This week’s short "Note to Self" to keep your thinking on track…
Can you think of any words that you use in your profession without questioning their meaning?
These sorts of words are building blocks of our thoughts but when you examine them they can be difficult to define. Each profession has these sorts of words. In my profession words like change, development and performance, as well as, control, coping, success and failure are prominent examples of primitive words.
Such words can be difficult to define and often mean different things to different people. It can, therefore, be difficult to clarify progress and discover the heart of problems because, without realising it, we are not "on the same page".
We can loose meaning in the habitual use of words and phrases, assume that we know what we mean and most importantly not realise that our understanding may differ from others.
It's important to ensure we operationalise even the most common of terms, so we know what actions they are attempting to evoke. It is worthwhile understanding our terms both in our own minds and in the minds of others, so that we can share the understanding that we need to reach our goals. I call this process "same paging it".
To bring about change, to develop in some way and to potentially enhance performance, particularly if you are leading, it can help to review your terms and reveal which words or phrases fall into this primitive category and then make sure you're "same paging it".
Think about it...
