WORKPLACE COLLABORATION
BY DR. SHARI FRISINGER
WHAT YOU SAID WHA MIGHT NOT BE
REMEMBER THE MOVIE “AIRPLANE”? IF YOU ARE LIKE OTHERS I KNOW IN AVIATION, YOU LAUGHED AT THE INANE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN LESLIE NIELSEN (RUMACK), JULIE HAGERTY (DICKINSON), ROBERT HAYS (STRIKER) AND PETER GRAVES (OVEUR). WE ARE ABLE TO CHUCKLE AND SHAKE OUR HEADS THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE BECAUSE, AS MUCH AS WE CAN DENY OR DON’T REALIZE IT, THERE ARE MANY COMMUNICATION ELEMENTS OF TRUTH IN THAT 88-MINUTE MOVIE.
MISPLACED PHRASES Remember these?
1. Rumack: You’d better tell the captain we’ve got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital. Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it? Rumack: It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.
2. Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land? Captain Oveur: I can’t tell. Rumack: You can tell me. I’m a doctor. Captain Oveur: No. I mean I’m just not sure. Rumack: Well, can’t you take a guess?
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Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours. Rumack: You can’t take a guess for another two hours?
3. Reporter: What kind of plane is it? Johnny: Oh, it’s a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.
4. Elaine Dickinson: You got a letter from headquarters this morning. Ted Striker: What is it? Elaine Dickinson: It’s a big building where generals meet, but that’s not important.
We can laugh at and mock these because what the question referred to is obvious. Think about your recent conversations — how often has this happened to you? Your mind
is traveling on one path and the other person is not quite in the same (mental) place.
FUZZY OR AMBIGUOUS WORDS There are many underlying reasons why it is easy to confuse each other: generational diff erences, the male brain vs. the female brain, diversity in our backgrounds, upcoming events or events of the day, our personalities and thought processes (thinks quickly or needs to process information – see my article in the October 2013 issue). These all aff ect our listening and interpretations. Even though we might be in the same physical location, mentally we can be on totally diff erent planes. I recently received an e-mail from a client saying he would call me “in
T THEY HEARD
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