Barriers to commune

Many people think that communicating is easy.

It is after all something we've done all our lives.

There is some truth in this simplistic view.

Communicating is straightforward.

What makes it complex, difficult, and frustrating are the barriers we put in the way.

Here are the 7 top barriers.

1. Physical barriers

Physical barriers in the workplace include:

• marked out territories, empires and fiefdoms into which strangers are not allowed

• closed office doors, barrier screens, separate areas for people of different status

• large working areas or working in one unit that is physically separate from others.

Research shows that one of the most important factors in building cohesive teams is proximity. As long as people still have a personal space that they can call their own, nearness to others aids communication because it helps us get to know one another.

2. Perceptual barriers

The problem with communicating with others is that we all see the world differently. If we didn't, we would have no need to communicate: something like extrasensory perception would take its place.






The following anecdote is a reminder of how our thoughts, assumptions and perceptions shape our own realities:

A traveller was walking down a road when he met a man from the next town. "Excuse me," he said. "I am hoping to stay in the next town tonight. Can you tell me what the townspeople are like?"

"Well," said the townsman, "how did you find the people in the last town you visited?"

"Oh, they were an irascible bunch. Kept to themselves. Took me for a fool. Over-charged me for what I got. Gave me very poor service."

"Well, then," said the townsman, "you'll find them pretty much the same here."

3. 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.

"Mind your P's and Q's"; "Don't speak until you're spoken to"; "Children should be seen and not heard". As a result many people hold back from communicating their thoughts and feelings to others.

They feel vulnerable. While some caution may be wise in certain relationships, excessive fear of what others might think of us can stunt our development as effective communicators and our ability to form meaningful relationships.

4. 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 you, and where you are happy to conform, there is a mutuality of interest and a high level of win-win contact.

Where, however, there are barriers to your membership of a group, a high level of game-playing replaces good communication.

5. Language barriers

Language that describes what we want to say in our terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with our expressions, buzz-words and jargon. When we couch our communication in such language, it is a way of excluding others. In a global market place the greatest compliment we can pay another person is to talk in their language.

One of the more chilling memories of the Cold War was the threat by the Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev saying to the Americans at the United Nations: "We will bury you!" This was taken to mean a threat of nuclear annihilation.

However, a more accurate reading of Khruschev's words would have been: "We will overtake you!" meaning economic superiority. It was not just the language, but the fear and suspicion that the West had of the Soviet Union that led to the more alarmist and sinister interpretation.

6. Gender barriers

There are distinct differences between the speech patterns in a man and those in a woman. A woman speaks between 22,000 and 25,000 words a day whereas a man speaks between 7,000 and 10,000. In childhood, girls speak earlier than boys and at the age of three, have a vocabulary twice that of boys.

The reason for this lies in the wiring of a man's and woman's brains. When a man talks, his speech is located in the left side of the brain but in no specific area. When a woman talks, the speech is located in both hemispheres and in two specific locations.

This means that a man talks in a linear, logical and compartmentalised way, features of left-brain thinking; whereas a woman talks more freely mixing logic and emotion, features of both sides of the brain. It also explains why women talk for much longer than men each day.

7 Interpersonal barriers

There are six levels at which people can distance themselves from one another:

1. Withdrawal is an absence of interpersonal contact. It is both refusal to be in touch and time alone.

2. Rituals are meaningless, repetitive routines devoid of real contact.

3. Pastimes fill up time with others in social but superficial activities.

4. Working activities are those tasks which follow the rules and procedures of contact but no more.

5. Games are subtle, manipulative interactions which are about winning and losing. They include "rackets" and "stamps".

6. Closeness is the aim of interpersonal contact where there is a high level of honesty and acceptance of yourself and others.

Working on improving your communications is a broad-brush activity. You have to change your thoughts, your feelings, and your physical connections.

That way, you can break down the barriers that get in your way and start building relationships that really work.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO

COMMUNICATION

Bernard L. Erven

Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

Ohio State University

Communication plays a major role in employer-employee relationships on farms. It also

affects the relationships among family members on the management team. Although effective

communication does not guarantee success of a farm business, its absence usually assures

problems. A communication problem may soon become a crisis or it may linger on for years.

