An interesting topic came up at work and I would love to hear what you have to say on this.

What do you think are some obstacles to effective communication in the work place and how can they be overcome?
· Poorly written letters or memos that do not convey the message
· Poor grammar, not using words properly.
· Spelling and punctuation errors.
· Not listening to what is being asked or trying to answer the question without hearing what is being said.
· Poor verbal communication.


What are some of your personal obstacles and how did you overcome them and become successful?
· Writing to fast, not rereading what I have written.
· Trying to answer the question without listening.

:2cents:
In addition to the lists above, another thing that comes to mind is how some people don't want to speak up for whatever reason(s), such as:
- fear of being ridiculed,
- having their ideas shot down,
- intimidated because they think their ideas aren't "good enough", or
- fear of what others might think of them if they were to say anything.

I think that many good ideas/suggestions will never be heard because of these concerns.

(My apologies if this may not apply exactly to obstacles of communication in the workplace, but perhaps it is appropriate for communication obstacles in general.)

What do you think are some obstacles to effective communication in the work place?


Some of the challanges we face

Language differences - we are an bi-lingual shop (English/Spanish).
Education Levels
Acceptable verbage (acceptable here to use cuss words in written communication)

Just the first few that come to mind -

:2cents:
In addition to the lists above, another thing that comes to mind is how some people don't want to speak up for whatever reason(s), such as:
- fear of being ridiculed,
- having their ideas shot down,
- intimidated because they think their ideas aren't "good enough", or
- fear of what others might think of them if they were to say anything.

I think that many good ideas/suggestions will never be heard because of these concerns.

(My apologies if this may not apply exactly to obstacles of communication in the workplace, but perhaps it is appropriate for communication obstacles in general.)

Those are excellent points. I have been in meeting many times where you could tell a co-worker was afraid to say anything. I try to involve them as much as possible so they do feel comfortable speaking up.

Senior management speaks a foriegn language, and communicating
mostly between each other.
Disregarding e-mails sent in English requesting information.

I'd say one area that inhibits good communication in the workplace would be personal relationships....i.e. operator John Bob doesn't like supervisor Megan Right all that much and therefore avoids conversing with her.

Wow, where could one start. The choices are nearly limitless.

We have a manger that should have probably taught english:rolleyes: He will jump all over someone for asking "where are you at?" I personally hate when people use the word to (as in going to) instead of the work too (as in also). Pet peeve.

Then there are regional dialects. A roll in the midwest will get you a cinnamon, or other sweet, breakfast pastry. Here it will get you a dinner roll. Some places it will get you something akin to a hamburger bun.

Ethnic speak. This can be even more difficult when you combine it with a regional dialect.

And of course, the ones listed previously. You also have to consider along with the education levels, there are many people who are highly educated that choose to speak in a less educated manner. Some for fear of appearing to "put on airs", some out of some misguided sense of guilt, some out of laziness, etc. And conversely, those who try to speak far above their knowledge level. These can be the worst, as they will use words that sound similar to what they want to convey, but may have a totally different meaning. "I received a condemnation from my supervisor." :mg:

Most of what I see as a barrier to effective communication is either a total lack of empathy to the audience and their concerns, or lack of knowledge of the subject matter and trying to make up for it by sounding important.

me again, sorry. This is pretty timely for me. I had a conversation with one of our employees. She had been researching a corrective action request, trying to come up with some "data" to look at to help come up with things to look at in finding a cause. She talked to another supervisor, who told her that there were x, y and z customer complaints and all were the same industry/grade/end use, so she should look into the grade as possibly being a cause.

So, we all get together for our weekly core meeting and Supervisor A outlines what her project is, what the status is, and some of the things she is looking into to help her find the cause. Supervisor B interrupts (the guy that told her to look into these same things) and says, you really cannot go by the 3 customer complaints we have had in the past year. They are so infrequent and the customer is only seeing this defect because he strips the product, that you cannot gain any statistically valid information.

Supervisor B is what I would call a corporate bully. He gives people information, claiming that it will help them complete what they are working on. Then, whenever there is public focus on it, he will dispute all validity. He does this to young (new college grads) employees who seem to have some ability, and he especially does this to the women at our same supervisory level.

OK, this is getting long, but it is an example of deliberate miscommunication to make others look "stupid", or "bad", in order to make himself look "smart, or good." Unfortunately, I think that most of us know now what he is doing. Hence, he has very little believability, and it is sad, because there are some things that he could truly teach some of us.

Senior management speaks a foriegn language, and communicating
mostly between each other.
Disregarding e-mails sent in English requesting information.

Let me encourage everyone to not flippantly skip over Ralph's post. It is extremely important to consider that even within the same plant, each of us utilize different metrics, and we have our language. As I try to repeatedly suggest in posts about people proposing quality initiatives to management, you must speak their language. My Law of the Plumber: Plumbers see everything in life in terms of pipes and fittings.

Too, if you have never read Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus, it would probably be worth a read. Simply: people are different. Effective communication takes times. Sometimes, you might find yourself repeating things. Don't forget about non-verbal communication. It's up there at about 70-90% here in America, depending on who did the study.

Mainly, effective communication is work. Be willing to take the time to work at it, and make sure you are understood. But..... as a paraphrase of Covey:

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

OK, this is getting long, but it is an example of deliberate miscommunication to make others look "stupid", or "bad", in order to make himself look "smart, or good." Unfortunately, I think that most of us know now what he is doing. Hence, he has very little believability, and it is sad, because there are some things that he could truly teach some of us.

You made some excellent points. To me, this plays into my non-verbal comments. People read people; not just what they say. I realize there are some cultural issues, but in professional/organization situations, I like to look people in their eyes, and for them to do the same. I want them to see I am sincere, and that I care about what I do.

