Year: 2016
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Team OneBusinesses are infamous for their rich lexicon of words to describe change: growth, revitalization, reinvention, innovation, revolution, evolution, and every manner of "do something different."But what does all of this mean?How do these different terms work?What do they imply about the process of change?And under what conditions might they succeed?That was the question driving this tutorial.Starting with some introductory concepts from cognitive and linguistic anthropology, we took a pass at the conceptual models underlying some of the more popular terms in this vocabulary.We presented three -Growth, Disruption, and Innovation -while the tutorial participants completed four additional ideas: Pivot, Lean, North Star, and Unify. SETTING THE STAGEWe began with a quick jaunt through cognitive anthropology and linguistic theory.At core, both proffer a perspective on culture and meaning as differentially shared, as opposed to monolithic and all-encompassing.Thus, while we may share a rough understanding of "family" or "hard work," the unique circumstances of our lives will color our interpretations of those words in different ways.This introduces opportunities for discordances in meaning when we are talking about a topic.This is especially problematic in the business world.In a day and age when metaphors abound and the thesaurus function is at-the-ready to spark variety in our writing, the potential for misunderstanding increases as we grab at words without a sophisticated understanding of their disciplinary or historical framework, or the variety of ways in which they are deployed.For example, when I say the word team to describe how I want colleagues to behave and interact, I may be thinking something like a track relay team, where everyone fulfills essentially the same role but we focus on hand-offs and communication.For you, team may conjure images of baseball, with nine unique positions, each with different strengths and contributions to the whole.This is one of the major contributing factors to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and hard feelings between co-workers, and with clients.We all think we agreed to X, but in reality, one side thought Y, whereas the other thought Z.
Authors: KATE SIECK, STEVEN GARCIA
Institution: RAND Corporation
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2557366176