Asphinctersayswhat?

I work in a really interdisciplinary group, where several labs in disparate fields work together and it's not possible for our projects to move forward without everyone cooperating.  I think (we all think) that the biggest challenge to this kind of collaboration is communicating across disciplinary lines.  In fact, that's part of why I was hired - to be a bridge between two of these labs.

There is a spectrum of miscommunication.  Some situations have glaring communication issues, where you can tell that people just aren't understanding each other at all.  Other times, we are using two different words for the same concept, or more commonly, the same word for two different concepts.   This one is particularly insidious because you don't necessarily realize that it has happened until much later.  My best example of this one so far is "open system".  I bet many of you have some context for that phrase, and they all refer to something different.  The mildest situation is when it simply takes more words to get your point across but the listener gradually understands.  That last one happens a lot.

I had a big long convo with my old advisor a couple of weeks ago and it felt so relaxing.  I'm sure it was largely because it was so easy to communicate.  There wasn't any need for back stories to fill in weak conceptual understandings, words were used in contexts common to us both, and words loaded with other meaning were understood with all that extra meaning intact. 

It's getting better, though, as I'm learning both the science of these other labs and their way of speaking.  We recently had a meeting with members of my old lab and my new lab.  I could see when things were getting confused due to word choice and then intervene to keep things on track.  It's slow, but I'm learning to be the bridge.

Wish I could unhear it

A coworker told me something that I wish he hadn't.  Let's say he admitted to me, in an after-hours phone call, that he likes cheese, and that cheese is something a little inappropriate.  Suppose that it's okay for people at my work to like cheese, but that since everyone is lactose intolerant, it's not okay to eat cheese.  I had suspected that he liked cheese for some time, but I didn't know for sure and it was easy for me to happily assume that there were no cheese-liking issues in our department.

Once I knew this person liked cheese, I couldn't stop wondering if it was interfering with our work.  Did he make that decision because it's the best move for the project, or because he likes cheese?  Is he volunteering for that task because he wants to be involved in the project or because he hopes to get some cheese out of it?  And so on. It was driving me nuts!  I just want to go about my business without having to analyze everyone's motivations before I make my own decisions.

Fortunately, my coworker called again tonight to say that he had an epiphany and he no longer likes cheese.  I'm a little skeptical, but it's good if it's true.  I'm curious to see how it plays out: will this new feeling persist, and will it have a noticeable impact on his behavior?

It would be nice to know that no cheese is clouding anyone's judgment, including my own.