Better Communication And Thinking: For Individuals, Groups and Organizations

By Hugo Misselhorn

“I first met Hugo Misselhorn in 2008 when the Beier group of companies embarked on a Joint Problem Solving leadership development journey. The impact of JPS on those who studied and practised the techniques was immense and for many it was the key link between the ‘Head and the Heart’ that made difference. Problem solving requires more than just a rational approach and JPS is a powerful toolbox for solving problems with and through others. I continue to use a blend of the JPS thinking and interactive tools in successfully solving various day-to-day problems.”

Warren Sachs
Director
Beier Group

“The JPS material has been a wonderful discovery, helping me to think and communicate more effectively while also providing the handles for better managing the complexities of life and organizational development.”David Dockendorf
Church Worship Leader

“I was pleased to receive an advance copy of Hugo Misselhorn’s book “Better Communication and Thinking’. With my involvement in a number of NGO’s a major challenge is getting leadership to proactively adapt to change. I have found the book most useful in spelling out a number of effective strategies to get people with different levels of ability and commitment to plan and then implement strategies for the future.”Selwyn Comrie
Chairperson NGOs

“This is an invaluable book for leaders and decision makers in helping them to understand and manage the complexity of human organisational life. It is applicable to businesses, non-profit organisations, trade unions, government and even complex situations faced at home – wherever people are working together to find better solutions to the ever changing kaleidoscope of global and local change. The material has been woven together from a wide variety of literature and from many years of experience as a manager and consultant, and Hugo’s personal spiritual journey. The book should be a prescribed reading for anyone wishing to better manage the complexity of humans working to achieve efficiency and sustainability in the life of their organisations.”Jon Taylor

Industrial and Organizational Psychologist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hugo Misselhorn
• Release date: Aug 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005122591

Book preview

Better Communication And Thinking

For individuals, groups and organizations

Hugo Misselhorn

Copyright © 2020 Hugo Misselhorn

Published by Hugo Misselhorn Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

About the Author

Hugo is an industrial psychologist with experience in a wide range of small and large corporate enterprises. He has worked with particular interest in the way leaders of organizations tackle problems so as to make changes for more productive and healthy organizational life. His particular focus is both on sound thinking and effective communication so that changes and improvements are sustainable through the people who have to make them.

Author’s Comment

From our abundant cleverness, we have set up science, technology and rationality as idols of the 21 century. We are in danger of worshipping these idols, not realizing that when we encounter everyday life problems at home, at work and on the sports field, all the clever technology, science and rationality doesn’t help us, if we don’t know how to communicate and think for ourselves. With all that at our disposal, our quick-fix ill-considered reactions can still take over. We are in danger of forgetting how to communicate and think better for ourselves using the gifts God has given us to do so.

Each time I venture further into understanding and applying this fascinating process of thinking and communication between people and in organizations, I continue to be inspired by the awesome nature of people finding better answers in cooperation with one another. This book is a further step on this fascinating journey in making the best possible use of our own abundant cleverness and inventiveness as we live and work together.

This book is dedicated to Anne, my late wife and best friend, who patiently encouraged my persistent explorations into human communication, relationships and thinking. She never failed to give her invaluable comments and insights from her depth of understanding of life and literature. Adapting to the loss of her as my best and precious life partner transformed much of what I have written in this book.

Hugo Misselhorn.

2020

Reviews

I first met Hugo Misselhorn in 2008 when the Beier group of companies embarked on a Joint Problem Solving leadership development journey. The impact of JPS on those who studied and practised the techniques was immense and for many it was the key link between the ‘Head and the Heart’ that made difference. Problem solving requires more than just a rational approach and JPS is a powerful toolbox for solving problems with and through others. I continue to use a blend of the JPS thinking and interactive tools in successfully solving various day-to-day problems.

Warren Sachs

Director, Beier Group

2 December 2019

The JPS material has been a wonderful discovery, helping me to think and communicate more effectively while also providing the handles for better managing the complexities of life and organizational development.

David Dockendorf

Church Worship Leader

29 November 2019

I was pleased to receive an advance copy of Hugo Misselhorn’s book Better Communication and Thinking’. With my involvement in a number of NGO’s a major challenge is getting leadership to proactively adapt to change. I have found the book most useful in spelling out a number of effective strategies to get people with different levels of ability and commitment to plan and then implement strategies for the future."

