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The Communication Process
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Communicating is a very basic process. Communicating effectively becomes a complex skill that few business leaders have mastered.
Let’s analyse the communication process. What happens between two people when a message is transferred from the one to the other?
The Source
The source has a specific message that it wishes to bring across to the receiver. The source has the obligation to ensure that the message that he wants to bring across is clear, concise, correct, and complete.
We cannot put our thoughts directly into the head of the other person. As such, we need to use symbols, gestures, pictures, tone of voice, and words, which we expect the receiver should interpret as the specific ideas that we wish to convey. This process is called encoding. The source should identify the most appropriate codes to ensure effective translation of the message.
The source has the responsibility to check for understanding once the message has been conveyed.
The Receiver
The receiver will decode or translate the message sent by the source to him/her. The receiver will consider the gestures, words, symbols, etc., to conclude as to what the real message was that was sent to him/her.
The message may not be received as intended for a variety of reasons –
- The sender used inappropriate/insufficient codes.
- The channel was not effective/clear.
- Language inefficiency.
- Cultural differences.
- The receiver’s beliefs and values distorted the meaning of the message.
The Channel
The channel refers to the medium of communication that is used. Choosing the correct channel is yet another challenge of communicating effectively. Options for communication channels include written communication, verbal communication and visual communication. Utilising more than one of these channels at the same time seems to be more effective, as more than one of the receiver’s senses are stimulated.
Two-way Communication
Effective communication is always a two-way process. It remains the responsibility of the source to test for understanding. The most effective way to do this is to allow the receiver to indicate what it is that he/she has heard and to allow the receiver to ask clarifying questions.