The work of formulating and shaping messages begins much earlier than one usually imagines. One must go through an overall communication strategy before it is time to gather arguments, which will become building blocks in the message work.
Abstraction levels in communication
Something I have tried to use as a starting point in this material is to create a deeply focused and holistic structure. In the same way, the individual in a company must look at itself and its role in professional life for individuals to be able to see his/her role and usefulness in the company and the total organization. Without the ability to see context, one cannot see the whole and thereby not come to terms with the meaning of the individual task in the company, the total organization.
Abstract your own consciousness.
With this section, I want to demonstrate in what way an increased awareness of the personal role of everyone in the context. For this to be possible, different levels of abstraction must be created for the basics of the company's communicative learning, which is intended to strengthen internal communication.
The element level is concrete.
At the bottom of the scale is the level of abstraction that is usually called the element level. At the element level, there is the company's knowledge of facts, the company itself and the processes within which the company works to develop its products and services.
Meta level and its significance
Above the element level is the meta level. Everyone involved in an organization has a role that is of great importance for the company's overall operations to be kept intact and for the business to be profitable. For the individual to be able to pay attention to this, he or she should be aware of his or her role at this meta-level where all patterns, categories, rules, and the company's views etcetera.
Companies often try to clarify these in the company's vision and in various tools such as personnel manuals, design manuals, templates, etc. In a company's design manual, which describes the way in which the company should present itself to the outside world, the meta level is usually extremely significant.
Two ways to easily illustrate the methane level are through the following: The trees are part of the forest that is part of the landscape but not the other way around or through the Russian dolls that are enclosed in each other.
The company must let teams see themselves in a larger context.
When the company and its management can create a clear picture and explain the pattern that all the details constitute, you can help the individual. The individual should see in which way he can bring the concrete knowledge out of the element level and apply this to the methane level. It is often extremely helpful because it is only when you see patterns and connections that you can act consciously and avoid fumbling around among all the details. In this way, you get help to stand on the mountain and get a clear perspective on what is really going on in the business, at a meeting or during the discussions with a client.
For many people, it is of utmost importance to see themselves in a larger context (in, for example, the company as a whole) for it to be able to develop and make life comprehensible and possible to embrace.
By working actively with these levels of abstraction within the company, you can help individuals feel that they really can influence and see a meaning with their professional role in a larger perspective.
Nigel Howards describes the phenomenon in the following way through a more or less (unproven) obvious theorem. A first but not always sufficient condition for being able to increase the possibilities of being able to consciously control one's life is to see what governs it, what rules determine it, what patterns I am part of and what patterns my actions form.
Based on this, one can also examine the researcher Watzlawick's theses on the following.
... if a person becomes aware of a theory concerning his behavior, he is no longer bound by it but can put himself over it.
and
... the one who makes a conscious decision can choose not to follow a theory that predicts his behavior (Watzlawick et al. 1984 p. 110)
From my own point of view, this is something everyone should consider in terms of their own role in the company / organization. Do I have steering speed and what should I do to steer over my own role?
Comments