Communication Troubles - Encoding Barriers

     In my last post I mentioned types of barriers that might stand between people during communication. By recognising them and making corrections as soon as possible can save conversation and bring better results as an outcome.

     First type mentioned was encoding barriers. This is the process when person encodes the message they want to send to the other side involving their best communication skills.

     What are the possible problems that may prevent communication from being enjoyable and fruitful?

1. Insufficient knowledge of the subject.  It says for itself - the sender doesn't have enough information about specific subject that is disscussed. The likelihood of the receiver getting mixed  or unclear message increase dramaticaly. When person knows such situation is likely to happen they should get some knowledge about the subject they are going to disscuss.  

2. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver.  This is the other way round to the previous statement. That is, when a receiver is lacking of knowledge in something or simply a message sent is not adapted to them. In this case sender should recognise the needs of the receiver and their knowledge of the subject. In some cases the sender will need to use other more simple ways for explanation. Probably using less terminology. Or let say other complicated and too specific descriptions can be avoided or substituted with easier to understand words.

3. Lack of Basic Communication Skills. This happens due to sender's inability to choose the right words and/or arrange such in grammatically correct sentences. The receiver will probably misunderstand the message or part of it. Sender needs to improve their communication skills or at least prepare themselves for the particular situation. 

4. Information Overload. When too much information is sent at a time the receiver is overloaded and simply can't comfortably interpret it. This usually put some blockage in absorbing information. Receiver ends up getting just part of the message or stop listenning alltogether. Let us take an example of salesperson. In trying to sell they might actually discourage the person from doing that by quickly naming 30 advantages of the product. Instead it's better to pick just couple of the most important ones and describe the item based on these features. 

5. Emotional Interference.  A person occupied with emotions might not be able to communicate well. Anger, fear, hate etc can take a big potion of sender's attention either to express these emotions or to hide them from a receiver. When dealing  with their emotions a person can send mixed message. In the opposite situation, if a receiver is preoccupied with emotions (e.g. they don't like the sender) they may have some troubles to "hear" the sender. People should really, whenever possible, to prepare themselves in advance for such meetings.

Tomorrow we'll cotinue to disscuss other issues that stand on the way for a good communication.

Visit Improving Communication in Business and Personal Life for more information on key communication skills.