„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

openness to right-brain hemisphere (Ornstein, 1978) functioning, this dimension
is also termed “divergent” or “lateral” thinking (DeBono, 1970; Hudson, 1970).
■ Feeling Group Maintenance: empathy with others’ feelings, leading to an
emphasis on human relationships when communicating about how things get
done.
■ Doing/Task Orientation (Jung’s knowing by experiencing/sensing): a tendency to
sense reality by doing and to emphasize practicality in communicating about that
reality.
These continua are illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Dimensions of Relating to Events
Use of the Styles
Suppose you had a television set with four channels on which you could regularly get
programs. Suppose, further, that reception was excellent on the first channel, good on
the second, mediocre on the third, and poor on the fourth. In time, you would probably
find yourself using the first and second channels and avoiding the third and especially
the fourth. People’s use of the four modes of relating to, and communicating about,
reality is somewhat similar.
You have a mix of all four styles 1 . There is your “strong-suit” style, which you use
easily and skillfully, and your “back-up” style, which you use fairly easily and skillfully.
Then there is generally a style that you use only with effort and rather clumsily. Finally
there is a style that always gives you trouble, that does not “work” when you have to use
it. Generally you are fairly conscious of your use of your stronger styles, but you often
put the weaker ones out of mind. You tend not to dwell on how little you practice them
or how much you avoid having to use them. As does everyone else, you tend to have
blind spots—not being aware of how much you overuse your strongsuit style and
underuse your weakest one.
1
See Parr (1979) for a self-inventory to determine one’s own style mix.
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The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright © 1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer