Communication

There are four basic steps to communication:

• Intent – the sender has information they want to communicate to others
• Transmission – the sender chooses a method of communicating that information – speaking, writing, gestures
• Receipt – the receiver hears or sees the information, and
• Interpretation – the receiver makes sense of the information they’ve received.

Now that all sounds fairly straightforward doesn’t it? If only it were that simple. It seems timely here to insert a memorable quote from Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, who said:

Well, quite a lot as it turns out. Here’s a not-very-short list.

• We don’t realise we need to communicate in the first place
• We hear what we expect to hear, not what was actually communicated
• We ignore information conflicting with what we already know or believe
• Our attitude towards the sender affects the way we receive the message
• Our social and work groups may affect our understanding of the message
• Words have different meanings for different people
• Our choice of words affects others’ ability to understand
• Body language and words may communicate different messages
• Influencing factors, such as stress and fatigue, affect both sender and receiver
• Environmental factors may affect the quality of communication

Below is a link to an interesting TED Talk by author, John O’Leary, on the Challenger space shuttle disaster where he describes how ‘failures of communication’ led to one of the biggest space travel tragedies in history.

LISTEN – as in, actually listen. Don’t just think about what you’re going to say next.

BE HONEST – Say how you feel but do it constructively and tactfully.

Be mindful of your BODY LANGUAGE.

Don’t ASSUME – ask questions if you need to.

Be RESPECTFUL – discuss, don’t debate.