When I see any written correspondence (in one's native tongue) that is full of obviously unintentional spelling errors and that are clearly not typos, I tend to think the person is either an idiot or lazy. I tend to discount what the person says which is unfortunate because it is not always true.

:cool:

I went to a seminar about communicating to get the response that you want. It was one of those times where I needed to check off a development course for a performance objective but it actually was a good class.

The basic concept was that the listener could control or at least manage the responses received by being more aware of what and how something was being said. Here are a few of the questions that could be asked of the person after initially hearing (or reading) what they say.

What is the context or situation that it is happening?
What is important and how did you get the information?
What do you plan to do with the information?
What causes you to say that and what effect will it have?
How does it make you feel that "x" happened?
What did you do already based on the information received?

There were lots of other questions and descriptions of both verbal and physicals behaviors by the both parties. The main point is that we have a tendency to give our view on what the other person is saying before we really understand their context and state of mind.

Of course, I can't imagine any of this ever happening in the Cove.:)

Bill Pflanz

I have to say you guys are great. the information that you provided is excellent. A big thanks to all that posted and shared thier ideas. :thanks:

An interesting topic came up at work and I would love to hear what you have to say on this.

What do you think are some obstacles to effective communication in the work place and how can they be overcome?
· Poorly written letters or memos that do not convey the message
· Poor grammar, not using words properly.
· Spelling and punctuation errors.
· Not listening to what is being asked or trying to answer the question without hearing what is being said.
· Poor verbal communication.


What are some of your personal obstacles and how did you overcome them and become successful?
· Writing to fast, not rereading what I have written.
· Trying to answer the question without listening.

I could write a book on this subject, but I think that by far the biggest problem in business communications is the use of deliberately obscure language with the intention of masking the fact that the speaker or writer has no idea what he's trying to say. I have a perfect example that I might have posted here in the past, but it speaks directly to the subject at hand, so I'll post it again. It's an employee promotion announcement that was posted on bulletin boards. It reads in part:
In his new role, Sam will be responsible for a range of activities including strategic implementation of high leverage process improvement, cross-functional identification of program level process improvement, and tactical implementation and facilitation of new process integration. He will be active in helping the organization identify opportunities for optimization of current product development processes, as well as facilitating creation of change proposals.The only thing made clear by that little mess was that whomever it was that wrote it wasn't sure what Sam was supposed to be doing in his new job. I've also referred in the past to an essay by George Orwell called Politics and the English Language (http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Language/0.html). It should be required reading for everyone who speaks and writes English in the workplace. Two quotes from the text that bear remembering:
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

The same applies to obscurantist business language.

An interesting topic came up at work and I would love to hear what you have to say on this.

What do you think are some obstacles to effective communication in the work place and how can they be overcome?
· Poorly written letters or memos that do not convey the message
· Poor grammar, not using words properly.
· Spelling and punctuation errors.
· Not listening to what is being asked or trying to answer the question without hearing what is being said.
· Poor verbal communication.


What are some of your personal obstacles and how did you overcome them and become successful?
· Writing to fast, not rereading what I have written.
· Trying to answer the question without listening.

My :2cents: on the subject:
Dishonesty: Not a lot of things are worse than people who say one thing and do or mean another.
Gender: Never underestimate the difference in the way that men and women communicate. We are - often - from entirely different planets.
Age: There is a huge difference in the way that different generations perceive communication, and the vocabulary needed.
Slobby writing: Bad punctuation, too long sentences, too short sentences and too little focus on the subject matter.
Different agendas: Too often the goals that we strive for are different and not known to each other.
E-mail as a weapon: Really sad, but often one encounters persons who use e-mails as either a weapon or an excuse (I did write that, and I have it on file).
Lousy meeting agendas: Take about wasting other peoples time. I can't think of a lot of things that are worse for communication than an agenda that simply states. Economy, quality, logistics etc. It says absolutely nothing about what is to be discussed, and it leads straight to the point of different agendas. If there is no consensus on what is to be discussed then everybody has their own agenda.

Personally, I have a lot of tolerance regarding bad spelling, some of the brightest colleagues that I have had are somewhat dyslexic. It just takes tolerance and support to make sure that they perform to the best of their abilities.

"Heart to Heart and Eyeball to Eyeball". This may be old and often heard of anology where communication is concerned but it had withstood the test of time and is still true today.

Heart to heart answers the sincerity and honesty part where as eyeball to eyeball means the ability to look at the other party at the same level. Whether by means of lowering yourself as in superior to subordinate situation or elevating yourself as in subordinate to superior situation. What is critical is to be able to speak the other's language and decode the message of communication from the other person's perspective. Once a common plane is found, then all obstacles will be solved. Sounds academic but true in practice.

:2cents:
In addition to the lists above, another thing that comes to mind is how some people don't want to speak up for whatever reason(s), such as:
- fear of being ridiculed,
- having their ideas shot down,
- intimidated because they think their ideas aren't "good enough", or
- fear of what others might think of them if they were to say anything.

I think that many good ideas/suggestions will never be heard because of these concerns.

(My apologies if this may not apply exactly to obstacles of communication in the workplace, but perhaps it is appropriate for communication obstacles in general.)



That’s true! I believe that the key to a successful business is effective communication. It pays for both managers and employees to encompass this skill for the workplace to be delightful, efficient and productive. Honing your own communication skill and becoming a role model in the work place is already a remarkable contribution. Seven tips: make personal contacts, listen, be clear, respect, be interested and interesting, compromise and develop a network. Improving communication skills overtime will make you more effective and productive in the workplace. This means less stress and more rewards for your personal career. You become better as your company also becomes more successful.

Welcome to the Cove! :bigwave: That was a good first post. I am glad to see someone besides me use the term delightful! :D