Technology
This book gives us information on some of the crucial issues and the developments in connecting with technology. It provides a clear view of the space between today’s technology and the people who use it and demonstrates the impact that technical and professional communication can have on issues of relevance in the world.
The author tells how we can respond to challenges of technical and professional communicators. It explores important areas where technology impacts society and suggests ways that human communication can be simplified with technology. It also looks at how we communicate with members of other cultures and speakers of other languages throughout the workplace. All of which are relevant factors in our Global village.
Connecting people with technology covers a vast area and we consider but a few below :-
Public Health and Safety
Crises of potentiallyinternational proportion are caused by the effects of Terrorism, the aging population, Disease (eg Swine Flu or HIV/AIDS), and both man-made and natural disasters. Theses issues are becoming more noticeable as they are matters of life and death that span countries and are not contained within our own boundaries. Therefore they are of concern to technical and professional communicators as they have to communicate a clear consistent message across languages and cultures to the relevant target audiences. They need to communicate through suitable channels (such as cable network news and the internet) and as these non traditional “audiences” get bigger and bigger it means technical and professional communicators need to develop skills and technologies to communicate with them effectively.
Biotechnology is another sector that has provided new role for technical and professional communicators. Development within science (including research results, treatments, predictions) requires a knowledge and ability to communicate the science correctly without either deceiving or panicking the audience. Recent fears over for example Swine Flu suggests this still needs to be understood better.
The corporate environment is being developed by technology and the global nature of business. Technical and professional communicators can help collect and manage knowledge by using technology effectively in the workplace, also understanding how language is spread through the workplace and how to connect cultures together.
Reinhard Schaler argues that communication is what holds our global community together. Our world should be open and respectful to all local languages and cultures. Schaler states that concentrating on making the connections in the digital world should be available to everyone.
Marie-Louise Flacke agrees but stresses that proper localisation is needed. Providing this for each target country is key to successful global marketing, but demands an approach that goes far beyond mere language translation.
Similarly in a global operation Team members or co-workers who are not co-located and who come from different national and cultural backgrounds face another set of communication challenges. Kirk St.Amant looks at five probable communication areas related to international offices where he then provides technical and professional communicators with strategies for a better national working environment. Knowing how to manage this has been one of the great differences in developing, sustaining and improving technology-dependent businesses. David Harvey and Robert Holdsworth identify and discuss different knowledge management challenges for aerospace companies and why they have to have a clear understanding of what can be achieved and at what cost. Knoweldge management is also needed for organisations that are focussed on maintaining( the environment and the health of the individuals.
Connecting
This book tells us how managers/leaders of businesses have to find new ways of connecting and communicating and gives us examples of how to overcome these issues of communication barriers.
After reading this book I found out that there are many different strategies to connecting with people. This could be through the normal use of technology (email / social networking / telephony) or a more in depth approach such as establishing the interests of the other person before you try and connect with them.
To some extent we do this instinctively, seeking out common interest areas that we focus on and in this mode we are connecting through similarity.
Raines explains how we can become more talented at creating those essential connectors, and also how we can bring people together and stop the separation from people who come from different backgrounds. This separation is a natural byproduct of our different cultures and languages but often means it is difficult to establish the similarity.
In his study specific approaches and tools were collected from one hundred different people from a variety of different industries. Raines then chose three people who were skilful at connecting and studied the way they communicated and interacted with a range of people.
From this we learned about the principles that guided each of them.
Raines then talked to three cities about connection through difference. He meting with the broadest possible mixture of people with regards to age, gender, ethnicity and country of origin and obtained a wide variety of results (much wider than would have been obtained from interviewing only employees and clients).
Focus groups were then created through which every individual was asked how he or she would like to be identified as (this was in terms of things like age, name and profession). Raines recorded stories that the group members shared with each other and he then identified them according to their preferences. Each of the focus groups naturally recorded differing preferences / priorities / needs.
From this research Raines was able to understand the need and the power derived in establishing connections through understanding the preferences / needs of the others - - going beyond just the “difference”.
As the global marketplace creates greater economic opportunities and more exposure across cultures, time zones, and religions we will increasingly be forced to connect.
Raines gave three simple examples :-
a) Harold Brown aged 55, was holding a sales presentation to a group of IT men. They were all white and all quite young. If they bought they would complete his sales target for the year. However he understands that there is more to sales than a good product and presentation, and is therefore more worried about how he will connect with them and what their interests are.
b)David Smith aged 48, just bought his second franchise. His first one was a great success and all his employees where white middle class kids. His second store staff were the complete opposite with one being a lesbian and the other a sixty five year old women, therefore he didn’t know how to relate to them and felt they intimidated him.
c)Ellen Russell aged 32, journalist. She works for the Christian magazine and is interviewing an atheist activist for an article she is writing. She has never spoken to an atheist before, therefore is worried what to say and where to start.
All three of these examples show perfectly how people worry about communicating with people from different cultures etc. In the interviews and focus groups Raines showed us useful skills and practical advice.
Summary
Both books highlight the need for Effective Communication and draw attention to issues created as a result of continued globalisation of the world in which we live and in which our businesses and economies operate both on local and international scales.
Issues that may previously have faced only truly global companies now have a bearing on the companies we consider to be local to a particular geographical territory. This is true in part due to the greater mobility of workforces and means that issues of language, national / social culture need to be considered and embedded as part of the way we communicate and connect with people.
When comparing the themes of the two texts we begin to see similarities in the issues presented : to be able to connect effectively we first have to understand how our message will be received emotionally and how it will be perceived / understood in terms of importance, relevance and value.
In many ways this demand is driven by and reflects the acceleration in the pace of change in the world around us. When you consider that not long ago Newspapers were the primary source of “News”; that 85 years ago events happening in World War Two (only hundreds of miles away) wouldn’t be reported for days; that Sunday Shop opening was illegal, it is easy to see how some of the changes we take for granted have significant cultural impact and need to be carefully communicated / managed.
Where there is a tension between the subjects is perhaps in the presumption that Technology is the answer and the means to the end – ie with more sophisticated technology, faster systems, wider access comes the solution. Clearly the point promoted by one contributor warns against this in so far as the need for localisation is far more than simply translating a global message many times over for instant transmission / consumption in multiple territories.
The danger associated with merely driving connection by technology alone is that all of the cultural and social sensitivities may be at worst ignored or at best devalued. In this scenario for our businesses the end result is not effective communication.
Perhaps therefore the conclusion to be reached is that the message has to be paramount; our ability to connect as people is essential; and that technology should be the supporting rather than driving mechanism through which we effectively deliver these desired outcomes.
Having discussed this with an employee of a US global company I now understand in practice how the Global IT systems and certain globalised internal functions ensure worldwide consistency and measurement, while internet footprint and local office practices and procedures are designed with local language and cultural sensitivity in mind, both internally and externally.
This practical example seems to support themes of both books in the context of Globalisation / Localisation; the belief that use of technology should be respectful to all languages and cultures and that access should be open.
Bibliography
Brown, S. (2000).Communication in the Design Process.
Hayhoe, G. (2008).Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication
