Open For Interpretation

Have you ever gone back to something you wrote say a year ago and wondered “what was I thinking? What was the point I was trying to make? I’m sure it made since at the time I wrote it.”

What about meetings? How many times have you gone back and tried to remember what was said let alone what was meant? Did everyone have the same memory of the meeting? My guess would be “no”. I know some of you are saying “but we have minutes.” Have you gone back to minutes and had different interpretations of the written notes?

Why?

Because everything is “open for interpretation.” I don’t care if it is what someone says, hears, sees, reads, or feels. It is all an interpretation.

Our brain takes in information and then runs that information through our mental library of experiences, knowledge, assumptions, dreams, wishes, and needs. It also runs the information through our library of our fears and concerns. Of course each individual has a different library.
So when we joke about whether the glass is half full or half empty, that is an interpretation of the information presented to us on the status of the fluid in a container. (And yes engineers will tell you that you have too much glass, which is another interpretation.) Even whether it is fluid or a container is an interpretation.

When individuals come together to form a team they need to spend time discussing interpretations. And in fact they need to discuss how they interpret different interpretations. Yes it is messy and at times seems like a waste of time. However, if the time isn’t spent on discussing the interpretations, regardless to how they align with each other, those interpretations become an established truth to that individual. These truths then add to the library for future interpretations.

I don’t care how clearly you write something, or how carefully you craft a talk, you cannot control how people interpret your communication. Therefore having open dialog to exchange interpretations and clarifying is the only path to total understanding.

The more your teams learn how to effectively manage these dialogs, the more effective they will be. Teams need to continually condition themselves on communication skills such as listening, styles, conflict management, etc.

If you would like to dialog about your interpretation of this article please give me a call or log into http://team-champion.blogspot.com/