Good Communication 101: Mirroring, Jargon, Hifalutin Words | Alan Alda | Big Think
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the dual nature of jargon, highlighting its efficiency in professional communication by condensing complex ideas into single words. However, they caution against its overuse, especially when it creates a barrier to understanding or is used to assert superiority. The speaker advocates for clarity and the importance of effective communication, which is not just about choosing the right words but also about ensuring they are understood and internalized by the listener. They share a poignant medical example where a student's empathetic communication helped a patient comprehend her terminal diagnosis, underscoring the power of connection and understanding in communication.
Takeaways
- 🗣️ Jargon serves a purpose in specialized fields by condensing complex ideas into single words, which can be efficient for professionals who share the same understanding.
- 🚫 The downside of jargon is that it can create barriers in communication, making it difficult for those outside a specific expertise to understand.
- 🎬 Even in less expected fields like show business, jargon is prevalent, with terms like 'gobo', 'Century', 'martini shot', and 'half-apple' being used on movie sets.
- 🧐 Jargon can be misused to assert intellectual superiority, suggesting that those who understand it are smarter than those who don't.
- 💡 The speaker encourages translating jargon into plain language to enhance understanding and potentially gain a deeper comprehension of the concepts involved.
- 🌐 Effective communication is not just about choosing the right words but also about ensuring the message is internalized and understood by the listener.
- 👥 A powerful example from the medical field illustrates how personalizing communication and mirroring the patient's emotional state can lead to a profound connection and better understanding.
- 😢 The emotional impact of communication is significant; the medical student's ability to connect with the patient led to a shared emotional experience that was transformative for both.
- 🔄 The concept of mirroring is highlighted as a technique that can synchronize the communicator with the listener, fostering a deeper level of understanding.
- 💡 The script emphasizes that good communication is not just about delivering a message but about the listener's ability to receive, understand, and own that message.
Q & A
What is the primary reason jargon is used in professional settings?
-Jargon is used because it can represent complex concepts in a single word, making communication more efficient among professionals who share the same understanding.
What is the downside of using jargon according to the speaker?
-The downside is that jargon can create a barrier in communication with those who are not familiar with the specialized terms, leading to misunderstandings or exclusion.
Why does the speaker mention the show business industry?
-The speaker mentions show business to illustrate that even industries not typically associated with technical jargon have their own specialized terms, which can be confusing to outsiders.
What are the specific examples of film industry jargon provided in the script?
-The examples include 'gobo' for a light-blocking device, 'Century' for a type of stand, 'martini shot' for the last shot of the day, and 'half-apple' for a small box used to adjust the height of actors.
How can jargon be misused to make someone appear smarter than others?
-Jargon can be misused to create a sense of superiority by implying that those who do not understand the jargon are less intelligent, which is an unnecessary and often unconscious behavior.
What does the speaker suggest as an alternative to using jargon?
-The speaker suggests using plain language and simplifying complex concepts to enhance understanding and make communication more effective.
Why is it important to explain jargon in simple terms?
-Explaining jargon in simple terms can lead to a deeper understanding of the concepts, humanize the language, and make it more accessible and helpful.
What role does effective communication play in the medical student example?
-Effective communication allows the medical student to connect with a patient, helping her understand her condition and providing emotional support, which is crucial in delivering difficult news.
How does the medical student's approach differ from the supervising M.D.'s?
-The medical student uses simpler language, makes eye contact, and opens himself up emotionally to the patient, which contrasts with the M.D.'s more impersonal and technical communication style.
What is the significance of the mirroring exercise mentioned by the medical student?
-The mirroring exercise is significant because it helped the medical student to synchronize with the patient, allowing for a deeper emotional connection and understanding, which was key in delivering the difficult news.
What lesson does the speaker draw from the medical student's experience?
-The speaker draws the lesson that personal connection and empathy in communication can profoundly impact both the communicator and the recipient, and that such experiences can lead to personal growth and better understanding.
Outlines
🗣️ The Utility and Pitfalls of Jargon
This paragraph discusses the dual nature of jargon. While it can be efficient for professionals to communicate complex ideas succinctly, it can also create a barrier for those outside the field. The speaker uses examples from the movie industry to illustrate how jargon can be misunderstood by the general public. Furthermore, the paragraph touches on the misuse of jargon to assert intellectual superiority, which the speaker discourages. Instead, the speaker advocates for clarity and simplicity in communication, suggesting that understanding and internalizing information is more important than using the right words.
🌟 The Power of Empathetic Communication
The second paragraph narrates a powerful story about a medical student who effectively communicated a difficult diagnosis to a patient. The student used simpler language and established a personal connection with the patient, which allowed her to understand and emotionally process her impending death. This experience highlighted the importance of empathetic communication over technical jargon. The student's approach, which was influenced by a mirroring exercise, led to a profound emotional connection, demonstrating that effective communication can deeply impact both the speaker and the listener.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Jargon
💡Specialized Words
💡Communication
💡Understanding
💡Plain Language
💡Humanize
💡Smart
💡Mirroring
💡Connection
💡Concepts
💡Profession
Highlights
Jargon can be useful for professionals to communicate complex ideas efficiently.
