Overcome Communication Barriers, Guidelines Overcome Communication Barriers-Barriers complicate the communication process and hinder the flow of information between the communicating parties. Communication can hardly be hundred percent accurate and it also happens by chance. Actually all the communications are subject to any type of barrier. Though it is impossible to overcome all the barriers to commutation. We can reduce them to a large extent. The following guidelines can be prescribed for overcoming the barriers to effective communication- What is communication barriers?
Overcome Communication Barriers
- Proper Organizational Policy: Organizational policy guides the employees of an organization to do and not to do anything. A well thought clear and comprehensive communication policy must be introduced in the organization for the smooth flow of information. Such policy will help the people of an organization to understand who is to communicate with whom and how to do it. It will reduce misunderstanding and communication gap among employees.
Image Source: pxhere.com - Employee Orientation: Organization can arrange orientation program for the newly appointed employees. Such type of program helps them understand the organizational environment, corporate culture, hierarchy of authority etc. so, employees become familiar with the communication system from the orientation program that increases communication efficiency.
- Facilitating Feedback: Feedback is a crucial element in communication process that completes the communication. Without feedback, communication remains incomplete and thus leads the receivers towards misunderstanding. Feedback helps both the sender and the receiver to reconcile their message, share their opinion and better understanding. To encourage feedback, many company newsletters, memos, e-mail, task forces and two-way chat. So, proper feedback system must be introduced to make communication effective.
- Communication Training: Communication training can be a good method of overcoming communication barriers. Only bookish knowledge and environment cannot teach communication skill to the employees. If organization arranges training programs for the people involved in communication channel or network, their skills will be developed and communication barriers will be removed.
- Improving Linguistic Knowledge: The varying knowledge of language creates semantic barriers in communication. Simple and easy to understand words should be used-ambiguous words and jargons should be avoided and dialect should not be used. Communication language should be used to avoid linguistic problems.
- Effective Listening, Reading and Writing: Effective listening or reading or writing is essential for both the sender and the receiver, wherever applicable. If its oral communication both the parties must be very much attentive while delivering the speech and listening the speech. Again, if it is written communication both the parties should have proper reading and writing skills so that they can understand each other well.
- Informal Relation: Informal relations plays vital role in making communication effective. It helps the superiors and subordinates to build a healthy relationship between them by exchanging important information. It also allows employees exchange information that is restricted in formal communication to make it more effective.
- Using Nonverbal Communication: Nonverbal communication tools can be used to augment the verbal communication. It helps establishing a good relationship a good relationship with others. In the same culture, nonverbal cues like body language. Physical appearances, time language, silence, color, tough etc can be powerful means of communication. If creates a cordial and harmonious relationship between the people and thus makes communication effective.
- Knowing the Receiver or Audience: The foremost important guidelines to overcoming communication barriers it to know the audience or receiver of the message. Sender should learn as much as possible about the biases, education, age, skill, status and style of the receiver to create an effective message. If the sender puts himself in the receiver’s position, he will be able to understand how the message is likely to be decoded. By writing and speaking from the audience’s point of view, sender can help them understand and accept his message. If the sender and the receiver know themselves well, it will reduce other communication barriers also.
- Selecting Proper Media: Sometimes communication fails due to the use of inappropriate media or channel. In selecting media types of message, target audience receiver, communication environment etc should be considered. Hence, proper media should be selected and used for making communication effective.
From the above discussion, we can say that there are various ways of overcoming the communication barriers. The communicating parties must bear these suggestions in mind to make the communication effective.
