Name it to solve it - Conflict management with linguistic tools

Free flow of information is a fundamental condition for effective work. It is often said that much depends on the quality of communication between colleagues. However, there is little talk about the basics of communication, words, and concepts. But the rich vocabulary not only facilitates the flow of information, but also helps in understanding the various situations and thus processing it.

A research in Great Britain investigated how our vocabulary affects our colour sensation. The starting point for the research was the Greek language, which uses several words for the different shades of blue. Those Greeks who have lived in England for many years and weren’t using these words lost their ability to confidently distinguish between the shades in question. In the Hungarian language, the different interpretations of “red” and “ruby/dark red” words might lead to misunderstanding, but they are far from the case where one party simply misses the words from her/his entire vocabulary. Though the majority knows what magenta, encian or indigo mean, but few people know what lustre is like. During work, latent shortcomings or misunderstandings in professional vocabulary may lead to awkward situations.

However, the rich vocabulary of elements with clear meaning does not only facilitate communication between one another, but it also provides invaluable help in recognizing different situations and phenomena.

American thinker Ken Wilber pointed out that our early childhood experiences were forgotten because they occurred before our language skills developed.

The ability to think is inseparable from language skills. It is easy to see that what we cannot express, cannot be processed either. To be sad - that can mean different things. We can be sad, melancholic, down-casted, embittered, worried, or disillusioned. The meaning of these words is similar, for example, despair and disillusionment is a feeling of disappointment, but while one is accompanied by despair the other is accompanied by resignation.

There are some for whom it is already difficult to perceive these relatively straightforward differences, and they have a very vague idea about more complex concepts, such as depression. For example, the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder are known only to a few, and people with such symptoms are often labelled as crazy and not normal.

Many times, the ones in question themselves do not know why they behave irrationally, as they have no knowledge or words about their problem.

So, of course, solving it becomes impossible. Recognition, naming things, however, is already a big step towards the solution.

So we can say that advanced language skills and rich vocabulary are invaluable in not only managing the workflow, but also in handling conflicts, furthermore it makes thinking and the process of knowing ourselves more effective, and SHL has a paper/pencil and an online test tool to measure it.

Anyone who wants to read about the effective ways of resolving conflicts, I would like to recommend  “Conflict Is Inevitable - War Is Spiritual” by William Stillwell & Jere Moorman  dearly.