Meaning Making
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CHANGING THE VALUE OF LANGUAGE. ONE WORD AT A TIME
Go to The Definition of Words and Meaning
Go to What Do We Mean?
Go to Einstein And Bohr
Go to John Dewey
Go to The Outcomes in Visual Scenarios
Go to The Outcomes in Visual Journeys
Go to How meaning is at the core of creating a vision
"We don't need new words. We need them to have more meaning. New meaning."
In our work we could apply that thought as follows...
"We don't need a new strategy. We need our existing strategy to have meaning. New meaning."
See also The emerging article on Words & Meaning and What Do We Mean?
Discovering New Meaning
Discovery Asks what NEW meaning could we create? 4D™ Developing New Meaning
Development Discusses what NEW meaning should we create? 4D™
Deciding New Meaning
Decision Decides what NEW meaning will we create? 4D™ Deploying New Meaning
Deployment Ensures that the NEW meaning we created gets deployed 4D™ Go to: 4D™, The 'Pixar' Of Consulting, A Vision Model
Well frankly whether the strategy thought is true or false my point remains the same. There is a lot of discussion about the idea of meaning. When you think about it it is clearly crucial. It's the difference between success and failure. Different meanings of the same words cause war. Differing meaning is based on differing values of similar objects. These objects are often defined by the very words we use.
This paper describes how we observe that - by creating conversations - in bigger or more rich contexts - then meaning shifts. Meaning shifts because we get the chance to worry about and then clarify what we meant. We find that the things we value are at the root of meaning and for true change to occur we sometimes need to review these terms that are deep - hidden inside our sub consciousness.
See also Signs
John Dewey famously wrote...
"Values: Things that matter, objects one desires or holds dear. The term may have a social or cultural meaning, referring to values held in common. There is no genuine social unity without values (valued objects) held in common."
All of his texts are below for reference
For me the act of structured thinking - by using visualization - strikes right at the heart of creating new meaning. It forces us either as individuals or teams to develop new symbols and language (words) for value. Our brain reacts strongly to this stimulus. This act creates sharper - more shared definition of value. Importantly new definitions of value that are wholly or partially new.
By doing this we can cause things to change. However imperceptibly at first.
The 21st Century Organization demands that the 'situation' it is in keeps track and if possible remains a little ahead or 'agile' enough to cope with demands.
These demands are as much about what systems, practices and processes are required as the talent and innovative thinking needed to stay alive. What does an enterprise do to be sure the leaders and owners of the working methods deployed understand and know what the situation demands and in a very real sense what it all means.
To change the 'Situation'. Change the 'Words' (alter their meaning) = Change the 'Game'
So the move from a current 'situation' to a future 'situation' requires a large number of people to figure out quite what that means.
The words(terms) that are used to describe the current 'situation' need to alter to describe the future 'situation' - or - the words stay the same but their meaning has to change. In every failed transformation it is possible to observe that while the intention was change the fact that the meanings hadn't changed meant that the new 'situation' just couldn't exist. It was trapped by the very words and meanings that were used to define it.
To know what something means you need a far more than superficial understanding of it. When more than one person needs to know what it all means for it to work. Well that demands a shared meaning.
In general I believe that meaning has been lost for so many words and phrases in business life. It's quite shocking. Worse - true shared meaning in a large part of business has been patchy and non existent.
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” - Joel A. Barker
THE MEANING MANIFESTO™
Introducing a 21st Century Meaning Continuum
- About I: My meaning is asked for.
- About We: The teams meaning is asked for.
- The Situation Baseline: Existing meaning is therein captured and discussed.
- The Opportunity: Gaps in meaning are mapped.
- Value Creation: Conversation occurs around the gaps.
- Tool Creation: New artifacts will be built and will now exist.
- A New Story is Born: New things, new words, new language and new phrases will now be at large.
- Mindset Unset: Discussion will shift.
- Value Wildfire created: Different conversations will arise.
- Meaning Wildfire unleashed: New debate will surface.
- Paradigms Changing: Attitude will change.
- Breakthrough Phase: Behaviors will alter.
- New Value Phase: New value will emerge.
- The New Horizon: New meaning is now tangible.
- Situation Transformed: This new meaning carries people in its flow.
- Situation Sustained: People hold onto this over time.
With quality visualization techniques entirely new landscapes and terrains can be created. New worlds of meaning. Literally.
Imagine the power of this act of co-creation. Think about the forces of conversation, creativity, objectivity, ownership, ingenuity and humanity that is going on if we get this right!
Imagine how a logical model has the ability to spring new value. The very act of undergoing the processing of reasonable ideas and developing new outcomes is hugely important. Especially valuable if in the act of this we can overcome conflict, irrationality and tension between humans. Think what we could do with these tools.
