Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 325
Correct information can be the wrong message
Speech Genres explain why accurate content can still fail when participants do not recognize the kind of utterance, response, and activity the message is meant to perform
Premise
Correct sentences can still be wrong communication. People do not invent every request, apology, briefing, warning, review, handoff, complaint, or decision message from first principles. They learn relatively stable kinds of utterance tied to recurrent social activities. Mikhail Bakhtin called these speech genres.
For executives, the distinction helps explain failures often misdiagnosed as tone, length, or clarity. The same facts can work differently when delivered as an exploratory technical exchange, a formal incident briefing, a performance warning, or a consultation. The question is not only what was said, but what social action recipients believed the utterance was performing.
What the model is: Speech Genres (Bakhtin) in Knowledge →
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- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
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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.
- KnowledgeSpeech Genres (Bakhtin)