Communication

In a 'link' to my last post, I came across this quote while reading Marshall Rosenberg's Non Verbal Communication this morning written by the Sufi poet Rumi - "out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there".

This makes me think about the huge subject of 'communication' at work. We can perceive situations from a place of ideas of 'rightness' and 'wrongness'. We judge, analyse, and classify others according to our 'inner world'. The level of impact varies, sometimes leading to overt conflict and difficult relationships, often creating a difficulty for the people around them. A team member may start to 'cut out' a colleague believing themselves to be 'right', and the other 'wrong'. The other person might react aggressively in a counter-attack, defensively, with confusion, or perhaps by being vindictive. Managers have a responsibility to support people in understanding and getting to the bottom of the problem, and they need to develop their own communication skills in supporting and handling this conflict well. They need to understand that these prejudices, criticisms, blame, insults, put-downs, and labels come from unexpressed feelings. They need to spend time helping to unpick what is going on and the underlying cause of the conflict. They need to be impartial, to have compassion, to have a good sense of their own and other-awareness and motivations, and help people to express and understand their vulnerabilities, fears and anxieties that lie beneath the outward behaviour. A manager can help bring a new self and other- understanding and learning.