Lecture 6: Interaction strategies and boundary spanning roles

1. Lecture 6:Interaction strategies andboundary spanning roles Jarmo Sarkkinen

2. Project failure...... ... is a matter of ineffective communication ... is a matter of weak communication skills training

3. Clients say...... ”There is a perception in the area I work in that they are almost not human [laughs] because they really don’t understand what we want and they talk in such a manner that we don’t understand what we’re getting at” ”There are two professionals, who probably don’t in all honesty, understand each other’s role, and the aim of the process is to develop that, and to continue to develop a closer understanding, and to reduce the amount of misunderstanding” [Urquhart 1999]

4. Designer says...... ”I wasn’t too concerned on how far we really got through it, as long as we started to get a good idea of what was going on in the system – have I really got what they wanted? Its pretty hard because, you both have different ideas about what’s going on and different areas, and you’ve really got to ask them I guess questions so that they can give you the right answers. Sounds a bit contrived...” [Urquhart 1999]

5. Forms of (not) understanding • Mutual understanding • Non-understanding • Incomplete understanding • Misunderstanding • Intersubjectivity without agreement? - Not to share each others’ meanings - Partial may be enough, for example, I can partially resist but partially agree with, or I can have a partially different perspective - The mutuality of perspectives without agreement - Who needs to understand?

6. Classification of strategies(Urquhart 1999) Interaction strategies in Implementing changes Conversational strategies - Negotiation - Agenda setting • Systems analysis strategies • - Keysearching • Problem/ information/ • process identification • - Scoping • - Exemplification/ imagining • - Reframing

7. More strategies(Tan 1994) • Stating information by summarizing and paraphrasing self is shown to be very helpful in achieving better understanding • Summarizing helpsclients see things from different perspectives • Paraphrasing to draw clients’ attention to important issues • Strategically interrupting to correct the other’s viewpoint and to take note and concur with the other may bring about more agreed understanding • Summaring/paraphrasing when interrupting is needed

8. Whose strategies?

9. Negotiation Analyst: A few years off Client: Yes Analyst: Anywhere between two or four years I’d say Client: Yes it looks like it Analyst: We have to just get through until then Client: Mm, so its an interim solution Analyst: Yeah, an interim solution or Constructing a ”tick” is another example

10. Scoping ”I just need to get an idea of what’s what, what you get from schools and what you actually put into the database” ”I am not sure what information they actually hold on the database, it seems they have statistics, but they still send mail merge letters ... She is saying that for enquiries from the public, they have to go back to the paper record, so it sounds like they don’t really keep student information on there”

11. Keysearching Links in the data  accessing the data ”OK so when you put in the summary information you put in, you put in the number ... Does each number ... apply to each application?” ”...so you sort of have another code number or something for each applicant that gets put into the database” ”So like each of the applicants have like a numerical or reference number?”

12. Exemplification/ imagining Client: ”It’s sort of back to square one, yeah, they, the client quite often will say, come into the school and say ’ohh I sent in more information to the Department, can you tell me if I’ve been approved yet’” Analyst: ”Right...” Analyst: ”I imagine the student coming in and giving the headmaster a big serve or something ’why haven’t I been approved?”

13. Reframing Client: ”We’d have to notify them that it’s been approved, and the school” Analyst: ”So, through a, through a reply. And if they are still not approved, I guess you’d still have to send them back a reply”

14. Identification of... ...problems: ”but we don’t have any student records there, so ... the capacity you know ... 27000 or so. SACS was going to solve this problem” ...information: ”...what else do you put in apart from the reference numbers?” ”We need to look at one of these, umm some sort of batch or are they...?” ...processes: ”So what happens when you actually receive back something, like a review, umm application or some more information?”

15. Mediators • Mediator = ”a negotiator who acts as a link between parties” • Facilitator = ”someone who makes progress easier” • Translator = ”someone who mediates between speakers of different languages” • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mediator

16. Communication roles(Sonnenwald 1996) • Sponsor • Interorganizational star • Intergroup star • Intraorganizational star • Intragroup star • Intertask star • Intratask star • Interdisciplinary star • Intradisciplinary star • Interpersonal star • Mentor • Environmental scanner • Agent

17. Communicationroles as boundary spanning roles

19. Assignment Recognize strategies and roles!