Here is the abstract of a paper Phillip Pardo, Malcolm Cooper PhD LLM, William Claster PhD, and I published in the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (2021, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 1-40). This study explores workplace confusion and presents tools to address it. Through qualitative interviews in France and Japan, we identify common types of confusion and introduce the TAPE Cycle — a framework to navigate and leverage confusion effectively. This exploratory work lays the groundwork for further research on the topic.
Tools to manage confusion at work
“I’m confused; I feel confused; I get confused.” In our work and everyday life there is not a day that passes where we do not hear about someone being confused about something, but they carry on. This prompted us to explore the subject and we soon realized that that the notion of confusion merited dedicated effort towards clarification and practical usage.
We have initiated several qualitative conversations in the workplace to help our clients exploit confusion as an opportunity. In a paper, we review our understanding of the current conversation about confusion and present a set of tools that we have sketched as supporting ideas to help manage this condition.
We describe :
- The findings of convenient sampling based short qualitative interviews with 20 Academics and business people in France and Japan on “what is confusion to you”?;
- An early list of + ten typical confusions we observe in the business world;
- A management cycle to help address confusion that we name the TAPE Cycle where we tag confusion, act upon it , build on our initiative to address it and expand on our practice to fully digest it so we can face new confusion situations;
- An exploratory reason for confusion checklist;
- A confusion – clarity index;
- And a confusion matrix assessment tool.
At this stage, our combined business and academic backgrounds lead us to believe that these actions carry valuable insights, but we seek to inform the reader that solid research needs to be engaged as this process falls into the category of early theory building.
If you’re not confused, you don’t know what is going on. Rory Devaney (Brad Pitt) in The Devil’s Own (1997).
If you would like access to the paper, please contact me: click here to send me a message.
About the writers
- Frank Rouault DBA, Principal at Practical Learning the smart way to learn™, www.practicalearning.com, Paris, France.
- Phillip Pardo, Professor of Finance & Accounting, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan.
- Malcolm Cooper PhD LLM, Emeritus Professor, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan.
- William Claster PhD, Professor, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan.