engineering, language, and questions

Engineers, Language & Questions:The Effective Use of Speech in Action, Creation & Inquiry

David E. GoldbergIllinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering EducationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUrbana, IL 61801 [email protected]

© David E. Goldberg 2010

mailto:[email protected]

Math-Science Masks Language Import

• Was reading Sheri Sheppard’s (Stanford) book, Educating Engineers

• “The language of engineering is mathematics.”

• Math is important way to think, create, and communicate.

• But primary language of engineering is language.

• Reflect on language and its importance in engineering thought, action & tie to the master missing basic (questioning).



Roadmap

• What do engineers actually do and make (themselves)?

• 3 new ways to think about language.• How does language work & speech act

theory.• Assertions, assessments, offers,

promises, agreements, and declarations.• Language as a tool for engineering

action & creativity.• The missing basics revisited, with

emphasis on questions and listening.• Stories, distinctions, and mindset.


2 Questions

• What do engineers actually do during the day?

• What artifacts do engineers actually produce themselves?


Language Central to Engineering Work!

• Engineers do math occasionally.• Engineers draw or sketch occasionally.• Engineers build or construct (themselves)

very rarely • Engineers use language constantly (in

person, on paper, on computer or other electronic device).

• Takes many forms & purposes.• Familiar with language as describing.• Focus on language in creation and action.

John R. Searle (b. 1932)


What is Language?

• What is language?• What do we do with it?• No one right answer here.• What do you think?


Language: Conventional vs. New View

Conventional

• Language separate from human life.

• Language a descriptive tool for communication.

• Language is merely an extension of thinking.

New View

• We are linguistic beings living in language all the time.

• Language is generative & creative (not passive & descriptive).

• Language is action. To speak is to act.

Speech Act Theory: How Language Works

• Speech acts: Many different types.• Can describe, promise, command, etc.• Austin defined “illocutionary act:”

– Speaker says something.– Means something by it.– Tries to communicate what he means to

hearer.• Distinction between propositional content and

force or type of the speech act.• Examples:

– Please leave the room.– Will you leave the room?– You will leave the room.

J. L. Austin (1911-1960)

The Illocutionary 5

• Speech acts have 5 illocutionary points or types:– Assertive: commit to the truth.– Expressive: speaker expresses

opinion about state of the world.– Directive: direct hearer to do

something.– Commissive: speaker promises

to do something.– Declarations: speaker creates

something with utterance.John R. Searle (b.

1932)


Brief History of Leadership Coaching

• Carlos Fernando Flores• Chilean engineer & politician.• PhD student of Searle & Stuart

& Hubert Dreyfus at Berkeley.• Pioneered use of philosophy

of language in coordinating action in late 70s.

• Julio Ollala founded Newfield Network (1991) after working with Flores. Fernando Flores (b.

1943)


Speech Acts in Practice

• Assertions, assessments & ladder of inference.

• Requests & promises.• An aside on complaints.• Offers.• Agreements & coordinating

action.• Declarations & organizational

creativity.


Assertions versus Assessments

• Assertions committed to the truth.• Assessments committed to expressing an opinion.• Contrast

– It’s 60 degrees C outside (assertion).– It’s very hot (assessment).

• False assertions still assertions (still committed to the truth).• Assessment can be supported

– by evidence – agreement of others– But it is still an assessment (supported or grounded

assessment).


From Data Judgment in 10 ns

• Set of things happen in an event.• Our minds immediately interpret the facts and

jump to conclusions.• Lightening quick process.• Making the distinction between assertion and

assessment (between facts and interpretations) key to open discourse.


Ladder of Inference

• Popularized by Senge’s Fifth Discipline.

• Attributed to Chris Agyris.

• How do we make inferences from sense data?


How to Invite Open Communication

• Problem occurs when people offer judgments and assessments as fact.

• Two things:– Be clear about whether something involves opinion or

judgment (err on conservative side).– Do not use assertive force when making assessments

or provide support.• Soften via mind-state qualifier or assessment support:– “He is tall.” “I believe he is tall.”– “He is tall.” “He is relatively tall for men in this town.”


An Aside on Complaints

• Think of a complaint you made against another person.

• Choose a complaint against a person, not an institution.

• What was the essence of your complaint?


Structure of (Unreasonable) Complaints

• Unreasonable complaints occur in situations –where an implicit agreement is thought to exist –when no explicit request (or an inadequate

request) was made.• Solution:– Stop complaining and –make better requests!!!!


Anatomy of a Proper Request

• 6 Things:– Engaged speaker– Engaged listener– Future action– Time of completion– Conditions of satisfaction– Shared context

• Works for proper promise (commitment).• What goes wrong in requests & promises?


Anatomy of an Offer

• An offer is a conditional promise.• If you do X, I will do Y.• Y is a promise.• X can be a promise.


Agreements & Coordinating Action

• Simple agreements: Requestacceptance & Offeracceptance

• More usual complex cycle of coordinating action:– Customer/performer requests or offers.– Customer/performer negotiate & agree.– Performer delivers on agreement.– Customer/performer assess results.


Anatomy of Declarations

• Change the state of the world according to the propositional content.

• Speaker commitment: At some time after this statement, the world will be different as specified in the statement.

• Examples:– “I pronounce you man and wife.” initiate– “You are hereby divorced.” terminate– “We find you guilty of murdering your husband.”

resolve• Also can consider effective versus verdictive declarations.


Declarations are Creative

• Creation of new programs occurs in part because of declarations:–We will establish a Design-Centric Curriculum

to align engineering education with the imperatives of the 21st century.

