Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 369
Acknowledged does not mean understood
Clark and collaborators treat understanding as joint work, making acknowledgment, repair, medium constraints, and task-specific evidence part of coordination design
Premise
A message can be delivered, seen, and acknowledged while coordinated action still fails. Grounding in Communication treats understanding as joint work: participants present contributions, produce evidence of comprehension, repair ambiguity, and update what they can reasonably treat as shared. Communication is complete only to the degree needed for the joint activity.
For executives, the model changes what counts as confirmation. Receipt is not understanding, and understanding is not identical internal representation. The practical question is what observable evidence is sufficient before participants safely proceed, given the consequences of error, cost of repair, time available, expertise, and medium.
What the model is: Grounding in Communication in Knowledge →
Continue in the series
- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMeaning & Clarity
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
- KnowledgeGrounding in Communication