Effective Communication

The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred. – George Bernard Shaw

Effective communication is crucial to the smooth running of a business. It sounds simple, but communication is in fact one of the most complex activities we take part in. To ensure effective communication, we first have to understand what the key elements of communication are. The first step lies with the person wishing to send a message. This person has to “encode” the message in such a way that it can be understood by the recipient.

The second element is the sending of the message. How should the message be sent: Face-to-face, by telephone, or in a written form? The third element is the reception of the message by the intended audience, but it must not stop here. Once the message is received, the sender needs some form of feedback to ensure the message has been understood. If any one of these elements is missing, or goes wrong, the communication will fail and misunderstandings can happen.

The message itself must carefully worded, so that it is unambiguous. Many acts of communication fail because vague information is sent out and so the recipient makes an unintended interpretation. Remember that communication is not carried by words alone. Only seven percent of a message is conveyed by words. Another 38 percent is conveyed by the way you say the words and 55 percent by your body language. The most common problem here is that your words may say one thing and your body language another.

Take a situation where an employee is complaining to the boss about some loose carpet on the stairs. If the boss at the desk is leafing through a pile of papers, is not looking at the employee, and allows the conversation to be interrupted by telephone calls, no amount of verbal reassurance will help. The employee will get the message that the boss just isn’t interested.

The next consideration is relevance. For a message to be received it must be relevant to the intended audience. We all receive so much information nowadays that the only way we can cope is to filter out what we don’t need. Therefore, when we send a message we need to make sure the recipient actually needs to hear it.

Then you must know your audience. When you encode a message and they decode it, you have to “speak the same language”. So, if you are a technical person and your audience isn’t, you must make sure that your message is encoded in a form that the non-technical person can understand. If you use technical terms and jargon, then the audience will be unlikely to find it relevant, and could easily misunderstand it.

These days some of the worst offenders in this respect are the compilers of computer manuals! Also, think about how your audience perceives the message. It may be that you need to select an appropriate messenger if your audience is to be receptive. Adolescents might react defensively to a message that comes from a stiffly dressed senior teacher. A more casual older pupil might get a better reception because the teacher might be perceived as an unsympathetic authority figure. This is why successful communication with one group can be a total failure with another.

You need to choose a means of delivering the message that is appropriate to the message, the situation and the audience. You may have a very simple announcement to make, say the date and time of a meeting, for example, but if you simply mention this verbally in passing, people might forget. This message is better in written form so that people know it is a formal notice and they will take it seriously. If you have a sensitive issue to discuss, then do so face-to-face rather than by telephone. Do not forget that for all written information consider the best format. Pictures, diagrams, and charts are easier for people to assimilate than long paragraphs.

Once you have actually sent a message, you must always check that your message has been received and understood. To do this you need feedback. You obtain feedback by asking questions, getting the recipient to summarize, reformulating the message, or reporting what action they will take because of your message.

As part of the feedback process, you need to be able to interpret other people’s messages. Let’s say you make an announcement and your group is discussing the information with you. They may feel inhibited about disagreeing openly, but you should note the body language, the kinds of words they use, and their tone of voice. Somebody who is receptive will give you eye contact, will lean forward and will participate by asking questions, or offering to assist in some way. Those who are not in favor will look elsewhere, maybe fold their arms, and use vague language instead of precise terms. They may not say directly that they disagree, but you will know from their non-verbal messages that this is the case.

To communicate sincerely, we also need to respect the audience. Just because people don’t agree with us, doesn’t make them inferior or wrong. They have background values that have led them to believe a particular course of action is better than what you suggest. Only by respecting their right to disagree can we expect to make progress towards cooperation. You will only gain the cooperation of employees if they know you respect them. If you base your communications on lies, if you try to mislead people, or if you ignore their needs and rights, they will see that you do not respect them and they will lose respect for you.

To sum it all up, communication has to be carefully planned from the process of encoding to the choice of the medium of delivery as well as through to the feedback you receive. Along the way, you have to make judgments about your audience, its needs, and likely responses. Give the rules of communication due consideration and you will be considered an effective communicator.