Selwyn Comrie

Chairperson NGOs

5 December 2019

This is an invaluable book for leaders and decision makers in helping them to understand and manage the complexity of human organisational life. It is applicable to businesses, non-profit organisations, trade unions, government and even complex situations faced at home – wherever people are working together to find better solutions to the ever changing kaleidoscope of global and local change. It has a wealth of informative additions to Hugo’s previous book (Head and Heart of Leadership), incorporating new research on neuroscience, learning, and the importance of the unconscious in organisational behaviour. The material has been woven together from a wide variety of literature and from many years of experience as a manager and consultant, and Hugo’s personal spiritual journey. The book should be a prescribed reading for anyone wishing to better manage the complexity of humans working to achieve efficiency and sustainability in the life of their organisations.

Jon Taylor

Industrial and organizational psychologist

7th January, 2020

"I have been working at joint problem solving since 1969, both as a consultant and as a university lecturer. Each time I venture further into understanding and applying this fascinating process, I continue to be inspired by the awesome nature of people finding better answers in cooperation with one another. This book is a further step on this fascinating journey".

Hugo Misselhorn

3rd November, 2019

Foreword

The Bible is always a book of great interest and inspiration to me. Even if one is not a Christian or a believer in God, the following quote from Ecclesiastes requires serious consideration for its depth of truth.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, Look! This is something new It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time… Ecclesiastes 1:8-10.

This profound quote from Solomon, about three thousand years ago, applies to this book. We may produce new explanations and applications, but all that is new are our attempts to explain and apply what has always been there. This book is, therefore, an attempt to resurrect a few eternal wisdoms, give them fresh meaning, then make them workable, so that we can go on learning to do things better and live our lives better.

In the introduction I will outline my own story of what motivated this book. This is a factual history of my own experiences and study and what they have taught me. But before we get there, I confess that I have been left with ongoing dissatisfaction with five previous attempts to write this book on how we can help organizations into being more resilient – effective, cohesive and adaptable. The main source of my difficulty probably lies in three areas. The one area is the infinitely complex nature of the human organization, where even the best information technology cannot produce a perfect logical integration of technology, finances, market, production, standard procedures, and all the other systems, into perfect integrated solutions. The second area of difficulty is the ‘illogical’ nature of human behaviour where our brain network of infinite synaptic connections influences everything we think, feel, do and say - most of which is subconscious - beyond conscious comprehension. It is beyond the purely conscious and logical language of science, words or mathematics. Yet to write and discuss human and organization behaviour without reference to this subconscious dimension would be ignoring the whole picture of organizational life, its health, its development and sustained performance. And my third difficulty is associated with limitations of neuroscience imaging of brain activity. There is the risk of neuroscience imaging reaching firm conclusions about perceived and experienced human behaviour which still only provides broad functional areas of neural brain networking. It is unlikely that neuroscience can provide what insightful, inspired and perceptive observation of human behaviour can give us. Good behavioural science is still ahead of the game, although it too is still only on a journey towards learning more and understanding more. While much of neuroscience confirms and extends our understanding of human and organization behaviour, to scientifically factor in this subconscious brain network for the uncharted 15000 x 100 billion estimated synaptic connections in our brain is still beyond us. To do this for the individual is beyond neuroscience. To do this for the many people in an organization, with their individual and group accumulated interactions, feelings, values, ideas, decisions, activities in an organization is beyond neuroscience - and even the best of organizational psychologists. Dr Caroline Leaf, a diligent neuroscience advocate and student of current neuroscience research says, This change requires diligence and hard work. The dangers of the current environment we live in have made us impatient, a trifle entitled, and mostly unwilling to sacrifice and work hard. And many schools are sadly reinforcing this through overuse of technology, neuromyths, and teaching…(Page 176). We are all still looking for better answers. There is hard ongoing work to be done. The looking and searching is what makes leadership and organizational behaviour so fascinating.

To complicate this even further, each individual, each group, and the organization as a whole, works within a context. This is the human context, with the web of many people interacting and relating to each other in the organization itself, with multiple rules and procedures and structures to hold the organization together. Then the organization itself operates within the context of a socio-economic-political environment. There is competition out there. There is changing technology out there. There are complex human communities out there. There is an international competition out there. There are politicians and governments out there, with their laws, regulations and policies. There are economic pressures from debts, exchange rates and trade sanctions. The context in which we tackle problems together to find better answers is a quagmire of complexity.

Yet in spite of these difficulties, some bravely write about the whole messy business we call an organization, with an awareness of its massive human subconscious boiling below the surface. This book will attempt to offer an approach to leading organizations to being more resilient – effective, cohesive and adaptable through better communication and thinking – with reference to this messy subconscious brain at work within a messy organizational context. It will do so by offering both a defined and systematic conscious approach, through what I have called Joint Problem Solving (referred to as JPS), yet at the same time, allow space for the subconscious brainpower of human beings to provide more effective and sustainable outcomes to the joint human effort. So cultivating a resilient, adaptable and effective organization can never be achieved simply through training leaders in marketing, leadership, financial and other skills. Training is not enough. There has to be real-life learning from application in the real-world context.

