A famous warrior who returned from battle carrying with pride his undefeated sword at his waist, found along the way a group of people listening to a spiritual master. He was among the most distant people and, for a while, he was listening to the teacher until, irritated by what seemed to him pure quackery, he interrupted the teaching abruptly:
- “The only thing you do is speak! Words are useless. Words are taken by the wind.
The teacher looked at him for a moment and with great serenity replied:
- "Only a fool like you, whose head is cowed and half empty from the blows received, can say stupidity of that size."
The warrior jumped like a spring and in four great steps he was in front of the master with his sword ready to break him in two:
- "What have you dared to tell me?"
- "Oh, I had not recognized you," said the master, "but I see in your agility, skill and bravery one of the most skilled warriors that has ever set foot on our land and I pay my respects to you."
The soldier lowered his sword, smirked, and took his place among the people again.
- "I hope," said the teacher, looking at him with a smile, "that in the future you will have more respect for words, since with them I made you come to me and took you to the hell of fury, then calm down and return to your place "
From that day on, the soldier joined the group that followed the teacher and was his disciple for many years.
Generally speaking, the importance of speaking in our job performance is unknown and, like the soldier in our story, we say phrases such as: “ the problem is that people talk a lot and work little ”, “if we talk less, we will work more”, "You have to stop talking and get to work ". These expressions reflect the deep-rooted beliefs of a society whose productive base was marked by manual labor and the generation of tangible goods. Although this society as we have known it for several centuries has ceased to exist, the paradigms that governed its social dynamics still persist.
In today's world we will have to generate new theories and conceptions that account for the different challenges that people face in the various areas of their performance. In this sense, the resignification and revaluation of communication and its link with human actions is one of the keys that allows us to face issues ranging from personal development to the productivity of knowledge work.
Communication as action:
Let's change our conversations and we will create a different world ”Humberto Maturana.
For decades, the study and analysis of communication was approached from the paradigm of information transmission. In parallel and coinciding with this conception, the vision coexisted that considered language as an instrument to describe the state of things, that is, language as the carrier of information.
This conception assumes that reality is already there before language and what language does is simply describe it, "talk about it." Therefore, it attributes to the language a passive or descriptive role, as the one in charge of accounting for what exists. This characterization of language is perfectly complemented by the theory of transmission of information and within this conceptual scheme, language came to occupy the category of the code that is used to compose messages.
Some time ago it begins to be analyzed that we have been trapped in this narrow and restrictive understanding of language and communication, which makes it difficult for us to understand their effective nature and which makes it impossible for us to understand the importance and gravitation that both have for human beings. It begins to understand that language is something more than the words that are said, it is much more profound and impactful than a medium that allows us to express, transmit or communicate what we perceive, think or feel.
In addition to its descriptive aspect, language has a deep generative character from which we act, coordinate our behaviors and generate new realities. Through the word we make certain things happen and, therefore, language constitutes a way of intervening in the construction of our world. And it is this character that leads us to consider communication as action and not as a mere transmission of information.
When we affirm that we act through the transforming power of the word, we mean that when we speak things happen and when we remain silent others happen. When we speak and say one thing, something certain happens and when we say another, something different happens. Reality does not always precede language, it also precedes reality. There are things that would not have happened if we had not spoken, if we had not established a conversation with someone else. Through our conversations we declare our love, hire a trip, request a raise, welcome someone to our home, or ask them to leave. It is through our conversations that we carry out many of the actions in our lives.
The traditional conception has made it difficult for us to notice this active character of human communication. For example, it is not the same to tell someone "fifteen people attended the meeting", where we are reporting on something that happened, using the descriptive nature of the language; What to say "from tomorrow you take over the finance management" or "from tomorrow you will be transferred to the maintenance section". In these cases, although it may be heard as information, we are performing an action through the transforming power of the word. If indeed whoever utters these phrases has the hierarchical power or authority to do so, for better or for worse, the situation of the other person will have changed. With this communicational action, a new reality has been generated.
Through our conversations, we not only act but also interact, establish connections, coordinate actions, build ties and agree on commitments. All human beings interact in conversational networks. What is possible or difficult for us to do depends largely on the extent and quality of our network of links. Through our conversations we ask for a job, offer our services, promise to attend a meeting, make a commitment to do a job, or demand our fees. Much of life's fundamental actions are carried out through conversations we have with other people. Our conversations determine the quality of our links and therefore compromise our effectiveness.
Also through our conversations we create new events and generate different futures. We call for a new project, we elaborate and transmit our vision, we propose new objectives, we propose new ideas, and we do all this by talking to another. Our conversations determine our horizon of possibilities.
And even more, through our conversations and our narratives we create new senses and model the perception of other people. When we propose a different interpretation or develop a new theory, when we tell a story, coin a metaphor, train someone or educate our children, in all cases we are using the transformative nature of the word to influence how we perceive reality..
Through our conversations we explain our points of view and the way of observing the world around us. We develop interpretations, we generate new explanations and we influence the opinions, decisions and behaviors of others. Many times after some conversation our lives change, our being is transformed even imperceptibly. By acquiring a new distinction or making a different interpretation, we have expanded our capacity for action and transformation. An example of this are coaching conversations, which aim to develop people's potential, or therapeutic conversations aimed at healing our emotional wounds.
When we observe and reconsider everything we do through language, the transforming character of human communication emerges clearly, since it is through our conversations that we become the being that we are. The word converse comes from the Latin "conversare" which means "to turn", "to do conversion". Through our conversations we become someone else, we change our points of view, we learn, we reflect on our problems, opportunities for growth open up, we build our public image and we do all this in language.
If we live in language, if we learn and transform ourselves through the word, if we act through our conversations and these not only condition our possibilities and determine the effectiveness of our performance, but also constitute us in the being that we are, it would fit ask yourself about the competition in our conversation. How skillfully and effectively we speak and listen.
