“FIRST UNDERSTAND AND THEN ACT…”

"IF YOU WANT TO COMMUNICATE FIRST YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND
WHAT THE OTHER IS SAYING AND WHY"

Our action concerning also our approach to information is influenced by mix of factors (see above). To understand each other we should first understand our selves and the other only than we can see what is “behind” the choices, decisions and actions.

So how to use all above mentioned for our purposes? First let’s remind ourselves what the objective is.

OBJECTIVES:

1.       Make responsible decisions that will lead to fulfilment of our (true) needs (not temporal affections)

2.       Communicate with others in a way that will lead to fulfilment of our (true) needs (not temporal affections)

3.       We want to be able to deal with differences (different opinions, believes, attitudes, values and norms) in a way that everyone´s (true) needs are met

a.       Why? Because if we act in a way that is violating other needs they will (most probably) act in a way that is not in our favor as violence is promoting violence (see Nonviolent communication above)

4.       We want to understand an issue or topic concerned in a way that we have relevant information (evidence) that is not misleading us

 Understanding our selves

o   Understand your personality (e.g. by MBTI typology)

o   Self-reflection and understanding of your values, attitudes, believes and world views

o   Awareness and reflection of your biases

o   Reflect our feelings and communicate our needs (see Nonviolent communication approach above)

 Understand what is behind our “logic”

o   See the assumptions that we base our logic on and ask if these assumptions stand or should be further assessed

o   Be aware of our biases as these will disrupt the collection and interpretation of the evidence

o   What information and data are we using (collecting and consuming), are those giving the relevant and whole picture about the topic? (see Module 1 chapter Quality of data and information, mainly the criteria of completeness)

§  Someone [1] is in this regard distinguishing hunting vs. collecting information

-          hunting information = searching for specific information to support my assumptions (connected with confirmation and other biases)

-          collecting information = collecting relevant information to cover the topic relevant way (following the criteria for completeness)

§  Being aware of what information I consume and how

-          Do I look up information consciously or consume the ones that I am provided by algorithms of social media? (see Module 1 for more details)

§  Remember that we have to invest deliberate effort to find relevant information

-          This does not mean investing to find “relevant” information supporting our point of view lead by confirmation bias  (this was the case for QAnon folowers in the US).

o   Be aware of confidence and rationalization (formulating conclusion without evidence)

§  See more in Module 4 Making sense of information

o   See the issue from different perspectives

§  This is not about relativization, this it is about understanding different perspectives

Why I made the decisions I made? What information, assumptions, values, norms, believes and goals are behind it?

[1] We have heard it from someone but forget the source and could not find it on the internet retrospectively…

 Understand other´s perspective

o   Do not base your understanding of other on judgements (rationalization)

o   Be aware of projection bias

§  Do not make out of your own toughs and believes universally valid norms that you use of measure of things (right or wrong)

o   1st understand the other before making conclusions

§  But do not base this “understanding” on our interpretation or moralistic judgement but based on the perspective of the other (How they express their motivations, needs, values, norms?)

o   Understand the other perspectives and point of views (What is behind it?)

§  1st not argument but understanding

-          How do you want argue with anyone if you do know what and why he/she is saying what is saying?

§  What is this perspective based on?

-          motivations, needs, values, norms

-          What data and information are they basing their opinion/perspective upon? (be aware of possible “information gap”, see Module 1 for more details)

-          How is actually by the actors perceived as the “problem” (problem definition)

-          See the patterns of communication: How is the actor framing the issue?

§  We do not have to agree with the other person but we should understand him or her

§  Different perspectives does not mean that all is possible and Truth is relative [1], it is about understanding (What is behind the perspectives?)

[1] Actually to promote this notion is well known strategy for promoting disinformation and confusion (to doubt everything and thing that everything can be possible or lie). This creates space for lie to live on.