Giving Meaning

Meaning does not ‘exist’ in the world. The psychological or social system decides for itself what has meaning. One looks at the world and discovers oneself. This enables people, teams and organisations not to suffer from the world or its seemingly unchangeable conditions. What cannot be changed on the outside, can be changed in its meaning internally.

This thought, though, also becomes important in another context. If people wish to work together in a team, they must continuously and together adjust their goal, or task, for consistency of meaning. This can sometimes be a laborious process which requires much communication and social reflection. As every person can do no other than read his own meaning into the world, a shared and common understanding is rather unlikely and different perceptions of a matter is the normal state. Communication is, therefore, a result of continuous, communicative effort, not a given, or even a stable state.