Context can create shared understanding which creates shared meaning which in turn creates more engagement. Without a context that is relatable, your message might not reach its intended audience. And assuming a common context is not smart either.
Context is the background of our understanding and what gives meaning to what we do. The very same actions under different contexts have very different meanings.
Without context there is no common background for understanding leading to misinterpretation and confusion.
Context clarifies purpose. Many of the things we do on a daily basic can come across as meaningless and directionless without an overarching context or purpose. The leader’s job is to create that context.
"When a company reinvents itself, it must alter the underlying assumptions and invisible premises on which its decisions and actions are based. This context is the sum of all the conclusions that members of the organization have reached.
It is the product of their experience and their interpretations of the past, and it determines the organization’s social behavior, or culture. Unspoken and even unacknowledged conclusions about the past dictate what is possible for the future."
– Richard Pascale, Tracy Goss/Reinvention Roller coaster/Harvard Business Review
"Understanding doesn’t proceed simply from examining data; it comes from examining data in a particular context. Information is useless until we know what it means.
To understand its meaning, we don’t only need to ask the right question; we also need the appropriate instruments with which to measure the data in a meaningful process of sorting and description."
– David Hawkins in Power vs Force
"The role of the senior manager in an agile organization is not to determine the content of people’s work. Rather, it is to provide the context for that work.
That means helping employees understand how their immediate objectives relate to the organization’s strategic and business goals. Senior managers need to articulate a robust strategic context that teams can use as a “North Star” that aligns their autonomy to those goals, guiding them as they exercise their initiative.
– Yvez Morieux, Boston Consulting Group
Context influences our attitudes and behaviors. For everything else being the same, our experience can be different under different contexts.
Context creates meaning
Context can create shared understanding which creates shared meaning which in turn creates more engagement. Without a context that is relatable, your message might not reach its intended audience. And assuming a common context is not smart either.
Context is the background of our understanding and what gives meaning to what we do. The very same actions under different contexts have very different meanings.
Without context there is no common background for understanding leading to misinterpretation and confusion.
Context clarifies purpose. Many of the things we do on a daily basic can come across as meaningless and directionless without an overarching context or purpose. The leader’s job is to create that context.
"When a company reinvents itself, it must alter the underlying assumptions and invisible premises on which its decisions and actions are based. This context is the sum of all the conclusions that members of the organization have reached. It is the product of their experience and their interpretations of the past, and it determines the organization’s social behavior, or culture. Unspoken and even unacknowledged conclusions about the past dictate what is possible for the future."
– Richard Pascale, Tracy Goss/Reinvention Roller coaster/Harvard Business Review
"Understanding doesn’t proceed simply from examining data; it comes from examining data in a particular context. Information is useless until we know what it means.
To understand its meaning, we don’t only need to ask the right question; we also need the appropriate instruments with which to measure the data in a meaningful process of sorting and description." – David Hawkins in Power vs Force
"The role of the senior manager in an agile organization is not to determine the content of people’s work. Rather, it is to provide the context for that work. That means helping employees understand how their immediate objectives relate to the organization’s strategic and business goals. Senior managers need to articulate a robust strategic context that teams can use as a “North Star” that aligns their autonomy to those goals, guiding them as they exercise their initiative. – Yvez Morieux, Boston Consulting Group
Context influences our attitudes and behaviors. For everything else being the same, our experience can be different under different contexts.
https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mastery-of-context-in-leadership/