle, learning to do some things better with people and some things alone. Within this larger middle group, people tend to become somewhat like their families and friends. If you grew up in a very outgoing family, with lots of talking at the dinner table and people around all the time, you will probably be more used to gathering information and forming ideas by “talking them through” with people. Those of you who grew up in a quieter household, where people typically work alone on projects and don’t talk “just for the sake of talking,” you might find it more natural to solve problems quietly by yourself. In the United States, talking about things is generally valued highly, and about 75% of the population rate themselves to be extraverted. Information Source Preference: Sensate vs. Intuitive Some people prefer to use the information they get from their senses—relying most on what they can see and touch and hear. Others are more inclined to value the invisible ideas, concepts or theories that people create to analyze and explain sense data. Most people have learned to use both kinds of information depending on the circumstances, but will tend to prefer one or the other if they have a choice. About 75% of the U.S. population is more comfortable with using sense information, while the rest are less interested in getting the factual details than in figuring out the categories into which the facts ought to fall. Problem Solving Style: Analytical vs. Global Regardless of where people get their information, they will have preferences about how they use it. Some people like to compare new information with other information, classifying it, defining it and looking for the ways in which one thing is different from another. Other people like to see how information fits together, seeing the whole pattern of all the pieces together and worrying less about what the individual bits look like. Most people can do either kind of information processing, but will find one way to be the “easiest” or most “natural” or most “productive” thing to try first. Traditional gender roles in the United States have tended to allow women more latitude in depending on their “intuition” to make decisions, while men are more carefully taught to analyze the facts “objectively.” While there are probably still more women who are willing to trust their global thinking processes and more men who feel they must rely only on analytical skills, businesses are beginning to recognize the value in being able to use both capabilities appropriately. Decision Making Preference: Judger vs. Perceiver Before action can be taken, some sort of decision must be made with the information your brain has processed. Some people appreciate the sense of closure that a decision or action brings, and will make it as soon as possible. Others like to remain open to new information, new ideas or changes in the environment and prefer to delay a decision as long as possible. The preference for making or delaying decisions appears to be a learned one. When making decisions too early leads to doing work that turns out to be useless, we learn to delay our decisions; workers will learn to be flexible when they work for a boss who often changes his mind about the desired goals. Similarly, we learn to make decisions and stick to them when that is productive behavior; the person who sets the meeting time and has it put on the team calendar gets to pick the time most convenient for her. The U.S. workplace tends to be very explicit that being “decisive” is highly valued, giving considerable power and prestige to those who are willing to make a decision on the basis of limited information. People are actually split about evenly on this dimension, however, and the reality is that both styles are equally valuable, but in different situations. The person who hates to come to a decision “prematurely” is often the most flexible about changing plans, and the ability to respond easily to changes is highly valued during times of crisis. Balancing Cognitive Styles Everyone has the capacity to use a full range of behaviors, but over a lifetime of habit, practice and feedback, you will have learned to rely most of the time on a more limited set of behaviors. The best communicators in a work setting are not those with a particular style. Instead, they are the people who take the time to learn the preferences of others and to take each other’s strengths in a balance of diverse approaches. · Don’t ever assume that other people process information just like you do or that they prefer to interact in the same way you do. Instead, try to find out how others around you would like to do things so that you can work most productively with each of them. · Balance assignments to take advantage of natural interaction preferences as much as possible. Let the Introvert spend long hours analyzing the data, or don’t make him come to every single meeting. Have the Extravert give the presentations that have to be prepared at the last minute, but don’t expect her to accomplish long writing assignments between meetings. · Work together on complex tasks that require attention to both the big picture planning and the details of getting the job done. Very few people are equally good at both, and even if they can do both, they usually prefer one or the other. Thus, complex tasks are better done by groups of people where both kinds of information sources can be utilized for maximum success. Communication diversity is a fact of business life. No matter how skilled, prepared, motivated and responsible the individuals involved in a group, personality differences will always exist. Those differences lead to different ways of being skilled, prepared, motivated and responsible. Personality “difference” is not the same as personality conflict, but differences can lead to misunderstanding and even conflict. Sometimes people think it is impolite to talk about differences honestly. (Your mother probably taught you not to point at kids who were “different.”) In other situations, people just don’t have the vocabulary to talk about differences productively. (You never learned any other way to describe “weird” people.) Either way, differences can get in the way of group work. If they can’t be discussed productively, they can easily turn into conflict.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 22:30:24 +0000
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