Barriers to Effective Communication

Why does good communication break down?

The previous blog lists the elements of the communication process (communicator, message, encoder, medium, receiver/decoder, feedback, and noise). This is about identifying hindrances to good communication or noise. If noise exists in any of the elements in any way complete clarity of meaning and understanding is lost. Management has a responsibility to develop effective communications. Communication breakdown will cause inefficiency for the employer, but it can cost the employee their job. There are several common barriers to effective communication.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

The two most obvious barriers to office communication are language and culture barriers. Both play important roles in today's diverse marketplace. Because they are obvious potential communication hindrances, most organizations pay close attention to these. Language and culture diversity is a powerful tool when the differences are worked out.

FRAME OF REFERENCE

Communication is the Key to Success!

Communication is the glue that holds organizations together.

Communication assists employees to accomplish personal and company goals, respond to organizational change, organize commercial activities, and participate in every relevant activity. As important as communication is, breakdowns in communication are pervasive.

"I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

When communication is less than it should be, the organization will not be what it can be. Communication within a company is unavoidable, but effective communication is.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

Employees Must Understand Change

The previous blog stated that employees must change or die. This may seem to be overstated, but the it is close to reality. Employees must understand change and the necessity for change.

Organizations do not change for the sake of changing. There are several factors that make change necessary.

First, technology is changing. There are many engineers and computer geeks sitting around thinking of innovations to make tasks easier and more efficient. Companies that embrace these changes will surge ahead of their competition. 

Second, markets are changing. Things that are popular and marketable yesterday are not popular today. Things that are popular and marketable today will not be popular tomorrow. Inventors and innovators will rule tomorrow's market.

Third, society is changing. We live in a very informed society. Companies must be in tuned with society and adapt. 

Fourth, there is more competition because of globalization and this will continue to increase resulting in an increasing need for change.

Finally, change will also be necessary to keep products and services relevant to the local and global markets.

You Must Change or Die!

This is overstated...or is it?

This may not apply to you personally, but it applies to the company for which you work.

There is a natural cycle to every organization.

• Beginning
• Growth
• Plateau
• Decline
• Death

Without intervention in the plateau phase, the organization will eventually decline and die. The intervention, more often than not, will require change. However, organizations are usually resistant to change. There are common reasons that people are reluctant to change. 

1. Fear of losing status or security. Employees work hard to get where they are and change can mean new technologies to learn, more employees to compete with, and many more real and imagined factors.

Good Employees Understand the Art of Service

Good employees serve. Service is the action of helping or doing work for someone.

Organizations serve other organizations and people in some capacity. In a 2016 Gartner CEO survey, CEOs rated customer service, after growth,  as their most important priority. It has been said that in today's knowledge sharing and hyper connected society customer service is marketing. The dissatisfaction of products or service is known throughout the local industry in lightning speed and can kill your business. Attention to service is paramount and is the responsibility of each employee, not just the management. We need to master the art of service.

BR: "Good to Great by Jim CollinsDisip

The sub-title of "Good to Great," Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't, reveals the purpose of this book. Collins determined to find out why some companies made the leap from good companies to great companies and others did not.

To find how companies go from good to great, he first needed to identify great companies. He looked for companies that had 15-year cumulative stock market returns at or below the general market with a transition point followed by a period of returns above the market over a 15-year period. The companies needed to exhibit a "good-to-great" pattern. All companies were compared to the other to ultimately determine what distinguished good-to-great companies from the others. Eleven good-to-great companies were identified: Abbott, Fannie Mae, Kimberly-Clark, Nucor, Pitney Bowes, Wells Fargo, Circuit City, Gillette, Kroger, Philip Morris, and Walgreens. Collins found numerous celebrated factors. I found that "Good to Great" is one of the most referred to books in leadership study.

Keys for Balancing Work and Life

We have all had the experience of working to finish an important assignment when the phone rings and the school nurse says that we must pick up our child from school. You are lucky if you can get your spouse to pick them up or have a relative that can stop what they are doing to help, but many of us are not fortunate enough to have that kind of support system. Thus we struggle with balancing work responsibilities with family responsibilities.

Recently, I read a story about Alan. Alan was told that he was going to be taking over his boss's job who had recently quit because of health reasons. They kept promising him that they would come down from the corporate office to meet regarding the job. In the mean time, he was doing his job as well as his boss's job hoping for the reward of the promotion and possible bonus pay. He was working late and on weekends and sacrificing family responsibilities just to keep the office running. He even started avoiding his wife at home because he did not want to listen to her complain about his long hours. Remarkably, he kept this up for eighteen months before the corporate office finally met with him, but not before the stress nearly led him to attempt suicide and drove him to drugs to help keep up the pace. Most Life Work Imbalances are not this extreme, but it can lead to similar results.