Tongues in Trees…
… books in running brooks, sermons in stones… (Shakespeare. As You Like It)
Brain-based communication? Product design as communication? Shakespeare as a Great Communicator?
All of these are quest questions. Brains evolved to help us (all us animals) use the world to our benefit. Brains are always collecting and organizing information from the environment. You could say, as Shakespeare did, that the environment speaks to you. And you brain is built to listen.
Vulcan analysis: A logical place to start understanding brain-based communication, then, is with the environment. Here I am focusing on intentional communication, the situation in which a sender explicitly intends to produce a specific effect on the behavior of another person (the receiver). In that case, the sender will do something to the environment of the receiver as an act of communication.
Shudoff conventional analysis: Stop beating around the bush. The sender will tell the receiver what to do. Maybe the sender will add and “OR ELSE.” As in, “Get your homework done, OR ELSE.” We Shudoffs know how to influence behavior.
Vulcan assumption check. If you want to think outside the box, first find the box. The Shudoffs are helpful in pointing out conventional boxes. Verbal systems assume that the only way to communicate is to do something verbal. So you can guess what happens when somebody starts to talk about communicating. The effectiveness of this method is illustrated by the instruction manual.
Product Design as Communication. As examples of non-verbal communication, look at the computer mouse and the Ipod. And, in deference to non-verbal communication, I will say no more about these products. They explain themselves better than I could.
Now about those sermonizing stones. Note that Shakespeare gave a memorable lecture on non-verbal communication. And he did it with ten words. That’s more than you heard from the stones. But shorter and more telling than the abstract Vulcan analysis.
There is a time for metaphors and a time for Vulcan analysis. And a time for knowing what time it is. Here, the Vulcan analysis tells us to look at communication as doing something to the environment. That can be talking, pointing, handling, or actively changing. It can also be a combination of these.
The possibilities are abundant. Just ask a tree.
Brain-based communication? Product design as communication? Shakespeare as a Great Communicator?
All of these are quest questions. Brains evolved to help us (all us animals) use the world to our benefit. Brains are always collecting and organizing information from the environment. You could say, as Shakespeare did, that the environment speaks to you. And you brain is built to listen.
Vulcan analysis: A logical place to start understanding brain-based communication, then, is with the environment. Here I am focusing on intentional communication, the situation in which a sender explicitly intends to produce a specific effect on the behavior of another person (the receiver). In that case, the sender will do something to the environment of the receiver as an act of communication.
Shudoff conventional analysis: Stop beating around the bush. The sender will tell the receiver what to do. Maybe the sender will add and “OR ELSE.” As in, “Get your homework done, OR ELSE.” We Shudoffs know how to influence behavior.
Vulcan assumption check. If you want to think outside the box, first find the box. The Shudoffs are helpful in pointing out conventional boxes. Verbal systems assume that the only way to communicate is to do something verbal. So you can guess what happens when somebody starts to talk about communicating. The effectiveness of this method is illustrated by the instruction manual.
Product Design as Communication. As examples of non-verbal communication, look at the computer mouse and the Ipod. And, in deference to non-verbal communication, I will say no more about these products. They explain themselves better than I could.
Now about those sermonizing stones. Note that Shakespeare gave a memorable lecture on non-verbal communication. And he did it with ten words. That’s more than you heard from the stones. But shorter and more telling than the abstract Vulcan analysis.
There is a time for metaphors and a time for Vulcan analysis. And a time for knowing what time it is. Here, the Vulcan analysis tells us to look at communication as doing something to the environment. That can be talking, pointing, handling, or actively changing. It can also be a combination of these.
The possibilities are abundant. Just ask a tree.
posted by Selby Evans at 10:58 AM
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