Communication in helping relationships (schein) 2 28-17
1. ADLT 675 - Feb 28, 2017
Understanding Intra-psychic Processes
and Face-to Face Dynamics in Helping
Relationships
2. Agenda
Understanding cultural rules of
communication and the internal
communication process
Explore the nature of helping
relationships in facilitative
interventions
Reserve time for project teams to meet
5. Schein’s Recommendations for
Avoiding Traps
Identify
possible
misperceptions
Taken for
granted
cultural
assumptions
Personal
defensive
filters or
biases
Situational
expectations
Identify Our
Own Emotional
Response
Biases
Identify Cultural
Assumptions in
Judgment and
Reasoning
Use Systematic
Checking
Procedures
Test your
observations
with
questioning
Use silence
as an
intervention
Maintain a
spirit of
inquiry
6. Why Do People Communicate?
1. To get our needs met
2. To figure others out
3. To make sense of ambiguous situations
4. To gain advantage
5. To build collaborative relationships
6. To express and understand ourselves
7. Cultural Rules of Face-to-Face
Dynamics
Social Justice
Communication
involves a fair
exchange in
reciprocal actions
The Concept of
“Face Work”
Relationships
depend upon
mutual cooperation:
we don’t humiliate
another knowingly
8. Human Exchange as Drama
We learn to play a variety of “roles” in life
The “helping role” is defined by how the receiver of help
perceives it
Helping requires innovation and improvisation (“going with the
flow”) but also a willingness to “seize the opportunity” for an
intervention
Staying in the helper role means refusing to take center stage –
instead, the helper functions as an off-stage coach
9. The Sacredness of the Person and
the Dynamics of “Face Work”
Cultural assumptions assert that all relationships
depend upon mutual cooperation
Human dramas must functional “equitably” in
terms of the status that each person has
according to culturally sanctioned social roles
Humiliation results when others indicate that we
have less value in a situation than we claim for
ourselves – and usually evokes a strong
emotional response from the other person
If people claim more status than they are due, we
say that they are “putting on airs” or “presuming
too much”
10. “Face work” is
what we do to
preserve the
relationship
Face work
reassures
others that our
social selves
are acceptable
Organizational
socialization is
culturally
sanctioned
destruction of
face as our
“selves” are
reconstructed
The Sacredness of the Person and
the Dynamics of “Face Work”
In moving from one
organization to another,
an individual sometimes
suffers humiliation in the
process of learning a new
role.
11. Face Work in Helping
Relationships
When we approach a (student/ resident/ faculty colleague or
patient) with an issue or problem, we risk destroying “face”
Consequently, (students/faculty, residents, patients) are
reluctant to reveal their “real” problems
They will “test” our trustworthiness
Only after much listening and being supportive to the other,
can we expect the real problem to surface
12. Three Roles of the Helper
The Expert Role – provide information
or service
The Doctor Role – in addition to
information and service, the person
being helped expects a diagnosis and
prescription
The Process Consultant (or
Facilitator) Role - help someone find
the answers to his or her problems -
13. Use Active Inquiry to Keep the
Person Maintain Face and Accept
Your help
Remember the psychological dynamics when
helping someone else with a problem – Use
Active Inquiry
Levels of Active Inquiry:
Pure Inquiry
Exploratory (Diagnostic) Inquiry
Confrontative Inquiry
Process-oriented Inquiry
