How Communication Began
Thousands of years ago - anthropologists place it about 200,000 years before the present - our ancestors began living in groups. Anthropologists know that group living and language developed in conjunction with one another. Therefore, to understand how styles of communicating evolved, we need to understand the dynamics of these early groups.
These early ancestors differed from us in many ways. But two factors are noteworthy in this context. First, they did not have the fully developed brains we have. In particular, their frontal lobes, the area of conscious reasoning and decision making, were less well developed.
Second, these early ancestors did not have highly specialized skills. But as they became more comfortable living in groups, people began to specialize in certain activities like spear-making or tending to children or appeasing the gods. As they specialized, they discovered the importance of transferring knowledge from individual to individual, and generation to generation. Thus living in groups triggered new human needs - including the need for more sophisticated communication. These needs were being expressed at the same time as the brain's frontal lobe was evolving.
How Four Distinct Styles Evolved
The four styles derive from these needs of our ancestors. One need was for caregivers, men and women whose first priority was looking after people's welfare. This was an extension of the parenting role. Their style focused primarily on understanding what other people needed and helping them get it, whether it might be a particular herbal remedy, a loving touch, or the group's recognition.
A second need was for craftsmen, people who became skilled in a particular job vital to the group's well being. Some were toolmakers, others were cooks, while others were builders of dwellings. Communication for these individuals focused on understanding a specific craft. An orientation toward analysis and detail was important. They needed to draw diagrams, show how things worked, and codify their knowledge.
A third need was for agents of social exchange, people who could act as go-betweens in economic and social transactions. They needed to be able to speak fluently and to travel easily within the group. These were the men and women who acted as representatives when the group encountered foreigners.
The fourth need was for risk takers, people willing to take chances in order to catch new game, define new turf, or expand the wealth of the group. They focused on taking action, whether to chase down a woolly mammoth or explore unknown lands.
What These Styles Mean Today
Over time, you can imagine how each of these four roles evolved. Caregivers evolved into nurses, ministers, doctors, priests, and social workers. The craftsmen evolved into a myriad of different trades, from hat maker to banker, from sword sharpener to architect. The agent of social exchange evolved into the salesperson, the storyteller, and the bard. And the risk-taker evolved into the field general, the adventurer, and the entrepreneur.
Each of these four roles is clearly analogous to one of the four Straight Talk® styles:
- Harmonizers are focused on nurturing and maintaining the happiness of the group.
- Thinkers focus on specific skills and tasks.
- Expressers focus on being agents of social exchange.
- Directors challenge the status quo by taking risks.
These four styles maximized the efficiency of our early social groups. If a group lacked individuals with one of these four styles, it was at a disadvantage. Therefore, over time, groups learned to cultivate all four styles through education, role modeling, and economic incentives.
Modern organizations still reflect the structures and patterns of these early social groups. These four styles pervade every type of organizational interaction. Because of this, it is advantageous if each individual in an organization is aware of his or her own style - and knows how to work with other styles. Gaining a deep understanding of your style, and an awareness of how to work effectively with different styles, is the purpose of the Straight Talk® workshops.