Podcast 2 - context and domain Communication
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[00:00:00] Hi there and welcome. For two decades, I've been a global speaker to big groups around the world. With my educational background in teaching and framework design has supported my strength to coach, to consult people with diverse backgrounds. Languages, unique communication styles, personalities, beliefs.
Taking all of this into consideration with each individual. By actively listening, I develop a framework that meets their individual needs, and I adapt my teaching style to better support their learning. Effective communication isn't about talking. It's about listening and understanding the unique needs and interests of your audience too
Welcome to context and domain Communication. They are two concepts in communication. They help explain the nuances of communication in different situations.
So you [00:01:00] have domain language. For example, if you're a doctor, you have all your doctory language. If you're a teacher, you have your teacher domain language. And if you are in the restaurant business, you have your domain language that staff needs to know. Then you have your context. And today I really wanted to focus on language that is contextual.
This refers to circumstances or settings in which communication takes place. So it kind of wraps up. It encompasses various factors that really influence how messages are delivered, received, how they're understood. So, for example, physical environment. Communication happens in different locations, right?
So you have communication that happens in the office, in a conference room, in on a farm, on the [00:02:00] playground with your kids at a restaurant, on the weekend in a classroom. So each staff member that you may have or an employee may feel comfortable having a beautiful conversation. In an office surrounded by comfortable chairs, lots of people in there, just a very relaxed conversation.
But you put that same person in a very formal situation where they have to give a presentation and that employee, that staff member not feel confident and it will show. when we look at communication and how to practice communication and get better at communication, we need to think, we need to really find that gap.
For example, I am super comfortable on the playground talking to other grownups while our kids are playing. I can have a great conversation with people. I can also have a great conversation and I can give a presentation with a microphone in my hand standing in front of [00:03:00] a group of 10 or 20 or 30 people.
But I think with a hundred people or even maybe 50 people, that is getting big. And that is where I don't shine yet. So when I come up with my framework, my individual learning plan, my focus will be on, okay, we need to get you comfortable. What is your mindset? What is happening when there's 50 people in front of this staff member?
They fall apart. We need to work on that. Okay, so that's physical environment. Doing an individual learning plan might take into consideration the context of social environment. That's the relationships, that's roles that are played out inside of their business or their work. It's the power dynamics among participants in the communication.
Maybe a staff member having a conversation with a more powerful person like a boss. Maybe you are having a social conversation with [00:04:00] a child, with, a teacher and so maybe you're having it with a doctor maybe you're having it with, a waiter, for example. So my dad, we would go out to dinner and have a beautiful dinner, and my dad would talk to the waiter, not in the most friendly way.
He would snap at them and he would think, I am more powerful than this person. Right? And so he, I always remember him doing that. It was so embarrassing. But then he would go to work, and I would watch him at work and how he talked to people he worked with, with so much respect.
It's that social environment, another context. If I were to design an individual learning plan, a framework for one of my students around a social environment, it might be: there are other people at work where they are very confident when they are at work. They're very confident to speak with the clients, speak with the customers.
But the staff member, the individual learning plan that I am designing with this [00:05:00] person in mind has a gap there. They don't feel very comfortable yet. Going up to a client or a customer and saying, may I help you? what would you like, for example, if it's, if it's a restaurant. This is where I would make a goal or sort of an action step for that individual.
Another context is cultural, cultural environment. So you have the beliefs, you have the values and the customs of the people involved in the communication. And this is huge. This is a gap for many clients or many of my, my students because we are global. We live in a global world where when we do have a conversation, we often wonder, why aren't they looking at me?
It might be accustomed not to. I don't value the way this person is speaking to me, but they value it very much and they think they're being very respectful. So that cultural piece is a huge contextual[00:06:00] factor in communication. You gotta get that right. Okay. Temporal context is another context.
Temporal. What does that mean? So it's the timing and the sequence of events leading up to the communication or during the communication. So for example, in my job as a learning specialist, as a educator, I sometimes would get emails. I would send an email to a client or to a customer, and they would send it back to me fast.
