Modern Towers of Babel

In the Hebrew Bible* there's a story about a ambitious construction project that went awry (Genesis 11: 1-9):

1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Is that a little hard for you to understand? Yes, it's English, but from the King James Version of the Bible. That dates from 1611, almost 400 years ago!

Our language is indeed "confounded", but communicating is hard not just because we may speak different languages or have atrocious accents. It's also hard due to the meaning we attach to the words and phrases based on our culture, education, and experience.

There is a tendency for groups to develop their own jargon, acronyms, and idioms to convey meaning quickly to others within the group. Bureaucracies of all kinds are notorious for their acronyms, whether governmental, military, or corporate. Long-established programs also develop their own patois, confusing anyone new.

One way to thwart Murphy's Law is to ensure that people are communicating effectively. Any time “everyone knows” something, I guarantee someone won’t think that way. Any time “it’s obvious”, it’s not always the case.

Jargon is a common obstacle to clear communications. It's a communications short-cut, terminology with group-specific usage and meaning. Jargon includes:

• Acronyms
• Project group-speak
• Technical or industry terminology
• Culture-specific references, e.g. "good Samaritan"
• Slang and idioms

Acronyms often mean quite different things to different groups, even within the same organization:

• DDG = "drop dead gorgeous" or "dreadnaught destroyer guided missile"
• MIW = "man-in-water" or "mine interdiction warfare"
• RAM = "radar absorbent material" or "reliability, availability, maintainability"

Even if everyone translates an acronym the same way, you still need to be careful.

I sat through a meeting one day where we were trying to make sure everything was covered to bring an airplane on-line to support our testing. Naturally, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has rules and regulations about aircraft safety and airworthiness, which require aircraft to go through a certification process.

We all agreed that there needed to be an FAA cert, but a heated conversation ensued when two factions disagreed on the already-scheduled dates for the certification inspection. After a while, I realized that they were talking about two different cert efforts, and pointed out that little fact to the group. Oh, they said.

We had assumed that we were talking about the same “FAA certification”, when there were actually two different events: one for the airframe with the test equipment installed, and one for the electronics. Group-speak almost got the better of us.

I became sensitive to the problem of cultural allusions when I used "walk on water" with a non-Christian and a reference to Greek mythology with a native of Taiwan. Both instances were during conversations, so I was able to elaborate when they asked what I meant. In written communications, cultural allusions are okay so long as you leave clues about meaning, e.g. "He's as vain as Adonis" rather than "He's a real Adonis."

Diversity is a big buzzword in the business world, but it has a major downside when trying to get people from different backgrounds, cultures, and companies to communicate with each other. As our workforce and society becomes ever more culturally diverse, we must remember to make the effort to ensure our reader or listener understands us as we intend, lest we fail like the builders in Babel.

* also known as the Old Testament