Effective communication in the workplace depends on many factors: how people talk to each other, their body language, letters, reports, and emails. Even a note pinned on a board is a part of communication. If adequately applied, communication can help to build a well-knit and friendly team and improve the productivity of its work. If not, you will face the opposite effect.
Communication is a collective term
Communication is not only about choosing the right words. It also involves body language, the gestures that people usually subconsciously do. Even if you can not understand the gestures your interlocutor uses, it does not matter that they do not influence your conversation. Body language is tricky: it comes out subconsciously and becomes realized in the same way.
Another important issue about communication is writing. Writing is full of misunderstandings. According to the second Wiio’s law, “if a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm” (Pine & Baumanp n.d., p. 308). It often happens even in the live chat, but in written messages, things become much more complicated.
This list can be expanded by adding, for example, graphic communication or even interpersonal one. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the most important aspect here is communication itself or, in other words, conversation.
Priestley’s paradox and my experience
With the present-day variety of electronic devices, people have many new ways to communicate. Due to numerous communication innovations, such as smartphones, tablets, different social networks, or the internet, we can stay in touch both with people who live at the other end of the world and those sitting just at the next table. However, here is an impressive thing: the more communication innovations we have, the less we, in fact, communicate. It is what Priestley’s paradox is about (Eunson, 2012).
Now I would like to describe my personal experience of effective workplace communication. It happened during the usual lunch break. Three colleagues of mine and I went to the local cafe to have a quick bite. We ordered a meal and while waiting for it delved into our smartphones. Suddenly, one of us came up with the idea to put our smartphones away. Moreover, there was a rule: a person who took their device first would pay for lunch. Surely, nobody wanted to be the one who pays for all, so we had nothing to do but talk.
I consider this communication as effective at least for three reasons. The first one is the suitable situation. Lingard et al. (2004) conclude that approximately 45% of all communication failures happen because of “problems in the situation or context of the communication event” (p. 332). We had not any of them. Just the opposite, we had the common cause and the favorable conditions to communicate.
The second reason is the feedback. Communication is not a monolog, it involves two or even more people, and one of the main requirements for it to succeed is the feedback: eye contact, focusing on the topic, and interaction.
The last reason is respect and trust. If we had not had good relationships from the very beginning, communication would not have succeeded.
Finally, this experience had a positive effect on our work. Instead of working individually, we began to act as a team, and our productivity increased. We also managed to complete a project that had a deadline only two weeks earlier.
So, successful communication in the workplace does have a positive impact on business.
References
Eunson, B. (2012). Communication in the Workplace. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
Lingard, L., Espin, S., Whyte, S., Regehr, G., Baker, G. R., Reznick, R.,…Grober, E. (2004). Communication failures in the operating room: an observational classification of recurrent types and effects. Quality & Safety in Health Care, 13, 330–334.
Pine, C. W. S., & Bauman, W. R. (n.d.). Effective Communication: “If Anything Can Go Wrong, It Will”. Web.