Summarization Of The Communication Process

Summarization Of The Communication Process Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver in an understandable manner. The message may be verbal or non-verbal. Besides that, communication is the process of sharing our ideas, thoughts, and feelings with other people and having those ideas, thoughts, and feelings understood by the people we are talking with. When we communicate we speak , listen, and observe. A key to interpreting communication is to find the meanings of messages, and those meanings are found in people, not in words. Your friends meaning of trust or happiness may be quite different than yours. Communication is a continuous process that begins with a first encounter between people and does not end until the last encounter in their lives. These encounters may involve functional messages that serve practical purposes, or, in cases of close ties, the encounters may also involve nurturing messages that convey a sense of caring and personal connection. In addition, c ommunication is a complex, ongoing process that brings us into contact with the people in our world. Often communication is viewed as a straightforward exchange of messages between a speaker and a listener, but this is a na?ve view. Communication also is a dynamic, transactional (two-way) process that can be broken into six phases. The communication process is repeated until both parties have finished expressing themselves. This has shown in appendix in figure 1.1. 1 The sender has an idea. Senders conceive an idea and want to share it. The sender encodes the idea. When sender put an idea into a message that a receiver will understand, sender are encoding it: that is, deciding on the form, length, organization, tone, and styleall of which depend on sender idea, audience, and personal style or mood. The sender transmits the message. To physically transmit the message to receiver, senders select a communication channel (verbal or nonverbal, spoken or written) and a medium (telephone, letter, memo, e-mail, report, face-to-face). The receiver gets the message. For communication to occur, receiver must first get the message. The receiver decodes the message. Receiver must decode (absorb and understand) your message. The receiver sends feedback. After decoding sender message, the receiver responds and signals that response to sender. 2 Sender can anticipate problems, make decisions, coordinate work flow, supervise others, develop relationships, and promote products and services. Sender can shape the impressions and he/she company make on colleagues, employees, supervisors, investors, and customers in addition to perceiving and responding to the needs of these stakeholders (the various groups you interact with). Without effective communication, people misunderstand each other and misinterpret information. Ideas misfire or fail to gain attention, and people and companies flounder. Effective workplace communication can promote the following: ? Quicker problem solving ? Stronger decision making ? Increased productivity ? Steadier work flows ? Stronger business relationships ? Compelling promotional materials ? Enhanced professional image ? Improved stakeholder response 3 The importance of effective communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. From a business perspective, effective communication is an absolute must, because it commonly accounts for the difference between success and failure or profit and loss. It has become clear that effective business communication is critical to the successful operation of modern enterprise. Every business person needs to understand the fundamentals of effective communication. Effective communication involves a message being sent and received. Added to this however, is the element of feedback to ensure that the message sent was received exactly as intended. This concept may be illustrated using three-step communication model. This has shown in appendix in figure 1.2 Sending The Message There are four element involved in sending a message. First, as the instructor (sender), must formulate the message intend to communicate. Next, consider possible barriers that may affect the message. This includes sender experience, the terms that will use, and even the feeling toward the subject or the students. External barriers such as noise must also be considered. Third, senders encode the message; that is, put the message into the words that want to use. Last, clearly communicate (send) the message. 4 Receiving The Message There are also four elements involved in receiving a message. The student (receivers) will first hear and see the message u sent. Second, the message is affected by external barriers, if any, and the students own internal barriers. Possible internal barriers may include the students experience level, their understanding of the terms used, their attitude toward the material, or the way they feel about you. Third, your students decode the message through the use of mental images. Communication Barriers Physical barriers This barrier is particularly important when speaking to a group or audience. If the audience perceives you as distant from them, looking down on them, or simply not reachable, then they will not be as receptive to the message you are trying to share Language Barriers Buzzwords, jargon and slang are very specialized. Using them will always prevent some portion of the potential audience from understanding your message. That includes people who might benefit from your message, if it were presented in a way they understood. 5 Lack of Credibility If its evident that sender are speaking strictly from book knowledge, rather than personal experience, or if audience does not see how what sender are saying could possibly be true, this creates a credibility problem. The audience will suspect that sender dont know what he/she talking about. As a sender, need to make sure that the stories has been tell dont lead the audience to question sender credibility and authenticity. Gender Barrier It has been demonstrated in studies that women communicate more on a regular basis than men do. Though both sexes have both kinds of communicators, women are more likely to be right-brain communicators abstract and intuitive. Men are more likely to be left-brain communicators linear and logical. Depending on your own makeup, this could be a barrier. Both men and women have to learn how to communicate in a way that allows both sexes to receive and understand the message. Emotional barriers One of the chief barriers to open and free communications is the emotional barrier. It is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and suspicion. The roots of our emotional mistrust of others lie in our childhood and infancy when we were taught to be careful what we said to others. 6 Cultural barriers When we join a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we need to adopt the behaviour patterns of the group. These are the behaviours that the group accept as signs of belonging. The group rewards such behaviour through acts of recognition, approval and inclusion. In groups which are happy to accept, and where he/she are happy to conform, there is a mutuality of interest and a high level of win-win contact. Where, however, there are barriers to the membership of a group, a high level of game-playing replaces good communication. How does one ensure that the intended audience has received the right message In a speech, one must always present something that is related to the topic or focus of the speech. If talk about food, can speak about other related things like nutrition, malnutrition and benefits of foods but dont go too far away from subject. Since talk with nutrition in relation to food, always try to bring it close to the topic food. Also, make sure make statements that would make people turn their attention to the speaker, just not unnecessary unrelated ones. Skip the middle man If audience actually has another, larger audience, make sure they arent the real target. 7 Speak clearly This should be obvious enough, but clearly the President didnt get it this time. Speaker message needs to be clear Stay Relaxed To stay relaxed speaker should be prepared. Also, focus on the message and not the audience. Use gestures, including walking patterns. Practice the opening of the speech and plan exactly how to say it. The audience will judge speaker in the first 30 seconds they see it. Pay attention to all details Make sure speaker have the right location (school, hotel, room time). Make sure he/she know how to get to where to speaking. Ask how large an audience speaker will be speaking to. Make sure speaker bring all visual aids and plenty of handouts. Arrive early so speaker can check out where will be speaking and make any last minute adjustments. It is very important that speaker pay attention to even the smallest details 8