In the circus industry I have heard that there are over 800 specialized
terms that are only used in that industry. In the music business there are
also hundreds of specialized terms. It seems that everywhere we go and in
everything we do we find terms and worse acronyms which have hijacked common
words and contorted them into specialize meanings.
Listening to someone speaking from an industry you are not familiar with you
might think you were in a foreign country rather than in your own.
I remember years back in Buffalo, NY listening to some folks from the
Dianetics Center saying: "The sit dev-t'd the Org. I got my TRs back in
and I 8-C'd the PTS WOG by body routing them out".
If you are familiar with these acronyms and specialized terms you might know
what this statement means.
Otherwise, you might think this was some sort of code. Maybe you were
wondering if there was some secret handshake involved. Maybe they were
trying to hide something....
Research into the Enron and WorldCom troubles found a much more frequent use
of jargon and technical terms in all communications, in an attempt to
confuse and blur the truth. That makes me think.
To be understood we need to be clear in our communication.
When we are looking to communicate with others, we need understand who our
audience is and also remember that most people have not been where we have
in our lives (what we have learned, where we learned it and with what groups
and industries we learned it in) and may not know all of the acronyms and
terms we do. It was culture shock to me to be a New Yorker coming to
Louisville for the first time and learning we spoke a different English some
of the time.
To make matters worse, haven't you noticed an increase in new terms hitting
the world's stage? These terms are coming out on top of the already
confusing ones we already have. As a guy, I enjoy learning new terms and get
the urge to use them right away. The problem is that just because I learned
a new idiom, does not mean the rest of the world knows what it is, and I end
up confusing the people I am trying to talk to.
A way to help improve communication, and make ourselves more easily
understood is to avoid using technical terms and jargon as much as possible.
If we have to use those words, then define them at least once and check to
see that our audience understands what we are saying.
Also, when we are talking to someone about our field of expertise or
interest, we may want to slow down as we ten to talk faster when we are
excited and happy. Additionally, with the speed, often comes the jargon.
Now that is a recipe for confusion.
Finally, for those folks who did not understand the line above, in English
is basically translates to: someone came into the building, stirred up some
commotion and had to be escorted out.
Enjoy!
Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
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