Wordflair

The world’s gone mad today: communicating our way into and out of the current crisis
“The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today
And black’s white today”
Cole Porter wrote those lyrics around 70 years ago, but they could describe the current economic situation: anything goes. Or rather, everything goes – down!
It seems to me that one of the many reasons for the current crisis lies in the way we communicate. For instance, I’ve noticed a huge change in the way many people interact since I’ve been involved in communication training. In the past people were more modest and better listeners. Basically, everyone was much more willing to consider two sides of an issue. Today, things are different, as the following quotation from a participant in an Assertiveness and Influencing course shows:
“When I first started in this company I was shocked about the way some colleagues of mine talked to suppliers. To me it sounded and still sounds brutal but obviously they get things done since they've reached positions higher than mine.
How can I get my message through without sacrificing my standards of politeness “
I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in many of the Assertiveness & Influencing courses I have run. People who already have good assertiveness skills come needing to find ways to cope with the primary communication style they face – aggression. Of course the more aggressive people don’t come on the courses as they fit in perfectly with the prevailing status quo.
Something very similar happens on the Influencing courses I run with groups of engineers. When asked how they influence, they list tactics such as; talking, arguing back, dominating, hurting, giving orders, making people listen to my idea and so on. These are all on the push side of influencing. Interestingly, when asked to list the people who have influenced them and what they do to influence, the answers are very different. The people with the most influence are often parents, bosses, teachers and they influence by love, listening, giving space, supporting me – the pull side. There is an obvious gap here. People in today’s workforce influence by pushing but are influenced by pulling.
So how does this link to the economic crisis? Pushing as a dominant style leads to short termism and risk taking. It’s all about the here and now – getting things done my way and not exploring alternatives. People push for their immediate gain and quick wins, but long term issues and partnerships are not given much weight. And of course a long term view and strong and stable partnerships are what we now need to work our way out of a financial collapse. Interestingly, the results of a poll by WIN published on 14th January 2009 show that people in India and China are much more optimistic in the face of the current crisis than people in Western countries are. Of course, they are part of the fastest growing economies, but India and China are also cultures that value relationships, partnerships and a long term outlook. Perhaps they already have the strengths that the rest of us all need to develop more now.
Something has also happened to education since the eighties. I don’t want to enter the debate about “dumbing down” as I’m not convinced it’s true, but I have noticed a shift. As I started with Cole Porter it seems apt to bring him in again here He mentioned Abelard and Heloise in a pop song in 1935. When I was at school, I guess about half the people would know who they were. Recently I’ve been asking all the 20-30 year olds I meet if they’ve heard of them. No one has. Where once people were educated widely, now they’re educated narrowly (and perhaps more deeply) in order to have the skills that are in demand at the moment. Look at the emphasis on (& growth in) subjects which lead directly into jobs, for example business studies. The more overtly ‘academic’ subjects are no longer considered useful. Everything that’s taught has to have an immediate application. This is another aspect of short termism. It means that when the situation changes, as it just has, we might not have the wide knowledge or behavior and skills range to work our way out of the situation
What we need now is a longer term outlook and the ability to really build strong relationships and partnerships. People recognize this on the strategic level. As Steve Jobs of Apple said:
“We weren’t so good at partnering with other people. And if Apple had more of that in its DNA it would have served us really well.”
However, in my experience, people don’t value partnership building on an individual level. Everything is too rushed, stressed and competitive, and as a result people look out for number one with little consideration for others.
We need to change this now, starting from the level of all our inter-personal communication. We need to start to use pull skills to build strong partnerships and relationships and to develop an ability to listen to new ideas from all sources. We also need to think widely and deeply, so that we can make new connections and be more creative. We won’t get out of this crisis alone – so let’s really start to communicate and work together