In an interaction, CMM relies on coherence, coordination and mystery (Griffin, 1997). These steps allow us to further understand how we create realities out of our interactions. The first step in conversation is coherence.
Coherence describes how meaning is achieved in an interaction. When entering a conversation we have certain expectations. We look to the hierarchy of meaning to make sense of the interaction. We begin with content (Griffin, 1997).
The content is basically the raw data or the words. For example, we may say, "You are a geek." The actual words in that phrase are the content. Although we know what each word means we still do not know how we are going to interpret the statement. In order to construct meaning out of these words we go to the next level, speech act (Wood, 2000).
Speech acts are the context of the content. This is how we decide how to interpret what is being said to us. For example, if you and your friend are joking around and he says, "You are a geek," while laughing, you are most likely to interpret that as being friendly. On the other hand, if a bully at school says the same thing to you while snickering, you are most likely to interpret it another way. The way that you interpret the content and speech acts also depends on the episode.
The episode is the next level in the hierarchy of meaning. An episode is a recurring routine of