Much of the conflict we see between individuals and within organizations occurs because we respond differently to essential and symbolic communication
As humans, we have two languages: our verbal language of speech and texts; alongside all the ways we humans convey meaning symbolically: our body language, cultural symbols, style and fashion, and all the complex languages of art, architecture, and design through which we communicate among each other.
Observer measures the neurostimulus we get from symbolic and semiotic information.
How this manifests is in our responses to representative, or symbolic, information and essential information.
Those of us higher on the Observer scale tend to respond first to meaningful symbolic information. Those of us lower on the Observer scale tend to respond first to meaningful essential information.
Take a coffee mug.
A mug has essential qualities: it has a size; a volume; it’s made of a material; it has an insulating capacity; the handle responds to your hand in a particular way; the rim responds to your lip in a particular way.
A mug may also have representation qualities: it has your university or football-team logo; it was made by a potter you kno or a child you love; it may have been part of your inheritance from your great-aunt Mildred.
A sturdy mug with a good handle and rim may be more useful; and, therefore, possesses a higher utilitarian, or essential, value.
Great-Aunt Mildred’s mug may be a bit small and fragile for modern use, but nonetheless represents family and history; and therefore, possesses a higher symbolic, or representative, value.
In business this may manifest as: do we choose the more mundane, less expensive, and more utilitarian space in the outer suburbs, or do we choose the hipper, smaller, more expensive space in town that boosts our brand identity?
Obviously the best solutions bring together form, function, and nonverbal messaging. At the same time, much interpersonal and cultural conflict occurs because we don’t recognize that some of us have a slight tip toward utility – all things being equal — while others of us with the same view, have a slight tip toward representation.