Page 36 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Project Name: Manual for Soft Skills
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communication. In fact, it may be one of the hardest communication
barriers to overcome-especially when your receiver’s age, education, social
status, economic position, religion, or life experience also differs substan-
tially from yours. Figure 2.3 shows how shared experience contributes to
shared meaning and understanding; the portion of each diagram where
the circles overlap represents the level of understanding between the
sender and the receiver.

Little shared experience Average amount of Large amount of
Meanings dissimilar shared experience shared experience
Meanings similar Meanings very similar
Misunderstanding
Average degree of High degree of
understanding understanding
Figure 2.3
How shared experience affects understanding

Physical Distractions
Communication barriers are often physical: bad connection, poor acoustics,
and illegible copy. Although noise of this sort seems trivial, it can block an
effective message. Your receiver might be distracted by an uncomfortable
chair, poor lighting, health problems, or some other irritating condition.
These annoyances do not generally block communication, but they may
reduce the receiver’s concentration.

THE BASIC FORMS OF COMMUNICATION

Communication occurs in many forms. For example, Mr. Rao, the principal
of a school can pick up the phone and have a conversation with Mrs. Radhika,
who is a science teacher. He can choose, instead, to write her a memo. In turn,
she can respond to his message in the form of her choice. He may decide to
forward her message to other employees, and they may communicate it to all
the other teachers and other outsiders. The process is fluid; the form in which a
message is communicated changes constantly. Communication can be formal
or informal, spoken or written, and internal or external.

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