While reading Chapter 1 I tried to highlight the points that sounded interesting or important,which I never did before to see if it helps. After reading only the highlighted text again I am still not sure if it does but will give it a try few more times. Here are few of the things that interested me and will also try to share my experience with a seminar on email usage that I attended this week.
Metaphors, I never knew some of them were metaphors or I never cared to understand English properly. "re-engineering" , "whistle-blower" etc., sub-consciously I always thought were words. And while reading these I was thinking how the meanings of these Metaphors might be different or will be understood differently in various cultures and various parts of the world. In a global organization, I think using some of the metaphors might be confusing for some people for whom English is a second or third language.
Theory makes us think. Any well thought theory I think "is never just a theory", they make us think and provides a means for us to think about the concept and as textbook says provides frameworks of understanding so that we don't have to start from scratch with new ideas all the time.
This week I attended a seminar about e-mail and how to save time with some techniques on reading e-mails, writing them etc., What was interesting was there was no mention of how to use e-mail. The problem with e-mail is "too much e-mail". Most of the e-mail I see is not needed. I am surprised to see how many people thought that the amount e-mail they get is proportional to their importance in the company and copying more people in the e-mails they send will make people think they are working hard.
Finally, I want to share details of an interesting assignment in one of my classes. The professor gave us a sheet with some common likes and dislikes and asked us go around the class and guess looking at a person to which category they might fall into, if our guess was correct we mark their name, if not we move on the next person after introducing our self. I normally have great difficulty in meeting people and introducing myself on my own. But I was amazed at the success I and others had when we were given a task and lot of the people in class know at least 5 people they did not know before which I would have never been able to do on my own.
Thanks for reading.
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2 comments:
I agree with you that the usage of metaphors to communicate can often be a problem in a global organization. English is the rapidly becoming the most common language as most people in business can understand and speak quite well. It is amazing how common metaphors that we take for granted can confuse others. I studied abroad in India for one year and although everyone was fluent in English, common phrases I used were misunderstood by most. I think this highlights the importance of understanding who you are communicating with and adapting yourself according. In a global economy it is impossible to assume that everyone will understand our "language" as metaphors can often be culture specific.
Metaphors and slang or jargon are not the same thing, although metaphors often underlie the language used. So if you think of an organization as an organism, you might refer to it as healthy (or not), developing solid roots (or not), and growing at a good rate (or not). Metaphors are often unstated, but implicit in how the organization is talked about.
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