Specialized jargon can create a barrier for those outside a specific expertise.
Show business, including movie making, has its own technical jargon.
Explanation of movie set jargon: gobo, Century, martini shot, and half-apple.
Jargon can be misused to create a false sense of superiority.
Effective communication involves making complex ideas understandable to others.
Exploring jargon can lead to a deeper understanding of its concepts.
Humanizing jargon by simplifying it can make it more accessible.
Choice of words is crucial for effective communication.
Understanding and internalizing information is key to good communication.
An example of a medical student using simplified language to communicate a difficult diagnosis.
The importance of making contact and being open during communication.
Mirroring exercises can improve communication by syncing with the other person's emotions.
A profound experience of a medical student connecting with a patient through empathy.
The impact of personal connection on both the communicator and the recipient.
The transformative power of effective communication in medical settings.
Transcripts
Jargon gets a bad reputation for good reasons.
But there's something good about jargon, and I think it should be explored because jargon
hangs on, I think, in our speech because it has a usefulness.
When people in the same profession have a word that stands for five pages of written
knowledge, why say five pages of stuff when you can say one word?
And if the other person understands it exactly the way you understand it then jargon has
usefulness.
The trouble is we develop such specialized words that they're not understood by people
with just a little distance from our expertise.
For instance, even show business, which you wouldn't expect to have a technical jargon—or
you might not expect it—even show business has it, movie making.
“Take this gobo and put it on the Century over there, and hurry up because this is the
martini shot.
And while you're at it bring me a half-apple.”
That's not understood to most people and it's crystal clear to somebody who's been on a
movie set for a while.
I guess I have to explain it or people will be writing you letters saying “what does
all that mean?”
A gobo is a thing that blocks out light.
A Century is a Century stand made by the Century Company many decades ago, and their name is
on the stand.
It's the stand that holds up a light or a gobo.
The martini shot is the last shot of the day before you go home and have a martini.
And a half-apple is a box half the size of an apple-box that you can put things on, like
people who are too short.
That's jargon for a movie set.
But jargon has another evil use aside from separating us from one another, and that is
that when we want to use it to make ourselves look really smart, “I’m smart I talk like
this, you can't really talk like this so you're not as smart as me.”
A lot of us do this unconsciously, and it's not necessary.
We get more done if we open ourselves up.
It's really fun to be on the verge of saying something that is probably not going to be
understood by the other person and to say, “wait a second, how can I say this in really
plain language?”
And if we do that sometimes we learn more about the jargon than we thought we knew.
We humanize it, we reduce it to the simplest concepts—what are the concepts that really
matter in this?—And then the jargon sometimes gets cleaned off and polished of some of the
luster of hifalutin-ness that doesn't help the jargon be helpful.
Choice of words does matter.
It matters a lot.
But I think that it's important to remember that if all we do is get the right words in
our head, and the right order of words, and think that that's going to make all by itself
good communication, I think we're missing the boat.
Because really, effective communication is not just because I have something perfect
to say to you.
It really occurs when you understand and internalize what I have to say and are able to make it
your own, to remember it, and that kind of thing.
Here's an interesting example of that.
One of our medical students who we were training to communicate better was on rounds with a
supervising M.D. and the doctor who was in charge was talking to a patient, and he had
to explain to her that she had incurable cancer and she was going to die.
And he was talking to her, and as he was telling her all this really hard-to-take information
she wasn't asking questions and you could tell by the look on her face, or at least
the medical student could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't understanding
it.
She was just listening with kind of a blank expression.
And the lead doctor says, "Okay so I'll talk to you later," or whatever he said and left,
and the young medical student said, "Do you mind if I stay for a few minutes with her
and talk to her?"
And he was given permission to do that.
So now he sat down right opposite her and took her hand in his, and he started to say
many of the same things that the other doctor had said but he didn't use the same words.
So the words changed.
He didn't say “metastasis”, he talked in simpler terms but he was making contact
with her, he was looking in her eyes, he was opening himself up to her as he talked to
her.
And little by little she started to cry and she started to ask questions, and finally
she understood she was going to die and he helped her through that understanding.
He helped her get that understanding because she wasn't protected against this barrage
of impersonal communication that the other doctor had been giving her.
And what he said, what this young the doctor said to us—this medical student—was that
it brought him back to one of our basic exercises.
It was a mirroring exercise where he had to mirror the movements of another person.
And when that happens, well, you get in-sync, and he said, "I was mirroring her and she
began to mirror me—because she helped me be a better doctor, because she responded
with tears to what I was saying, which let me know she really understood me."
He was so moved by the experience that he began to cry himself in the experience.
And I don't think he was crying because he felt her pain at the awareness that she was
going to die.
I think he was moved because this connection had taken place, and he realized that the
movement he had made during the workshops to be able to make this kind of contact with
another person was a profound experience, and he said that he would never forget the
experience and how it came from the simple mirroring exercise.
So that was a wonderful experience for us to hear about, because it was a personal way
of letting us know that people can be changed by this.
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