For a while now, we’ve deliberately avoided the topic … even though we’re an MWBE company.
But when piles of recent clippings talk about communications differences between men and women, when our own body of work acknowledges the gaps, and when more academes are seriously studying gender conversations, we figured it’s time.
And despite the naysaying about John Gray’s decades-old philosophy stating that Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus, there’s much proof that he’s right.
Women talk.
Men shy away from openness (especially in stressful times).
Rosalind Wiseman, in her Masterminds and Wingmen, interviewed dozens and hundreds of teenaged boys, with the conclusion that as boys enter manhood, they do begin to talk less. Even if they’re as emotionally invested in relationships as girls.
That retreat mentality should be obvious to anyone who’s worked in the business world, even when there’s no reason to dive into a cave. Straightforward prose and (some) dialogue infuse meetings and reports when males are in charge. Many women bosses tend towards the chatty, the ‘let’s talk’ narratives, preferring to expose all aspects of a particular issue and all its possible solutions.
No, this delineation isn’t100 percent true. But we see it often enough to question if there needs to be some sort of segmented communications by gender as well as by demographics. Or, perhaps, messages that are composed and directed to specific audiences, each with the same content but different presentations.
Are we on opposing planets? Please RSVP …