CFLX [si:flaegs]clarity statements for a context-enriched

communication

20.March 2017

1

Sources of Information

2nd axiom of communication

by: Paul Watzlawick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watzlawick#Five_basic_axioms

Four-Sides-Model

by: Friedemann Schultz v. Thun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-sides_model

High / low context cultures

by: Edward T. Hall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-_and_low-context_cultures

ICT-induced communication-filters

by: Tomas Bohinc

https://www.projektmagazin.de/node/918460

©2015 C-CYBERNETICS, a prodopti e.K. division. The C-CYBERNETICS logo is a trademark of prodopti e.K.

Other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

The information in this document belongs to C-CYBERNETICS, a prodopti e.K. division. It may not be used, reproduced or disclosed without the written approval of C-CYBERNETICS, a prodopti e.K. division.

Copyright © prodopti e.K.

All rights reserved.

C-CYBERNETICS / prodopti e.K. Florian Strahbeger :: Schlierer Str. 36 :: 88289Waldburg :: Germany

C-O-N-T-A-C-T : fs@c-cybernetics.com

Content

Content.......................................................................................................................... 3 Preface........................................................................................................................... 3 Problem to solve.............................................................................................................4

Communication Theory – for a better understanding...................................................4 2nd basic axiom of communication by Paul Watzlawick...........................................4

Four-Sides-Model by Friedemann Schulz von Thun..................................................5 The Problem: ICT-Induced Communication-Filters.......................................................5

Designing a Solution.......................................................................................................7

Preface being afected as a motivation factor

During my practical work-experiences in supporting project-teams of multinational enterprises with globally-distributed development teams, I was confronted with the

certain problems that went hand-in-hand with this certain form of team-work.

These problems were mymotivation for working on a scientifc research paper to discover the underlying causes and design the methods and technical solutions to

support distributed, often called „virtual“ teams in managing these specifccircumstances.

With the ongoing trend of further diversifcation, specialization and thus the need of cooperation and collaboration between the experts who are delivering the underlying

work, the dependency of the enterprises on building-up the knowledge-base and core competency of being able to integrate these internal and external experts, join and

unjoin project-teams in a short time and thus not only being attractive to these experts, but having access to them will be as important for survival as having the access to the

market.

But for taking advantage of the opportunities of global stafng and virtual team-building it is vitally important to be aware of the diferences which are immanent to this form of

distributed collaboration – especially the fact of working together without a real face-to- face communication must raise awareness and shall motivate us to make some

modifcations in our methods and changes in our behaviors of communicating andcollaborating.

Based on well-known communication theories, one of these problems as well as a technical, computer supported solution is going to be explained in this article.

Problem to solve You need a problem, to fnd a solution...

The main diferences and therefore the focal point of complication in working together in a distributed confguration can be found in the fact of none or almost none real face-to-

face communication is taking place. It is obviously essential that knowledge-workers are sharing information and transmitting knowledge when working together – for a deeper

understanding and a preparation in advance we will therefore start frstly with a short excursus to the theoretically fundamentals of communication.

Communication Theory – for a better understanding

In preparation of a deeper understanding of the problem as well as of the solution, we frstly start with a short excursus to the theoretically fundamentals of communication.

(Based on the theories of P. Watzlawick and F. S. v. Thun)

2nd basic axiom of communication by Paul Watzlawick

“ Every communication has a content and relationship aspect such that the latter classifes the former1”

Diagram: every message consists of two parts: a factual and a relationship part

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watzlawick#Five_basic_axioms

1

==> the relationship-part is responsible for the interpretation of themeaning.

“The relationship-part's information is based on how the speaker wants to be understood and how he himself sees his relation to the receiver of information. Relationship is the command part of the message”

Four-Sides-Model by Friedemann Schulz von Thun

Based on the 2nd axiom of Paul Watzlawick, Friedemann Schulz von Thun subdivided the relationship-part of the message by adding a “self-revelation” and an “appeal” part -

this newmodel is well-known as the “Communication-Square”:

“According to this model every message has four facets though not the same emphasis might be put on each. The four sides of the message are fact, self-

revelation, relationship, and appeal.” (source: Wikipedia2 )

Diagram: the four-sides-model. The explicitly stated factual information and the usually more contextual3, non-verbal, “between-the-lines” information every message is built up from.

The Problem: ICT-Induced Communication-Filters As already mentioned, t here are parts of each message, which are not explicitly stated,

parts which are usually more contextual, non-verbal, which are “between-the-lines” information. And taking into consideration that communication in a virtual team is most

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-sides_model 3 Compare with Edward T. Hall: High and low context cultures

often non-face-to-face, these non-verbal parts each message is containing will most often not be addressed explicitly. Therefore, these parts will not be transmitted to the

receiver.

Diagram: The not explicitly written parts are filtered out

Unfortunately and according to the 2nd axiom of Watzlawick: These non-transmitted parts are responsible for the interpretation of the very each message.

But, this information is not only not there - it is human nature to always listen to these parts and there is an automatic, unconscious process which forces us to always fll these

information gaps by making a guess. This leads to misinterpretations of the relationship parts of the message – which will lead to misinterpretations of the factual part of the

information as well.

That is precisely where the whole problem of bad communication in distributed teams lies: Bad guesses will lead to misinterpretations – conficts, bad mood, bad motivation

are more likely to occur. All caused due to fact of fltered out or simply missinginformation.

Designing a Solution clarifcation for better interpretation

The awareness of the ICT-induced communication-flters, having the knowledge and understanding of the automatisms that occur when we communicate is a good starting

point not only for designing a solution, but for getting the commitment to making some changes in our communication-behavior as well.

The solution designed is pretty much straight forward: If we need clear statements for making better interpretations, we need a system which supports us in making these

clear statements:

For creating this system, we had to make a little modification to the four-sides-model:

Clear statements of self-revelation and relationship are made by giving an “I-Message”

Together with the “Question Repeat” Flag and the “Appeal” Flag the “I-Message” Flag is on top of the ordinary text-field which contains the actual “fact-part” of the message. Sometimes, the Question Re-peat flag is exchanged with a “Status Statement” flag– especially if the system recognizes the message tobe the first one and thus is not the answer of a spe-cific question.

Each of the Flags expand on “Mouse-over”, an entry can be selected from the dropdown-list, it can be used as is or it can be modified, or a new free text can be entered into the text-area field. The system recognizes new entries and asks the user to store them for re-usability within the user's own data-stor-age.

Notice: in some parts of the application the Question Repeat flag is exchanged with a Status Statement flag – e.g. when starting a SCRUM item-discussion-thread or when sharing information in the Virtual Shop-Floor-Management part of the application.

You will fnd these CFLX throughout the CYBR CSCW-SUITE applications.

2

List of CFLX Applications available … and more will come.

The CYBR CSCW-SUITE (CCS):

https://sourceforge.net/projects/c-c-s/

The stand-alone C-BOARD:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencboard/

Florian Strahberger

C-CYBERNETICS.COM

B