Business Communication Barrier
What do you think is the communication barrier in an office environment?
Electronic mail may not be the ideal communication tool. It is just a fast convenient way to transmit your message across to another person when your recipient is outside your reach. There is no true communication in the aspect of expression, tonality and body language. There are still some messages not been sent across to recipients like your happiness and anger.
It is very easy to misunderstand what is said, even if emoticons (smiley) are used.
When you feel that a person is not telling the truth, check out the alignment between words, voice and body.
You need certain information that on your body to transmit the message across to the recipient. If the highly detailed information is not expressed thru actions, the messages might not be sent across correctly. A lot of communication actually comes through non-verbal communication.
Mehrabain Theory
In a typical mail message, you are not able to communicate your emotions. You can only use words to express your joys, frustrations. According to Mehrabain Theory,
* 7% happens in spoken words.
* 38% happens through voice tone.
* 55% happens via general body language.
The implication is that in all communications:
* It’s not just words: a lot of communication comes through non-verbal communication.
* Without seeing and hearing non-verbal, it is easier to misunderstand the message. In an email, how can you tell that a person is actually telling a joke versus writing a joke?
* When we are unsure about words and when we trust the other person less, we pay more attention to what we hear and see.
In my opinion, the ideal communication would be a face to face communication. With this, you are able to sense the other communication mode, such as visual, auditory portion from the sender. In a business environment, you can actually pick up the phone and communicate with the person directly. You are then able to grasp the message.
If the sender is angry, he will raise his voice with his hands on the hips. If sender is sad, he will lower his pitch and can see that his tears rolling down the cheek etc. This kind of non verbal communication is sometime critical in a message.
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