Communication Processes

Quick reference

• 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.

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