Neuroscience is rapidly changing our understanding of how
human memory works. For many years it
was widely believed that the human brain recorded events like a video camera
and that events that had been completely forgotten could be could be retrieved
and played back given the right set of circumstances.
We now know that the memory does not work in that way at
all. In fact the human brain reassembles
and reorders various parts of an event when retrieving a memory. It, in effect, creates a completely new
memory, often including details that seem very real but which turn out later
not to have taken place.
The same process takes place when the brain remembers words
and orders them together either to think analytically or attempt to express
thoughts. Rather than having a
dictionary-like definition, words in the brain are stored as an ever-changing
set of connections that constantly update their meanings.
When people are reading, writing, listening or speaking,
their brains create new connections and hence new definitions for many of the
words, statement or phrases that it is processing. This phenomenon manifests itself in the
tendency of business discussions to devolve into dialogues around semantics
rather than address the actual issues in question.
The brain’s inherent plasticity when using words greatly
increases the value of business communications that are clear and precise. That clarity and precision (or lack of it) is
simultaneously rewiring the word connections and definitions both in the brain
of somebody who is writing and speaking as well as the person who is listening
or reading.
Fuzzy
wording creates fuzzy thinking
Unlike communications that are clear and precise, business
communications that are fuzzy and imprecise generate connections between words
that are similarly ambiguous and unclear.
In other words, a feedback loop is taking place: fuzzy thinking creates
fuzzy wording which in turn creates fuzzier thinking.
Many organisations tolerate, indeed encourage, the use of fuzzy
and imprecise wording in the form of acronyms, buzzwords and jargon. The culture created is one where fast
communication can appear to occur so that anyone who uses the key words feels
as if they are an integral part of the organisation.
This has been compounded in recent years by the trend for
people to express themselves using quotation marks or inverted commas in both
writing and speech. This is an
expression of thought in its original form phrased by the communicator without
clearly defining exactly what they mean.
Often the phrase is a metaphor and in most circumstances there is
understanding. Caution is advised as the
rules around the use of quotation marks varies with language. All too often, we know what we mean and
think that we are communicating clearly but in reality this is often not the
case. As an illustration, we when we
talk we think people “get it” but in reality they “switch off” when they hear
something that isn’t meaningful “in their world” and so may appear to be
somewhat “dumb”.
Clear thinking creates clear wording which in turn creates
clearer thinking.
What
this means when recruiting
From the perspective of recruitment, it is important to
understand how your communication style reflects the fuzzy thinking and
imprecise wording of the industry that you recruit for and the clients that you
work with. It is obviously necessary to
assess your clients’ tolerance towards industry acronyms, buzzwords and jargon
and imprecise wording and how ingrained it is in their culture. How much are you contributing to this by your
desire to be recognised as an experience professional?
For those organisations who recruit people who communicate
in a similar way, this will contribute to the amount of ambiguous thinking,
which is going to impact on the communication capabilities within the overall
organisation.
In the future, recruiters must put additional emphasis on a
candidate’s ability to write and speak with precision and clarity. As a result, the recruitment process will tend
to make the overall organisation progressively better at communicating
internally and externally and so appear to be “smarter”.
