FREE online courses on CRM - Developing People-The Key To Success - Encouragement and Feedback - Communicate  Effectively

 

“Whatever is clearly expressed is well wrote”

            -----Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

“Sighted sub, sank same”

---radio dispatch: Donald F. Mason; Jan, 1942.
 

In a battle zone, it can be hazardous to get communications mixed up, to hear  “ Attack!”  instead of  “ Turn back !”.  The tragic ‘Charge of the Light Brigade' during the Crimean War, was on account of wrong communication…someone had blundered…and so, “Theirs' not to question why, theirs' but to do and die”..
 

There are obvious barriers to good communication: pronunciation or technical hitches leading to garbled messages, mental barriers that have the same effect.

It is always better, and more economical, to use simple language. Convoluted language confuses while diverting attention from the main issue. Poor responses, if any, to such letters is hardly surprising. With the shift to consumer-friendly language, comes effectiveness.
 

The Bengali officer asked his peon “ Ghori hai?” The mystified peon replied that he had neither ghora (horse) nor ghori (mare). How would a peon in Amritsar have any experience of Bengali pronunciation, disconcertingly applied to Hindi  … ‘ghori' was his officer's version of ‘ghari', i.e. ‘watch'. He just wanted to know the time.   Apocryphal though the story may be, some
 

tips can be considered:

• Improve your ability to express yourself
• Improve your ability to both hear and listen
• Can others understand the words and phrases you use?
• Their feelings/ attitudes towards you; (yes, these DO color comprehension).
   

Good management, however, is all about good communication, especially if we are into the parent-adult-child situation, which we encountered, in the previous module. As mentioned earlier, successful communication is when complementary ego-states are engaged. But if child replies to child, or if adult gets wheedling  child-state reply, there's a block. Inappropriate ego-states can lead to confrontation. It is always better to strive for the adult state, by:
 

• Avoiding expressions of anger, sorrow, anxiety
• Using questioning techniques to invoke analysis
• Encouraging pride in learning
• Sticking to facts, realistic assessments
• Working out acceptable level of risk and delegate
• Discussing problems on equal footing with subordinates
• Using calm tone, eye contact
• Making constructive responses
• Refusing to be drawn into ‘games'; stick to adult state
• Using adult state to re-establish shared goals
• Demolishing tension and false-ego states by humor.

 

QUESTIONS:  1.  What is good communication, and what are the barriers to it?

                       2.   What role does subjectivity play in communication?