Communication obstacles and solutions to eliminate them

In the communication process there may appear a multitude of obstacles which make it difficult, sometimes generating even conflicts. They are as follows:

1. Language obstacles:

- no fluency and coherence in speaking; clumsiness in expression;

- the meaning given to words in decoding the verbal message – a word in a certain context can have different meanings for the participants in the communication process;

- different meanings given to words – people coming from various cultural fields with different values, customs and symbols give different meanings to language elements, especially to the non-verbal elements;

-professional slang; the speakers’ education level and experience – people having a higher social status have the tendency to speak more sophisticatedly which is difficult to be understood by the people with a lower education level;

-emotional disposition – the receiver’s emotional mood can alter what he/she hears;

-deficiencies of the phono-articulator apparatus;

-the use of confusing words and expressions.

2. Environment obstacles:

-phonic pollution of the environment where communication takes place; the use of an inadequate information support; the work environment can make the group members hide their real thoughts as they are afraid of expressing them; the health condition of the communication agents;

-physical disturbing factors: inadequate light, parasite noises, extremely high/low temperatures, events which appear during very important moments of communication (examples: cafes, a telephone call etc.).

3. Sender’s and receiver’s position in communication:

-the image that the sender and receiver have about themselves;

-the type of communication approached;

-the different characterization of the situation in which communication takes place made by the sender and the receiver;

-socio-professional status;

-monopoly on communication (one of the participants takes the role of the sender);

-the absence of feed-back (either the receiver is passive or the sender inhibits any of the receiver’s initiative to answer).

4. Conception obstacles

-not obeying the interlocutor’s age and individual particularities;

-the existence of suppositions;

-misconceptions and mentalities;

-the lack of attention in receiving the message;

-quick conclusions of the message;

-routine in the communication process;

-wrong choice of the channels and moments.

Phenomena which can disturb communication

a) blockage – total interruption of the communication process due to physical, material or psychological causes;

b) jamming – partial and transitory disruption due to physical, material or psychological causes;

c) information filter – differences between what is wanted to be discussed and what is really transmitted in communication;

d) information distortion – information decoding is done according to what the receiver understands from the message, what he remembers and what he accepts.

To eliminate the communication barriers we must take the following measures:

-to draw up a communication plan;

- to state the purpose of communication;

- to organize the information that is to be transmitted;

-to choose the right moment to communicate;

- to provide a socio-affective environment for the communication to develop in good conditions;

- to clear up the ideas before communicating;

- to use an adequate language (clear terms which are accessible for the interlocutor).

Communication Improvement

In order to transform interpersonal communication in an efficient instrument you must avoid and/or diminish the existing obstacles by:

-anticipating and preventing the possible obstacles;

- identifying, estimating and eliminating the dysfunctions as soon as possible;

- becoming aware of and abandoning fixed ideas;

- orienting towards finding and using mutual points;

- respecting your communication partners’ characteristics;

- avoiding aggressive and/or defensive behaviour;

- sustaining verbal communication through non-verbal communication;

- creating a trustful, warm and open atmosphere;

- correctly balancing the message (as density and volume);

- selecting the right channel to transmit the message;

- choosing the right environment and/or preventing the disturbing factors;

- choosing the right time and the good period to communicate.

Due to the fact that sometimes change is a very sensitive subject which can cause reticence or adverse reactions, remember to use a set of general requirements during communication:

-establish the right proportion between transmission and reception;

- take the same attention at transmission and reception;

- balance the answers and questions correctly;

- make an agreement between verbal and non-verbal behaviour;

- apply the active listening rules any time you have this chance;

- ask and answer questions correctly;

- take into account the feed-back!