You can be very aware of situations when you are on

You can be very aware of situations when you are on

the receiving end of an instruction that you do not understand. It can be very tempting, for

the sorts of reason outlined above, to create the impression by silence that you have

understood something when you in fact know that you have not. The problem is that the

initiator may be left with quite a false impression o his effectiveness. If a message

is particularly important it is up to him to search for more ¬

positive corroboration than mere silence that communication has been effective. He will

need to consider ,other forms of feedback and to. distinguish betwee accurate and

bogus feedback.

Silence is not the only way in which people give false impressions about having

understood explanations. There are occasions when people actually say they have

understood when they have not. A common situation when this arises is when you ask

the way and are so baffled by the instructions on how to get to a particular place that you

may meekly say that you have understood when you have not. This type of breakdown

can happen within organisations and for a variety of reasons. These reasons may be the

same as those given for people remaining silent when they have the opportunity to ask

necessary questions during the rectangles exercise. Another reason can be the fear of

admitting ignorance, to authority figures in particular.