talking about ...

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By Chris Chittenden

Each one of us lives in a world of relationships, both personal and business. A strong relationship is built upon the development of a basic shared setting in which the relationship makes sense. This setting, known as the Background of Shared Obviousness, is developed in conversations through which people share stories that create the meaningfulness of the relationship.

This shared obviousness can be seen as the things that we know about others that provide us with a shared sensibility. As a simple example, if a husband asks his wife if she would like a cup of tea, he does not need to ask if she would like milk and sugar. This knowledge would be part of their shared background and he would already know how she took her tea.

From an organisational perspective, this Shared Background of Obviousness, is one of the fundamental reasons that makes an organisation an effective means of getting things done. When a person joins an organisation, they know very little about the way that the place works. The location of the toilets or the photocopiers, the names of all the people around them. Everything is new to them and as a result they are relatively ineffective at work. As that person learns about the organisation, to make sense of it, their efficiency and effectiveness improves. They do not have to be told how to do every little thing. They know how things are done and the standard that is expected. They gradually move into a mode of transparency and become part of the organisation’s culture - a mode of acting and being so obvious to them that they do not see it.

Organisational changes mean that the old ways of doing things no longer apply. Such a change is termed a breakdown and the longer it takes to re-establish the Shared Background of Obviousness following a change, the more prolonged the inefficiency caused by that change. In these situations, we need to design and learn new ways of coordinating action.

As well as understanding how an organisation functions, the Shared Background of Obviousness should also include the organisation’s future direction. A shared vision. A common future is vital to the growth of an organisation. It enables those who work for the company to take action from a consensual base, sharing common concerns and goals.

As conversations are the basic building blocks of a Shared Background of Obviousness, conversational skills are of fundamental importance in managing organisations through growth and change. The strength of an organisation will always lead us to the strength of its conversations. Its weaknesses are related to the weaknesses of its conversations or the lack of some conversations.

Therefore, if you want to understand an organisation, you must examine the conversations that made that organisation in the past and those that constitute it now. Through the Ontology of Language, we can help you understand these conversations, allowing you to rapidly move your organisation back to transparency and efficiency. In other words, fast and effective change management.

Copyright © 1995 Chris Chittenden