Why is North?
Did you ever ask yourself why all of our maps have North at the top? Why are globes always positioned with the North Pole on top (or at least within 23.5°)? Remember, our earth is just a speck in the Milky Way, and nobody has yet decided what is up and what is down in the Milky Way, or in the universe.
North is always at the top by convention, that is, people started doing it that way, long, long ago, and it’s never been challenged.
So, what has this got to do with effective communication? A good deal, actually. Conventions apply to everything we do, nowhere more so than in communication.
By and large, we have a universal understanding of spelling, grammatical structure, and (within populations) pronunciations. These are the rules by which we play. Step out of line and you get weird looks, or worse.
Most of the time you want to respect convention because it keeps you on the same wavelength as your communication respondents. It signals tribal solidarity, which means your talk is more likely to be accepted. To breach convention unnecessarily is jarring to the listener and introduces suspicion.
But there are circumstances where you will want to upset the apple-cart.
Full article here. (http://www.purposeful.ca/blog)