One of the most encouraging statements about helping these messy organizations, to become more adaptable and resilient comes from Peter Senge who says: Over the years, many people have translated the imperative to become a learning organization into new programs to train people in mental models or systems thinking. Unfortunately, there was usually little opportunity to apply these tools to daily work, and, even if managers had similar training, the work environment was hardly conducive to reflecting, thinking more deeply about problems, and building shared vision [and values].

As important as these consciously acquired skills and knowledge are, back in the real-world there is a messy environment of undeclared values, fears, hidden agendas, anxious and frustrated minds at work. There is not only the whole thinking brain – conscious and subconscious – at work. There is also the context of the human organization of communication and relationships. Nancy Kline in her More Time To Think says it beautifully "... the most important factor in whether or not people can think for themselves is how they are treated by the people with them while they are thinking". It’s the people and the way they engage each other and relate to each other in shared expertize and motivation – known and unknown, conscious and subconscious - who deliver sustained growth and performance.

This book offers a well-tested approach to better thinking and communicating with others as a foundation for better human relationships and sustainable good performance. It will help leaders in all walks of life to take a few steps forward towards more resilient and effective human organizations in a world of constant change and challenge – in those places where people gather to live, work and play together with a need for interdependence.

Hugo Misselhorn

2019

Table of Contents

About The Author

Author’s Comment

Reviwes

Foreword

Content Summary

An Introductory Story

1. Where Headed and How to Get There

2. The Human Organization Context

3. The Joint Problem Solving Cycle

4. Learning to use the JPS Tools

5. Making it Happen in the Organization

Appendix 1– Case Study Practice to Apply Joint Problem Solving

Appendix 2 - Guidelines For Using the Thinking and Interactive Tools

Content Summary

An Introductory story. This is a personal account of my own life experiences which have fashioned the contents of the book and what it proposes. Reading it would provide a picture of the ups and downs of human experience that have helped to fashion this book and its relevance.

Chapter 1 - Where Headed and How to Get There. This is a summary of what the book is about and introduces a collaborative approach to leadership so as to generate a more resilient, adaptable and productive human organization through better thinking and communication.

Chapter 2 - The Human Organization Context. This is important to understand since everything we do and say in our thinking and human interactions is influenced by the context in which we are saying and doing it. The environment within the organization and outside the organization will impact on everything we do and say. The organization and the people in it are not hanging in space. They are inevitably connected, directly and indirectly, to their context.

Chapter 3 - The Joint Problem Solving Cycle. This offers a practical tool for engaging others in tackling difficult situations where there are no ready-made procedures or solutions. Human beings are essentially problem solvers. This chapter explains how the JPS Cycle works and helps you understand and use it. It confirms how the joint problem solving approach can be a vehicle for taking the human organization forwards to becoming more resilient, adaptable and productive through better thinking and communication.

Chapter 4 – Learning to Use the Specific Tools . This chapter will help you to see the difference between the Tools and in what situations to use them. Like any tool, they help to get the job done. Apart from the JPS Cycle itself, there are seventeen of these Tools. They provide guidelines on the difference between these tools which will make it easier for you to choose and use the tools as you tackle difficult situations with others. These Tools are offered as seventeen key questions as well as details in Appendix 2.

Chapter 5 - Promoting the JPS Cycle and its Application in the Organization. This chapter offers ways of introducing strategies for promoting, learning and applying the JPS Cycle in the human community context – the organization. They range from learning and applying the basics, to an extended six to seven month programme to learn and use the JPS Cycle. All learning strategies encourage practical, applied assignments, some appropriate reading to learn the language of JPS, and the opportunity for individual mentoring. In addition, it also offers four strategies for promoting JPS in the particular organization through the services of an internal/external facilitator or consultant. These different strategies are offered to accommodate different needs and contexts.

APPENDIX 1 – Case Study Practice on Applying Joint Problem Solving. This offers three past case studies where you can have a go at studying these cases and testing your own JPS skills, then compare your report with what was done in practice.

APPENDIX 2 – Guidelines for Using the Thinking and Interactive Tools. This is discussed in Chapter 4. It offers step-by-step procedures or guidelines for using each of the seventeen Tools. It sometimes helps to go beyond the simple basic questions of the seventeen Tools from Chapter 4 and spell them out in more how-to-do detail. These guidelines are particularly helpful in complex strategic situations involving others, and where there is a need to be more structured and systematic in your approach.

