The social sciences from which human resources development, social work and organization development draw a lot, relies on inter-linkages between the emotional, social self and the abstract conceptualizing, reasoning self in human beings, Language aids the construction, communication and comprehension of themes in such work. It is one thing to communicate for social transactions to influence actions in others. Quite another indeed to influence performative actions in colleagues. And indeed even more distinct to uncover such tendencies in light of their precedents and contexts for action.
With the denouement of reading, writing and communication of even perfunctory text in operational and procedural realms, crises in meaning and understanding are a corollary. Influence itself may not be conveyed by virtue of linguistic ability alone, but by the small cognizable chunks of immediate attentional value.
E.g. A data collection activity is a slice of evidence in this respect. If a big data platform provides with transaction details in one data stream, another may have biographic details of those who transact; while yet another may have contextual detail like place, time and date of transaction. If one does not have analytic prowess to crunch such data, computers and their software utilities may assist. However, to specify classes in demographics, and to derive relational patterns between specific demographic variables like income class and size of spends, embodied reflection of complex order is called for. The language to represent such an ask of the algorithm writer, is distinct from the language that persuades a buyer to choose suggested categories on a recommendation engine.
One reason why India will find it difficult to scale on design principles, will be because, in trying to leapfrog economic walls, we bypassed the rigor of language. Even among so called English medium educated engineers and scientists, the compromises made on language are not a laughing matter.
When I recommended an inexpensive route to auditory exposure to complement reading skills, the TED.com portal came handy. In acknowledgement, the ever compliant student wrote back that she would participate in TED conferences.Now, even I could not dream of that!
