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Communication Processes

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About this lesson

Teams must communicate to be effective. Understanding the principles for good communication will help a team leader ensure their team is able to communicate well.

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Quick reference

Communication Processes

Teams must communicate to be effective.  Understanding the principles for good communication will help a team leader ensure their team is able to communicate well.

When to use

Communication is used at all times and all stages of team dynamics.

Instructions

Communication involves sending an idea from the brain of one team member to the brain of another.  To do this, the sender must encode the idea into some communication medium, send that message and the receiver must decode the message.  There can be errors at any of those steps.  The coding could be garbled, the sending failed, or noise in the sending process causes elements to be missing or misunderstood, and finally the receiver could decode the message differently than the way it was encoded.  For that reason, I recommend that teams establish the practice of feedback on all messages that include action items or direction so that the sender can ensure the receiver got the message and understands it.

 

Listening is a three step process.  First there is the step of hearing or seeing the message.  Then there is the step of decoding it to understand the message.  Finally the receiver judges the implications and application of the message for them.  If it appears a team member isn’t listening, it doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t hear – so shouting the message may not make any difference.  They may not understand the message or they may think it applies to someone else.  Determine the real communication breakdown then resolve that problem.

Communication Methodology

Teams can use many different ways to communicate.  In my experience, here are the pros and cons of the different approaches.

 

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  • 00:03 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 An absolutely fundamental characteristic of teams
  • 00:07 is that team members must communicate with each other to be effective.
  • 00:11 We'll look at different aspects of communication, but
  • 00:14 let's start with the basics of the team communication process.
  • 00:18 We refer to this as the sender-receiver model and
  • 00:21 is meant to reflect the communication between two team members.
  • 00:26 The first team member determines to send a message to the other person.
  • 00:30 She must determine the content of the message and
  • 00:32 then encode it in whatever communication medium she will use.
  • 00:36 It may be written in an email, left as voice message or
  • 00:39 she may feel she must meet with the person face to face.
  • 00:42 Whatever she decides, she encodes and delivers it.
  • 00:45 However, there may be noise in the communication.
  • 00:48 Something is garbled, misspelled or just plain missing.
  • 00:51 Whatever the case, the team member who receives the message will decode it.
  • 00:55 However, they will decode it in light of the circumstances that they
  • 00:58 are experiencing when they receive it.
  • 01:00 They may not get the message until a day or two after it was sent.
  • 01:03 Where the noise on the line may create some confusion and is even more likely
  • 01:07 to be confused if there is a translation required from one language to another.
  • 01:11 That's why I have made it a ground rule on teams that I'm on that we will send
  • 01:16 a feedback message to the originator, that acknowledge that
  • 01:19 we have received the message and what we think the message is telling us.
  • 01:24 This is specially true for action items or team direction.
  • 01:27 I wanna be sure that everyone understands the expectations.
  • 01:30 When the message originator receives the feedback message, they can check for
  • 01:34 accurate understanding.
  • 01:36 Of course, I recognize that there could be noise in the return communication or
  • 01:40 errors in the coding and decoding of it as well.
  • 01:43 However, it's unlikely that all errors and noise will exactly offset each other.
  • 01:49 Sending and receiving messages is important, but
  • 01:51 it's also important to listen to what the message is saying.
  • 01:54 Now I'm using the term, listening rather loosely.
  • 01:57 If the communication is spoken, we can of course hear it.
  • 02:00 If the communication is written, one would instead see it,
  • 02:03 either way I'm calling that listening.
  • 02:05 The listening process as I have defined it has three steps.
  • 02:09 A break down in anyone step will result in miss or misunderstood communication.
  • 02:14 First is the hearing step or seeing if there's written communication,
  • 02:17 this is the step of physically recognizing that a message has been sent.
  • 02:21 It is hearing the sounds or seeing the images.
  • 02:24 Of course, distractions can interfere with our being able to hear or see.
  • 02:28 You know if your communication has made it through this first step that the receiver
  • 02:32 is able to repeat or rewrite the message.
  • 02:35 But hearing and seeing isn't enough.
  • 02:37 The receiver needs to understand the message.
  • 02:39 If they are not familiar with the terms or can't read or speak the language,
  • 02:43 it doesn't matter that the message was received, it's not understood.
  • 02:47 A good test for understanding is whether the receiver of the message
  • 02:50 is able to paraphrase or explain the meaning.
  • 02:53 The third step is the one that often is overlooked by those sending a message.
  • 02:57 Once someone hears or sees it and understands it
  • 03:00 the receiver will then make a judgement as to whether they applies to them.
  • 03:04 If they feel it is not applicable they may not continue to listen or
  • 03:07 read and they definitely won't take any action.
  • 03:11 There are several aspects to judging.
  • 03:13 One is to decide if the communication even makes sense.
  • 03:16 If it doesn't, the person judging will ignore it.
  • 03:19 Then the individual must understand not only the communication, but
  • 03:23 the implications for them personally.
  • 03:25 And be able to come to some conclusion about how to apply the meaning of
  • 03:29 the message.
  • 03:31 If team members don't seem to be listening to your communication,
  • 03:34 it may be that they don't hear it or see it.
  • 03:37 It maybe that they don't understand it or maybe that they have judged that
  • 03:41 it doesn't apply to them or at least what they are doing.
  • 03:44 Diagnose where the breakdown occurs so
  • 03:46 that you will know the right way to fix it.
  • 03:48 By that I mean, don't you say it louder or with large font.
  • 03:52 Finally, I want to review the pros and
  • 03:53 cons of several different communication methodologies.
  • 03:56 This is based upon my experience with these, your experiences may be different.
  • 04:01 The key to note is that they're no one right way for all circumstances.
  • 04:05 Use the best methodology for your team and your situation.
  • 04:09 The formal meeting is probably the best communication with a large group.
  • 04:13 You have audio and visual communication with body language to help.
  • 04:17 But trying to schedule that meeting can delay the communication.
  • 04:21 Informal meetings have the same advantages in communicating, but
  • 04:24 are limited in who you bump into.
  • 04:27 Typically they're only one or two people at a time, and timing is unpredictable.
  • 04:32 Personal phone calls are great for verbal communication with one person, but
  • 04:36 again it's unpredictable whether you'll reach that person or not.
  • 04:40 Voicemail can take care of the problem of not immediately connecting, but
  • 04:44 the length of the message is normally limited and
  • 04:46 there is no easy provision for feedback to ensure understanding.
  • 04:51 The conference call can increase your coverage so
  • 04:54 that multiple people get the same message.
  • 04:56 But it's hard to get good feedback in conference calls and frankly,
  • 05:00 many people are only half tuned in when on these calls.
  • 05:03 Web meetings are often better for communicating than conference calls
  • 05:07 because you can add visual information to the verbal.
  • 05:10 But everyone has to have access to the technology during the meeting and
  • 05:13 on large meetings, it is again difficult to get good feedback.
  • 05:16 Of course, there's the old standby of emails.
  • 05:19 These allow for broad coverage and lots of information, but the timing is uncertain,
  • 05:23 some people don't read all of their emails.
  • 05:25 And of course there is the problem of insuring good real time feedback.
  • 05:30 Also there's instant messaging or chats.
  • 05:33 This is quick, focused and
  • 05:34 when I connect I get instant feedback however the amount of contact is limited.
  • 05:39 I know there are many of other communication methods and
  • 05:41 modes out there but these are the ones I've most often have used with teams.
  • 05:46 Communication is a key enabler for most team in our actions.
  • 05:51 As a team leader you need to understand and manage the communication process.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Team Closure
05m:40s
Communication Constraints
06m:14s
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