„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

(and the members of the system) to deal with openness. It is a state of being closed that
is reinforced by default.
In the experience of organization development consultants, a fairly common
assessment in the sensing (or diagnosing) period is that the key issue is the
ineffectiveness of a manager.
In one such sensing phase, the common, independently issued complaint of six
subordinates was “The problem with this organization is that Jack is a lousy manager—
reactive, slow to make decisions, and frequently preoccupied with something other than
the business at hand.” Jack revealed in an interview that he was “giving a great deal of
thought to stepping down.” He continued, “With the kids grown, through college, and
both living out on the West Coast there isn’t much to keep me interested in my work.
My wife and I have enough money so that I really don’t need to work anymore; some
days I just feel more like golfing or sitting around than I do going to the office.” At the
next staff meeting Jack decided to broach the subject of retiring. Here is how the
conversation progressed:
Jack: I’ve been thinking it over and what I think this division needs is a new chief,
someone with more energy than I have . . . .
Subordinates (in chorus): Oh no, Jack! We couldn’t get along without you.
What has taken place in this anecdote is an example of collusion—the opposite of
being too open. When collusion is identified, for example, in the anecdote involving
Jack, the unified response of the colluders is to deny the data or to attack the person who
has exposed the collusion.
FUNCTIONALITY IN COMMUNICATION
It may be useful to consider openness as a nonlinear phenomenon. Too much and too
little openness can both be dysfunctional in human systems. Figure 1 depicts the
functional-dysfunctional aspects of openness. Closed communications (collusion) can be
equally as dysfunctional as completely open expression (“Carolesque” behavior).
Strategic openness functions to ameliorate the system rather than to destroy it or to hide
its reality. People in a system that has an openness problem may vacillate between too
much and too little sharing. A system that can tolerate high levels of honest interchange
of feelings and ideas is characterized by trust and interpersonal sensitivity. As they
interact, people are free to give, receive, and elicit feedback on the effects of their own
and others’ behavior.
Feedback
Feedback is a method of sharing feelings directed toward another and is generally
considered a phenomenon of encounter or T-groups; however, we are constantly
engaged in feedback activity in our minds, whether or not the data are ever shared.
Feedback sharing may be incorporated into our daily experience as a means of
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer ❚❘ 157