And for example, it would be a Friday afternoon. So instead of reading it, I would close my computer, take off for the weekend, and then come back Monday. And by the time I looked at that email that they sent me, it was pretty late. What's your timing like? If someone was just told some very, very, very bad news, you are going to lose your job and somebody comes up to them and says, I need you to go help [00:07:00] those customers over there.
That is very bad timing because that person, that staff member, is not going to be able to be a good communicator in your business at that time. It's the sequence and the timing of the events and what's happening in a communication exchange. So it includes factors such as the time of day, day of the week.
It's bad timing to send an email on a Friday afternoon or even a Monday morning. It's those types of communication that learning can be had. And experience can teach you these different temporal ways to communicate and have communication exchanges.
Another example, if a business meeting takes place shortly after a company's stock price falls that whole meeting is gonna be affected by the recent negative news. It's not gonna be a meeting where people come up with great, wonderful ideas. So as a communicator, either if you are the leader in [00:08:00] that meeting. For example, you're gonna have to look at people's body language.
You're gonna have to address the negative stock price fall, for example, and to really address how people are feeling.
And it's the same thing. The timing of an email sent at the end of a workday versus one sent early in the morning, right? That can impact your temporal context of the communication. understanding this as a communication piece can help individuals interpret the message more accurately and effectively respond to it.
If you are a leader in your organization, right, you can help individuals interpret these messages more accurately. You can be that person if you understand this temporal context. There's also a psychological context. It's the mental and emotional state of the individuals that are involved in the communication.
And often when you're face-to-face, you can hear their tone, you can see their face, can, you can see [00:09:00] their body language, their nonverbal communication, and that kind of helps you understand what's happening. But if you don't have that context, that you're not able to really understand the mental and the emotional states of who you are communicating with, that can really put a negative range of feelings towards your business. So you wanna make sure that you have that psychological context behind you. And if you don't, it's a gray place to start. So for example, what What I would do as your communicate your communication specialist is create an individual learning plan, looking at that psychological piece of it and really getting some great specific goals that can be met in a concrete way. We would look at a scope of learning for your staff that can really pinpoint the psychological context piece of [00:10:00] it, and we'll work on it using fun strategies. Communication simulations are really a powerful way to learn, so that could be one of our ways to learn that piece of context, communication communication context, right? The first time I traveled to Taipei, nobody was there to meet me. I was just a kid. I was only 18 or 19 years old and I had flown all the way. I don't remember much about the flight, but what I do remember is, Arriving at the airport, somebody was supposed to meet me, somebody from the school. I remember how big this airport was, and nobody from my family, no friends were there.
Nobody was speaking English. And at the time, that was my only language. That was my go-to language. I was not lingual.
I was really hungry. I didn't have any money in the, I didn't have the right currency yet. I did not want to leave the airport. I was so scared. This is an example. Me standing in [00:11:00] that airport. My communication was dependent on all of those contexts that we just talked about, right?
The psychological. I didn't have the domain language right? I didn't have the language to say, I'm really hungry. I am lost. Somebody from the school was supposed to pick me up and they're not here. I need a phone.
So I didn't have the language, Taiwan's language to do this psychologically. The psychological context, the mental and emotional state, if you were to talk to me and I was your customer, you would have to recognize in your communication with me how to, how to help.
There's the cultural piece, the social environment, the physical environment, the temporal context. Everything was at play here. And as a communicator, how well can you understand the situation? And if you do it well, imagine what that could mean for your organization, for your staff, for you. Context involves the [00:12:00] situation, the factors influencing communication.
Thank you so much for listening and being part of this podcast. If you enjoyed it and you want more, if you have any questions, visit my social media channels. They are listed below the podcast and show notes, and I can be founded irene McCann consulting.com. Have a great week, have a great weekend.
Communicate well with each other.
