KXEX2167

Thinking and Communication Skills

Barriers to
Communication

1
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

2
 Communication blocks

1. Noise
2. Word Walls/Language
3. Overload
4. Dialog cutoffs
5. Stereotyping
6. Deceit
7. Distrust
8. Games 3
 Noise
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

4
 Noise - Cont.

Difficult to hear.

Did not get the message.

Be sensitive to noise problems and adjust
your environment accordingly.

Stop the noise or move the communication
elsewhere.

5
Example situation
‘ Leman spent thirty years working with power
tools. Somewhere in his early thirties he
noticed that conversations in his van were
difficult for him to follow. He thought the
problem was the noisy van, and it was,
except for one thing: other people in the van
understood the conversation. Only he
couldn’t follow the talk. ‘

6
 Word Walls
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

7
 Word Walls - Cont.

Two types of block:

1. Unintentional block
- vocabulary, technical jargon.
2. Intentional block
- to look impressive.
- choose your vocabulary with care.
- speak to communicate and never speak
to impress.
8
Example situation
Aminah recently called her telephone company for a
business phone in her home. She wanted to know
the rates for installation and so on. The employee
informed her that the “system interface for the new
phone line would be installed.” Aminah was puzzled
and said “What does that mean?” the phone
company representative said, ”the guys have to
come out and put a phone jack on the outside of the
house.”

9
 Overload
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

10
 Overload - Cont.

Too much input causes confusion.

Problem with receiver’s ability to cope.

The understanding of the message will be
confused.

The focus of attention is weak.

11
Example situation
MajuKita, like most companies, puts the
secretarial staff in very public spaces. The
result is that they are constantly on the phone
answering an inquiry, at the same time they
are waiting on people, at the same time they
are trying to get typing done, at the same
time they are preparing for a meeting, at the
same time……

12
 Dialog cutoffs
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

13
 Dialog cutoffs - Cont.

Frequent interruptions ( often questions)

are annoying and can destroy a
conversation easily.

More problem is completing sentence for
others.

Listen with respect.

Do not cut off a speaker’s comments in
any way, or the communication will be
damaged. 14
Example situation
It is that habit some people have of
completing our sentences for us. We start a
sentence, and then out of nervousness,
impatience, or excitement or some such
cause, suddenly we hear “ and then……” and
find the story written for us.

15
 Stereotyping
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

16
 Stereotyping - Cont.

Misunderstanding, generalizing.

Unshared meaning can be caused by
different education,space, time and belief.

Generalize about group women, men,
workers, doctors etc….

Positive stereotyping.

17
Example situation

Ali and Ahmad had been pretty good

friends. Ahmad is a supervisor. During a
perfectly normal conversation one day, Ali
got angry about supervisors and ranted
away in front of Ahmad, not at Ahmad.
Ahmad was very offended because he
was, after all, a supervisor. If Ali thinks
they are all jerks, Ahmad reasoned, Ali
must think he is a jerk also. He took
offense because of the stereotyping Ali
had used to blast supervisors.
18
 Deceit
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

19
 Deceit - Cont.

Encouraged to misjudge.

Deceptive behavior is often motivated by
hope that a person can be manipulated into
certain perspective.

Hidden agenda, conspiracy.

20
Example situation

A supervisor might sabotage talented

employees who could threaten his
position. He might let an employee leave
early but report it as though he had not
been told of the departure. He might
provide faulty directives on purpose,
construct impossible goals, or send the
employee on all sorts of wild goose
chases. He could easily overwork the
employee to get rid of he/her. 21
 Distrust
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

22
 Distrust - Cont.

Caused either by defensiveness or suspicion.

A job that involves “correcting” people ,
defensiveness can be a major difficulty from
time to time.

Suspicion can be element in a conversation
between two people.

Sincerity is the solution.

23
Example situation

Timah’s job needs her to evaluate a lot of
papers. They a re not all “A” papers. The
problem is that as the grades get lower,
defenses rise.

A sales routine of even the briefest sort is
something many people do not handle too
well.

24
Key strategies to tell someone
what he or she did wrong:

Make people realize you are there for

their benefit.

Share the corrections by placing
emphasis on your own similar errors, or
the commonness of the errors.

Be descriptive and avoid value
judgments. Eg, Say the job performance
is “not adequate”. Do not say it was
“awful” or a “waste of time” or “junk”. 25
Key strategies to tell someone what
he or she did wrong: - Cont.

Suggest solutions, and use the words
“maybe” and “perhaps”. Use these words
to suggest solutions rather that demand
them.

Help people see solutions themselves.

Be sure to avoid superiority. Authority may
be appropriate, but superiority is a very
different posture.

Speak as the equal of the other person.
26
 Games
Communication Path

1 2 3 4 5 6

Thought Understanding
Construction Translation

Delivery Reception

27
 Games - Cont.

Deep-seated, serious conflict.

2 emotional patterns: aggression,
surrender.

Use time ( an hour, a day) to remove yourself
from the event and look for breathing space.

Victory is not sweet when people surrender.

In a company, you do not want an employee to
surrender or withdraw; you want an employee to
understand.
28
Reference/notes

David W. Rigby, “Workplace Communications
for Engineering Technicians and
Technologists”, Prentice-Hall, 2001.page
102-118.

29