There is some doubt over the attribution of this quote, however there is absolutely no doubt in my mind of its truth – and not just between nations as originally suggested but between all sorts of groups who have developed their own ‘local’ language variants.
I read this on LinkedIn
We often hear that IT people should use business language when interacting with business people but we rarely hear the opposite (business people using IT language). Isn’t this divide inconsiderate and a hinder to creating effective organisations ?
This is actually a rather old discussion on LinkedIn that I came across only this week.
My initial reaction was “whoa!! Isn’t this the wrong question”? There is no doubt in my mind that ‘IT people’ and ‘business people’ do not speak the same language BUT whilst improved communication would help, improved understanding is what is at the root of this ‘divide’ and many others. We could say the same thing about “software people” and “systems people”; about “project management people” and “engineering people”; and so on.
We each develop our own personal language and we each, as we form groups, develop a certain amount of group language. It is inevitable. As long as it is recognised it need not be a problem. The problem is caused by each person assuming that the others know what he is talking about simply because they recognise the words.
If a German, an Italian, a Spaniard and a Norwegian were gathered together in a room all talking in their native language there would be no doubt that there would be limited understanding. Why should it be any different when it is an accountant, a computer programmer, a salesman and a manager?
However, I don’t believe that just ‘using’ the language of the other ‘tribes’ is necessarily sufficient to create effective organisations – rather we have to ensure that there is a common language (ontology?) that is understood by all and, importantly, we do not make the assumption that the person we are talking to actually understands everything we say.
Certainly I feel that any viewpoint that goes along the lines “the other party will have to learn to understand me” is doomed to failure. We must all learn to communicate better in ways that are suitable for the format, medium and context of the communication.