Wednesday, 9.39pm
Sheffield, U.K.
No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience. – John Locke
I’ve been thinking a little about managing conversations – and in particular how to handle / manage / cope with big voices.
These voices are everywhere. They’re in the news, in social media, in any single forum you can think of.
And they’re very loud.
Let’s go to the research.
We assume that people who are quiet are also powerless, they are dominated and, as they have no voice, are not heard.
On social media we are told that if we don’t post every day then we won’t get any business. To be voiceless is the same as being invisible.
But in many organisations and contexts those who stay silent do have power over those who we hear from. Think about Hollywood and the power of the studio over the actors.
Fletcher and Watson’s (2007) ethnographic study suggests that what you don’t see matters.
The power someone holds has to do with the dynamic network of relationships that exist in the social context you’re looking at.
There is always a cost-benefit calculation going on, of what is said and what is done, what is offered and what is received.
In each relationship, if the benefits are right, then what is said doesn’t matter. But if it’s not, that’s when you see problems.
What you’ve got going on are “implicit contracts” or “psychological contracts”.
People are quiet for three reasons: they’re going along with you; they don’t want to tell you you’re heading for trouble; or they don’t want to hurt your feelings.
For the person that’s loud – this is a problem – because you only know there is an issue once things have gone wrong.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
References
Fletcher, D and Watson, T. 2007. “Voice, Silence and the Business of Construction: Loud and Quiet Voices in the Construction of Personal, Organizational and Social Realities”. Organization.
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