– The iCommunity and iTeams will help unleash intrinsic motivation in our students by aligning what they do in school with who they want to become.


Declaration Specifications

• 5 items:– Engaged declarer.– Audience to whom declaration is relevant.– Time at which declaration takes place.– What will take place.– Shared background of the declaration.

• In agreements, specificity is generally a virtue.• In declarations, vagueness can enlist the creativity of

others.• iFoundry example.


Why Does This Matter to Engineers?

• Engineers think, speak, and write to build things in the world.– They rarely build anything

themselves.– Coordinating action well will get more

effective action done more quickly.• “Scientists study the world as it is;

engineers create the world that never has been.” – To create a world that has never been

requires declarations– Followed by effective action.

• Effective use of language is central to being a great engineer.

Theodore von Karman (1881-1963)

The Missing Basics of Engineering

• After 4 years they don’t know how to– Question: Socrates 101.– Label: Aristotle 101.– Model conceptually: Hume 101 & Aristotle 102.– Decompose: Descartes 101.– Measure: Bacon-Locke 101.– Visualize/draw: da Vinci-Monge 101.– Communicate: Newman 101

• Call these the missing basics (MBs) vs. “the basics” = math, sci, & eng sci.

• Missing basics are in some sense more basic than “the basics.”

• Philosophy useful in two ways: (a) reflection leads to list & (b) philosophical method as way to conceptual modeling and clarity.

Socrates (470-399 BCE)

25 © David E. Goldberg 2010


Master Tool of Language: Questions

• Missing basics revisited.• Note how MBs are qualitative:

largely concerned with language.

• Number one missing basic is questions. Why important?– When you’re talking you’re

not listening.– When you’re questioning,

you’re forced to listen.


Many Types of Questions

• Distinguish between closed-ended and open-ended questions– Closed-ended questions have definite answer with limited

scope.– Open-ended questions have wide range of possible

answers.– Both useful.

• Gathering info: Closed-ended questions largely useful for gathering information

• Curiosity: Open-ended questions useful for exploration & discovery.

• Creativity: OE questions also good for reframing, and creativity.


How Do People Answer Questions?

• 3 main possibilities:–With answer to a different question:

misunderstood or understood and evading.– Short answer.– A story.

• Listening carefully can gather info properly and redirect speaker to desired question.

• Stories very important.• How do you listen to a story?


Level One & Level Two Listening

• Level-one listening: – Like a conversation. – Partner says one thing and

you reflect on it with personal experience.

• Level-two listening:– More one-sided.– Partner says one thing, and

you ask another question, urge continuation, and listen to distinctions.


Story is the Horse

• “Story is the horse distinctions ride in on.” Neil Stroul

• What’s a distinction:– Distinction is a term or terms

that divides or dimensionalizes a conceptual space.

– Simple distinction versus opposition versus spatial exemplar.

• Examples of distinctions:– Rigor– Category creator vs. category

enhancer

Cold War Version iFoundry VersionPostwar stability Missed revolutions

Category enhancer Category creator

“The basics” The “missing basics”

Narrow specialist Dynamic T

Rigor = math/science rigor Rigor = math/sci + conceptual rigor

Soft skills mysterious Soft skills enumerable, learnable & rigorous

Math-Sci death march: passage rite Design challenge: passage rite

Engineers as socially captive Engineers as visionaries or leaders

Conceptual Shifts

Engin School Version iFoundry VersionChange as local, incremental & episodic.

Change as systemic, transformative & continuing.

Isolated center/institute/dept as locus.

Dot-connecting incubator as locus.

Plan-implement as mode. Ongoing pilot & diffusion as mode.

Individual units innovate separately Units collaborate on pilots.

One size fits all & override governance during change.

Respect diversity of culture & governance during change.

Closed stagnation as usual. Open innovation as usual.

Isolated from key stakeholders. Connected to key stakeholders.

Faculty-centered process. Student-centered process.

Organizational Shifts

Engin School Version iFoundry VersionCollege similar to high school College profoundly different from HS

Engineering joyless, rational & instrumental application of math & science

Engineering joyful creative invention of technological artifacts & systems serving human needs

One size fits all as chosen by faculty Student aspirations/choices different

Quantitative skills sufficient Qual-Quant skills balance essential

Students as individual learners Students as community of learners

Faculty control as critical element Student initiative as critical element

Engineering identity develops in time

Unleash engineering identity now

Begin with math-science death march

Begin with end in mind (world of work)

Aspirational Shifts


Creative Part: Stories Can be Rewritten!

• Personal, organizational, and societal stories can be rewritten.

• Understanding your story enables you to reinterpret and rewrite.

• Facts don’t change. Assessments and interpretations do.

• Mindset is key: fixed versus growth.• Positive psych emphasizes positive

change.


Bottom Line

• To say that engineering is largely math and science is to misunderstand how engineers spend their days.

• Engineers are fish in the water of language.• Use language to create and act through sequence of speech acts.• Attention to assertions, assessments, requests, offers, and

agreements improves quality and efficiency of action.• Attention to declarations creates a new world of possibilities.• Ties to missing basics clear and questions are the master MB.• Stories reveal a lot about a person, an organization, and a

society.• Be more aware of language and become a better engineer.

For More Information

• Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (www.ifoundry.illinois.edu).

• Similar powerpoint and other reflections at www.slideshare.net/deg511.

• Coaching and consulting available at www.threejoy.com.


http://www.ifoundry.illinois.edu/

http://www.slideshare.net/deg511

http://www.threejoy.com/