An Introductory Story

What has inspired this book?

This book is about solving problems together in the context of organizational life. Since we will never escape problems - in our lives, at home, at work or on the sports field - the subject itself should be of interest to everyone. It inspires me. It’s a subject that continues to open up new aspects of how people behave when they try to tackle problems together, in particular how they think and communicate when living and working together.

I’m inspired and motivated by the ideas and suggestions from others. Every book I read or person who offers ideas, new information, and suggestions, gets me thinking. Other people inspire me and have inspired this book. I am also inspired by real-life situations – positive ones and negative ones, successes and failures. When situations arise that have a strong significance for me, I start reflecting on them and what I can learn from them. The mistakes I and others have made become a source of inspiration. I am also inspired by exploring how all the different bits and pieces of experience and ideas fit together. I suppose, at heart, I am a chronic integrator of ideas, information and experience. I believe my approach is sufficiently broad to cater for a wide variety of ideas, information and experiences in solving problems together with others. But the most powerful inspiration for writing this book about solving problems together – in all parts of our lives, at work, socially, on the sports field, at home – comes from my own story.

My own story

From school matriculation I worked for three years at Lever Brothers in a laboratory. From there I did a big switch to becoming an ordination candidate at Natal University, a vocation which I abandoned after strong disagreement with the Anglican bishop at the time. I was sponsored from then on by a wonderfully encouraging professor of psychology, who arranged a bursary that enabled me to complete a master’s degree in psychology. My five fascinating, difficult and different jobs in different organizations of 1000 to 40 000 employees over thirty one years, then on to early retirement and self-employment in 1992, have been an ongoing adventure in learning. Now, in 2019, I’m a retired industrial psychologist, still engaged in this life-long vocation of understanding and helping others to understand and apply better ways of tackling problems together in this messy creature we call the human organization.

This sketchy background leads me to share five events in my life which, as well as I can recall, have been major points of learning and shaping my understanding of joint problem solving and organizational life. These experiences and a sustained commitment to studying the literature on problem solving, then applying what I have learned, have inevitably had a strong influence on me.

The first of these six events was a traumatic one of contracting poliomyelitis. I was a vulnerable fourteen years old, an athlete, a rugby player – first flanker and then winger. My whole world of physical prowess collapsed. I was now on the outside, couldn’t do what other wild teenage boys could do; isolated, lonely and different from everyone else. The deeply-rooted experiences of trying to deal with these early problems – emotional, relational and physical – generated positive opportunities for personal growth and learning. The physical and psychological effects of this life-changing event can never be adequately understood or communicated. I was blessed with an incredibly loving and supportive mother and father. I was, until recently, greatly blessed with a loving, supportive and accepting wife – and am still blessed with three children who are equally loving, supportive and accepting.

What did I learn from all this? Well it was not the kind of learning that one gets from books or diligent study. It is difficult to communicate the effects and lessons learned - etched deeply into my personality - as I tried to adapt to suddenly being physically inferior to other boys and having to play on my own. I think I tried many adaptations to gain acceptance among my peers at school. Some of them led to further isolation. Some helped a bit. Perhaps what really changed was a slow increase in the value placed on mental work rather than physical work, or a shift away from becoming good on the sports and athletic field. I had to find a new way to earn acceptance and value myself again. Two or three good school friends, fortunately, joined me in this undeclared serendipitous journey. I believe my subsequent interest in human needs and feelings, the value of empathy in tackling problems with others, and my focus on developing my brain rather than my body, were probably sparked by this early traumatic physical experience.

The second event was during my first job. Full of self-confidence as a fresh MA psychology graduate - I later became one of the first few registered industrial psychologists in the country - I was assigned the task of reviewing the way we recruited and tested people joining chemicals and explosive factories and offices at Modderfontein. I examined the way things were being done and produced what I considered a very good report and proposals. One day, my boss called me up to his office – I shall never forget it, he looked at my report then looked at me and said I don’t understand what you are writing about. I was convinced there was some mistake. But no mistake. It was my report. It was my failed attempt to make a case for changes and improvement to the way things were done. Unforgettably embarrassing. I can’t remember what happened to the report after that. There were some good ideas, but the motivation for them and the execution of them were manifestly dodgy. So, back to the drawing board. And back to learning how to write reports, and improve my written communications for others to understand. I think I am still learning. But this event set me off reading about written communication, trying it out and working very hard at fixing what was wrong with my writing. Don’t try to convince me that we don’t learn from mistakes and only from our successes; that we must always look for the positives and downplay the negatives; that problems don’t teach us and grow us up. Success and affirmation are important. But without facing up to our own painful