„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

the good of “the team.” Similarly, working to replace sexist, racist, or ageist language is
a necessary step in realizing equal-opportunity goals (Swacher, 1976).
Supporting New Client Skills
Sometimes our own professional jargon is clearly the most effective way to express a
crucial concept. On these occasions, it is best to take full advantage of the concrete,
cognitive, and emotional meaning intrinsic to our jargon. Times like these are most
likely to arise during introduction of human-relations concepts and skills. The key to
translating our jargon is to embed it in a frame of reference that clients can understand.
This approach may mean telling a visually oriented client that a sensing interview helps
to “paint a picture” of an organization by “taking a fresh look” at certain practices. In
this example, the definition of the concept combines the client’s visual proclivity with
the jargon’s kinesthetic mode, thereby helping to bridge the gap between a visual
orientation and a kinesthetic concept. Saying that a sensing interview “provides a feeling
of what’s coming down” might confuse such a client. On the other hand, focusing only
on the problems seen in this client’s organization might render a narrow reflection of the
environment. When jargon is used skillfully, it can introduce a client to new aspects of
experience.
In another hypothetical situation, the desired outcome might be to help the members
of a highly visual and vocal work group to begin listening to one another. The objective
calls for both new skills and a new process for dealing with one another. Use of typically
kinesthetic human-relations jargon might focus the workers’ attention on the wrong
data, thus conflicting with the skills being taught. In contrast, the use of carefully
selected jargon that invites the workers to make auditory associations—through terms
such as “active listening” or “feedback”—might help to focus attention on the relevant
stimuli.
USING JARGON IN THE LEARNING CYCLE
Creative HRD professionals can find many ways to sharpen their use of jargon into a
cutting-edge learning tool that is especially useful in group facilitation. To bring out the
metaphorical magic that our jargon promises, the following conditions must exist
(Billow, 1977):
1. The client understands the skills, experiences, and/or concepts expressed in the
jargon.
2. The HRD specialist is aware of the metaphorical associations inherent in the
jargon.
3. The specialist comprehends the relationship between the client’s understanding
of the jargon and the metaphorical associations on which that jargon is based.
A strong connection can be established between these conditions and the five stages
of a well-developed structured experience (Pfeiffer & Jones, 1981):
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