WYSIWYG - Barriers to Communication Miss E Riley

Different forms of communication There are three main types of communication, theses are; General communication skills Interpersonal skills Communicate in writing

General communication Skills General communication skills includes; Cultural differences Adapting the content and style to the audience Providing accurate information Differentiating between facts and opinions Engaging the audience interest with question and answer sessions. Cultural differences can have a very challenging effective on communication and can cause a major barrier to communication. This is because Cultures provide people with a ways of thinking, seeing, hearing and interpreting the world. Adapting content and style to a specific audience can be crucial to making sure confusion, hurt feelings or misunderstandings don’t accrue. Ways of making sure audience needs are met are by; modulating your voice, if complicated terminology is used offer either hand outs with the meaning or explain the meanings or use both. Providing accurate information when communicating is crucial because if your speaking to someone about giving them a task to preform but the information is not correct then when they do that task it may no turn out the way you wanted. Differentiating between facts and opinions is important because what one person may think is a fact is actually someone else's opinion which can mean when communicating people may get confused leading to poor communication. Engaging the audience interest is crucial because otherwise they will not be interested and will not listen, its always good at the end of a session to have a question and answer part.

How to overcome these barriers Make sure that your tone of voice is appropriate for the audience. Along with the choice of vocabulary. Make sure facts are well researched and are 100% accurate. Use small amounts of texts or bullets point as large block of texts can be off putting and people may not want to read them.

Interpersonal skills Methods for communicating interpersonally Techniques and cues Positive and negative language Paying attention and active engagement Understanding barriers Types of question Appropriate speeds of response Methods for communicating interpersonally means verbal exchanges, signing, lip reading, as these are all methods. These can be very important because if someone is deaf then they may rely heavily on either lip reading or signing. Techniques and cues means body language, use of intonation, use of ‘smileys’, capitalisation of text in emails. These can be highly important because if you are sending an email but it is all in higher case text these can give the imprecation that you are angry, annoyed or mad. Where as if the email is written in the correct casing this will not be an issue. Positive and negative language is important because it tells the listener what they can and cannot do for example; negative language tells the listener what cannot be done, which contains a subtle tone of blame and quiet often includes words like can’t, won’t, unable to. All these words inform the listener what your organisation can’t do. Positive language tells the listener what can be done, this suggests alternatives and choices available, along with sounding helpful and encouraging. All these words give polite consequences that can be anticipated. Paying attention and active engagement is the direct route to learning new skills. You learn through active engagement with others; paying attention promotes active engagement. So therefore without pay attention and actively engaging you are less likely to learn new skills. Understanding barriers is key to providing good communication because these can be barriers like; people having different learning styles, someone being deaf or blind. You need to be prepared to be able to deal effectively with these situations if you are faced with them. There are many different types of questions these are; closed, open, rhetorical. Closed questions mean a short focused answer. Closed questions are usually easy to answer as the choice of answer is limited. They can be effectively used early in conversations to encourage participation and can be very useful in fact-finding scenarios such as research. Open questions allow for much longer responses and therefore potentially more creativity and information. Rhetorical questions are often humorous and don’t require an answer. When responding to a clients/colleagues you want to be able to response with an appropriate speed. Responding to slow could give the impression you cant be bothered and responding to quickly could mean you haven't had time to think about the answer and don’t want to talk to them.

Communicate in writing Following organisational guidelines and procedures Identifying and conveying key messages in writing Using correct grammar and spelling Identifying relevant information Reviewing and proof reading own written work Conveying alternative viewpoints Reviewing and editing documents created by others Note taking Following organisational guidelines and procedures is important because some organisations may not let you use Skype as a form of communication. Identifying and conveying key messages in writing is important because it is making sure that all the key facts and figures are clearly and well presented. Using correct grammar and spelling is important because otherwise some words can be misleading without the correct grammar and spelling leading to confusion for everyone. Identifying relevant information is key because giving people irrelevant information is a waste of your time and there time. Reviewing and proof reading own written work is important because this helps with making sure that grammar and spelling is correct along with the sentencing structure making sense. Conveying alternative viewpoints is important so then not only is your own viewpoint being put across but also someone else's. Reviewing and editing documents created by others is important because if the review is hand written poorly or in to much technical detail then confusion can occur again. When note taking it is important to use short hand so that notes can be taken down quickly.