What Is Communication?
I will not pretend here to quote or re-write what has already been said and written about communication. In layman terms, I will define communication as: "Some kind of message (desire, feeling, idea, information, intention, etc.) transmitted from one person to another. Although we all know that communication is not exclusively made among human beings, we will limit it, for the sake of our argument, to individuals.
Even if it looks simple at first sight, this definition encompasses many elements that will impact the efficiency of the communication itself. An image being worth a thousand words, let's take a look at the folowing diagram:
As we can see, we have a SENDER (Guy) who wants to send a MESSAGE to a RECEIVER (Mary).
According to Guy's choice of channel, he can transmit his message verbally or by writing. In both cases, he still has more than one option. If he wants to do it verbally, he can either summon Mary to his office or take the telephone and give her a call. If he wants to communicate with her by writing, he can do it in a form of a letter, a memo, or an e-mail.
Guy must then ENCODE his message meaning that he has to transform its content so that it is intelligible to the RECEIVER, Mary, in the present case.
No matter which channel is used by Guy, either it is verbal or written, the message will be exposed to INTERFERENCES. The longer and more laborious the message is, the more it will be submitted to these interferences that will, in the end, cause problem in the clear understanding of the content or of the information. In other words, the clearer, the shorter, the more simple the message is, the better it is for everyone, and chances for it to be sujected to all kinds of interferences are greatly reduced.
Also, to make sure the message is understood, it should be accompanied by a request for action, an answer. Then there will be a role switch and the RECEIVER will transform into the SENDER and vice-versa and the whole communication cycle will start again.
Of course, this is oly a general and basic understanding of what comunication represents. But already, it is easy to understand that the message we want to deliver is submitted to many external factors , most of them being out of our control, and that it does not take much to divert or affect the impact or the meaning of the message.
How can we avoid these traps that are awaiting us at every corner? We'll have to wait for another blog to get some of the answers. ☺
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Louis Carle
Director
Formation Linguistique L.C.
According to Guy's choice of channel, he can transmit his message verbally or by writing. In both cases, he still has more than one option. If he wants to do it verbally, he can either summon Mary to his office or take the telephone and give her a call. If he wants to communicate with her by writing, he can do it in a form of a letter, a memo, or an e-mail.
Guy must then ENCODE his message meaning that he has to transform its content so that it is intelligible to the RECEIVER, Mary, in the present case.
No matter which channel is used by Guy, either it is verbal or written, the message will be exposed to INTERFERENCES. The longer and more laborious the message is, the more it will be submitted to these interferences that will, in the end, cause problem in the clear understanding of the content or of the information. In other words, the clearer, the shorter, the more simple the message is, the better it is for everyone, and chances for it to be sujected to all kinds of interferences are greatly reduced.
Also, to make sure the message is understood, it should be accompanied by a request for action, an answer. Then there will be a role switch and the RECEIVER will transform into the SENDER and vice-versa and the whole communication cycle will start again.
Of course, this is oly a general and basic understanding of what comunication represents. But already, it is easy to understand that the message we want to deliver is submitted to many external factors , most of them being out of our control, and that it does not take much to divert or affect the impact or the meaning of the message.
How can we avoid these traps that are awaiting us at every corner? We'll have to wait for another blog to get some of the answers. ☺
Follow us on Facebook! Suscribe to our Newsletter (on the left-hand side of the Facebook page, right below the "Communauté" tab). Visit our site!
Louis Carle
Director
Formation Linguistique L.C.
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