More specifically, communication influences the effectiveness of the hiring and training

of employees, motivation of employees, providing daily instructions, performance evaluations

and the handling of discipline problems. These are the obvious roles of communication.

Communication also affects the willingness of employees to provide useful suggestions.

Employees feeling a part of the business requires communication. In fact, for employees to make

the important evolution from "workers" to "working managers" requires effective communication

between supervisors and employees.

Employees typically are hesitant to state their goals, their concerns and their

disappointments. Of course, an employee may be a complainer and share views to the point a

supervisor silently begs for less "communication." Much more common is the need to better

understand what an employee is "really thinking."





Barriers to Communication

• Physical (time, environment, comfort, needs, physical medium)

• Cultural (ethnic, religious, and social differences)

• Perceptional (viewing what is said from your own mindset)

• Motivational (mental inertia)

• Experiential (lack of similar experience)

• Emotional (personal feelings at the moment)

• Linguistic (different languages or vocabulary)

• Non-verbal (non-word messages)

• Competition (noise, doing other things besides listening)

• Words (we assign a meaning to a word often because of culture -- note the difference in the meaning of "police" (contrast Berrien Springs versus Benton Harbor or any inner city perspective) or "boy" (contrast white male with black male perspectives)

• Context (high / low)

• Purpose (example: note the difference in communication between men versus women; for men it's report-talk versus rapport-talk or information versus bonding

• Mode (differences in way a message is sent). Note the black versus white modes:

Black White

High keyed

Argument

Spontaneous

Boasting

Person Oriented Low keyed

Discussion

Controlled / Self-Restrained

Understanding

Task Oriented

Blacks perceive whites as detached, devious, impersonal, condescending, hypocritical, avoiding eye contact, and too silent Whites perceive blacks as aggressive, over-emotional, angry, confrontational, interruptive, too personal, showboating

• Gestures (misunderstood gestures are a major barrier see discussion on non-verbal language)

• Variations in language – accent, dialect

• Slang - jargon - colloquialism

• Different forms or reasons for verbal interaction

Dueling – seeing who can get the upper hand (playing the dozens)

Repartee conversation – taking short turns rather than monologue

Ritual conversation – standard replies with little meaning to words themselves (i.e. most US greetings)

Self-disclosure. The level of self-disclosure is culturally determined. Not all cultures wish to give personal information; some want to do business without knowing the other person while others insist on full knowledge first.

How to Identify Barriers to Communication



Instructions

1. Step 1

Identify physical barriers to communication. Some of these barriers include distractions like a loud work environment, poor lighting, inappropriate temperature and poor or outdated equipment. Some physical barriers such as noise make communication impossible while others, such as an environment that is too hot or too cold, have the potential to affect morale and make effective communication difficult.

2. Step 2

Find deficiencies in organizational design. Deficiencies in organizational design cause barriers in communication because they make it unclear who people are expected to communicate with in order to effectively and efficiently solve a problem. In organizations, a chain of command that is not established or lack of management supervision often leads to a lack in clarity regarding roles and responsibilities. In the workplace, this leads to a staff that is uncertain of what is expected of them.

3. Step 3

Recognize barriers that are based on attitude. These barriers generally are a consequence of deficiencies in organizational design. Lack of training or supervision may lead to lack of motivation in employees, which in turn leads to a deficiency in job satisfaction and poor production rates.

4. Step 4

Discern psychological barriers. People who are having personal problems or are distracted generally are not as receptive or responsive to the information they are receiving.

5. Step 5

Understand cultural differences. Different cultures communicate differently. Effective communication in a multi-cultural environment requires the ability and willingness to translate the motives, aspirations, basic values and assumptions that fuel problems, habits or modes of communication.

6. Step 6

Notice different linguistic abilities between communicators. The choice of words that a person uses is received and deciphered through the listener's filter based on his own experiences and abilities. Language is a symbolic means of communicating and there is a lot of room for distortion and misunderstanding.

7. Step 7

Pinpoint physiological barriers such as misreading non-verbal cues. Those cues are anything from body positioning and body language to the person's tone of voice.

8. Step 8

Be aware of other barriers to communication such as selective hearing, a hesitation to be candid or informal, lack of trust, defensiveness and stereotyping.