Content vs Context - What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?
Understanding the difference between the content and context of a conversation is a key step in the path to becoming a conscious leader. The best leaders understand this well and strive to always pay attention to the context of a conversation. By focusing on the context, leaders direct conversations in ways that enable the content to resolve itself in a healthy, productive, and sustainable manner.
So, what is the difference between the content and context of a conversation? Let’s start by providing some background:
Content vs Context: Setting the Scene
The first key to understanding why content and context are so important is realizing all of life occurs as one big conversation. This one giant conversation is made up of several smaller conversations: conversations between individuals, groups, and nations. There are also conversations that take place inside of ourselves, what some people might call our internal dialogue.
Each conversation has both content and context. The content of a conversation is what we talk about. The context of a conversation is how we talk about it.
Content can be anything: our vacation next week, the latest news in politics, how we can hit quota this month, why the marketing team turned in their proposal late, etc. In every case, content is the “what” of what we’re talking about.
Why Context Is So Important
When discussing context vs content, conscious leaders know to focus on context. Context covers how we go about discussing the content of a conversation, and the way in which we discuss a topic (context) is almost always more important than the actual topic itself (content). But why is that?
Understanding context is so important because almost every conversation takes place from one of two places - above the line or below the line. If you haven’t read our article about the difference between above the line and below the line behavior, go ahead and read it now, since you can’t understand the importance of context without first understanding the difference between above the line and below the line.
Context & the Conscious Leader
Conscious leaders focus of the context of conversations by asking the question: "Where are we talking and listening from right now - above the line or below the line?” Asking this question allows everyone to consider if they are being closed, defensive, or committed to being right in their approach to the topic. If so, identifying this behavior allows them to shift to being open, curious, and committed to learning.
Focusing on the context of a conversation allows the content to resolve itself much more quickly. Conscious leaders know this, which is why they focus most on the context of conservations in order to determine whether the content is being discussed from an above the line or below the line perspective. Understanding the difference between content and context, and then allowing that knowledge to change one’s approach to conversations, is a key stepping stone on the path to becoming a conscious leader. How can you shift into consciousness and begin to focus on the context of conversations you have today?
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