Meaning is at the very heart of what humans crave. Meaning is so personal, we have our own way of creating and holding on to it and yet it needs the approval of us all for it to have real currency. If meaning is such a powerful idea then by creating new meaning we should be able to do so much to put right the wrongs of the past and develop new opportunity for the future. If we can come together with tools for new meaning we can overcome the barriers to our own success as individuals, in business and as nations working for the whole of the species and the planet we live on.
We could truly alter the way we think and work!
Metaphor and Meaning
We humans mostly work in metaphor. A metaphor is a powerful thing. A metaphor is a whole other story and one which transcends language. It sometimes defies definition itself.
The definition of metaphor - met·a·phor(mt-fôr, -fr) n.
- A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).
- One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven" (Neal Gabler).
It is a much quoted maxim that there are only seven stories in fiction and that all others are based on them. With only a short Google Search I found the following from Rory Johnston from London. Good man. he suggests there are in fact 8. It doesn't really matter but take a look at them. They describe some extremely well known truths about life. the lives we actually live.
Cinderella
Unrecognised virtue at last recognized. It's the same story as the Tortoise and the Hare. Cinderella doesn't have to be a girl, nor does it even have to be a love story. What is essential is that the good is despised, but is recognized in the end, something that we all want to believe.Achilles
The Fatal Flaw, that is the groundwork for practically all classical tragedy, although it can be made comedy too, as in the old standard Aldwych farce. Lennox Robinson's The Whiteheaded Boy is the Fatal Flaw In reverse.Faust
The Debt that Must be Paid, the fate that catches up with all of us sooner or later. This is found in all its purity as the chase in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. And in a completely different mood, what else is the Cherry Orchard?Tristan
That standard triangular plot of two women and one man, or two men and one woman. The Constant Nymph, or almost any French farce.Circe
The Spider and the Fly. Othello. The Barretts of Wimpole Street, if you want to change the sex. And if you don't believe me about Othello (the real plot of which is not the triangle and only incidentally jealousy) try casting it with a good Desdemona but a poor Iago.Romeo and Juliet
Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy either finds or does not find Girl: it doesn't matter which.Orpheus
The Gift taken Away. This may take two forms: either the tragedy of the loss itself, as in Juno and the Paycock, or it may be about the search that follows the loss, as in Jason and the Golden Fleece.The Hero Who Cannot Be Kept Down
The best example of this is that splendid play Harvey, made into a film with James Stewart.These plots can be presented in so many different forms (tragedy, comedy, farce, whodunit) and they can be inverted. but they still form the basis of all good writing. The fault with many contemporary plays is simply that they do not have a plot.
Go to: 4D™, The 'Pixar' Of Consulting, A Vision Model
In business we have a story about the strategy, the direction and the work we do but we find it very difficult at many levels. We either don't believe in the story that much, it needs to change or it is no longer a story that anyone wants to hear. It lacks meaning any more. To anybody.
Allegories and Stories
Having likened something to something else enables our brains to fire up pictures. These ideas, sprung by words forms multiple metaphors/symbols and relationships for us become allegorical and suggests wisdom and knowledge from our forbears. The Q. So How can we Think and Work better?...A. Do things different, work different - just be different. Create new meaning within a lot of the same stuff and generate new stuff.
Getting high enough to see the new meaning. We have to stop labeling things with the same rules we did before.
Re defining Innovation is required for the 21st C. and developing greater potential. This creates new meaning. Moving from the letter to the spirit. Drawing new meaning from causing people to be different.
The Meaning Making Machinery
We have a meaning making machine. We call it 4D. It means we can take any business question and Discover what new could mean. Develop what new should mean. Decide what new will mean and Deploy what we agreed it meant.
The real physics of it though is within the very act of doing it. Meaning is a mercurial thing. It means different things to different people most of the time. I often ask people to tell me what jumps into their heads when I say the word Chicago. They will always group into a variety of things. City, Stage show, Rock Band - you get the point.
Going beyond images and symbols - sustaining the effect...
You will now have read the Meaning Manifesto™ The after effects of which are changing the way we think because we have altered the state of the existing situation. The side effects of which will be inclusion, engagement and cooperation. This leads to inter-operation and organizational re-engineering.
In the world in which we live today where almost every industry (Finance, Manufacturing, Retail...) and almost every thing we do at work is in need of review, we feel that if nothing else, a return to the basic skills of our ancestors, conversation, visualization and storytelling that results in new meaning is critical to changing the meaning we have for the way we live together and work is pretty much life or death.
In thinking about all of this over the last few years I have been reminded to look back at the work of John Dewey. At the link is just some of his thinking in relation to the idea of situations and the language - words used to describe and therefore create belief systems of meaning.
