Overcoming barriers to communication

Despite the importance and power of communication, successful communi-

cation doesn’t necessarily come easily. In fact, many, many barriers to suc-

cessful communication can spring up unannounced at any time. You should

always make every effort to anticipate these barriers before they appear or

manage them when they do. Broadly speaking, communication barriers come

in two forms, which we call noise and bias.

Noise barriers tend to be physical, biological, or social system issues such as

loud undesirable sounds, speech difficulties, poor eyesight, time constraints,

physical distance, organizational complexity, language differences, and so

forth. Noise barriers are often easily remedied, but because not everyone

reports such problems, they can go unnoticed.

Bias barriers, on the other hand, are quite complex. They’re rooted in culture

and tend to manifest in terms of individual choices — for example, using

jargon, awkward sentence structure, poorly organized ideas, emotional bar-

riers born of aggression or fear; selectively filtering or distorting informa-

tion (as in hearing what one wants to hear); making false assumptions about

motives; paying attention to communications from managers but not under-

lings; and communicating in gendered or culturally specific ways. All these

problems can degrade the operation of your enterprise, so watch out for

them.

 How can you anticipate or overcome noise- and bias-related communication

barriers? Well, as trite as the advice may sound, there are three important and

very basic principles to observe. The first relates to noise, the second to bias,

and the third to both:

 ✓ Know and control your setting as much as possible. If, for example,

you’re getting ready to speak to seniors in an auxiliary hospital or facility

for transitional care, you may want to be sure that you’re in close proxim-

ity to your audience and emphasize a friendly, audible, physical presence.

Take a moment to assess the physical surroundings or communication

technology you’re using and make adjustments as necessary.

 ✓ Know your audience. To continue with the seniors’ example, double-

check to be sure that your communication is not demeaning or in any way

threatening to your audience’s sense of capability. Elders often strongly

resist being treated as incompetent, so you need to temper your concerns

with tact — especially when dealing with sensitive subjects.

 ✓ Ask for and give frequent feedback. View every communicative

attempt as a pilot project, tentatively made and always subject to revi-

sion. And keep the big picture visible. As the writer Antoine de Saint-

Exupery put it: “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together

to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach

them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”