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The Communication Process
Although we have all been communicating since the early years of childhood there is much more to effective communication than one may believe. Actually being able to accurately transmit information from one person or group to another is a very complex process with numerous opportunities for mistakes. In its simplest form communication contains at least five steps with each step allowing for an opportunity for the communication to be misconstrued. Lets consider the following example:
[22:28] <%kleen> hey ks, I wont be around for a couple of days. I have a lot to do with my real life work, if this doesn’t settle down soon I may have to retire from ca
[22:29] <@knoledgesponge> kleen, you haven’t been around much lately and we are getting more tutorials then we are tests. dOs has been having to refocus his time on tests instead of the c++ course and this is screwing us all up
Message to be sent-->Encoded by sender-->Decoded by receiver-->Message Received
some error likely some error likely
With any form or amount of communication, no matter how simple or small the message may be, at least some of the message’s original meaning is lost in the process of relaying the message from the sender to the receiver. In many situations the message that is heard by the receiver is quite different than what the sender was attempting to communicate. This is most common in multi-cultural situations where language is an issue but is also quite common among people of the same culture.
In the example, kleen had an apparently simple message to convey-he won’t be around for a couple of days. In order to get this message to knoledgesponge, kleen first had to translate the message from thoughts in his head to words. This was the first room for potential error. For the communication to be effective and knoledgesponge to really understand what kleen was saying, knoledgesponge would have to decode the message in the complex process of receiving.
In a process similar to how kleen encoded the message, knoledgesponge has to decode the message. Many factors weigh into how the message is decoded including time, emotions, and the circumstances surrounding the receiver among others.
While kleen may have been attempting to tell knoledgesponge that life was getting rough and his job was taking up more of his time and that he is going to have less time to dedicate to doing his volunteer tasks so he should not be counted upon to get anything done, it is apparent that the message knoledgesponge heard was different. Knoledgesponge heard hostility, indifference, and laziness in the message.
By the time the receiver determines the meaning of a message there have been four different places for transmission errors to enter the message with a potential for numerous mistakes. Psychologists estimate that 40%-60% of a message is lost during transmission.
Barriers to Effective Communication
In any communication there is a wide range of sources of interference that can hamper effective communication. Interference can play a part in communication between people who know each other well and should understand the sources of error but is more common between those people who are not very familiar with each other. There is an unlimited number of potential interferences but some of the most common are:
• Language
• Assumptions
• Biases
• Cultural Differences
• Misinterpretation of non-verbal forms of communication
• Guilt
• Distortions from the past
• Self-fulfilling assumptions
• Receiver distortion(i.e. selective hearing, ignoring non-verbal cues)
• Assumptions
• and distrusted source
Listening Skills
Many times it will be more beneficial to solicit information from others rather than send information. Developing good listening skills is an absolute must to be an effective communicator. Listening is a skill and therefore takes time to develop. Some suggestions for developing good listening skills are:
• Stop Talking: Ask the other person for details. Seek out as much input as they can offer
• Listen and respond in an interested away
• Check for understanding by paraphrasing and repeating what the other person just said
• Let the other person finish before you speak
• Stay aware of non-verbal cues such as body language
• Focus on what is being said, not the person
• Make sure you comprehend before you respond
• Fight Distractions
• and take notes, decide on follow up actions and dates
Realize that when someone feels threatened they begin to defend themselves. This is human nature. An effective communicator will listen and respond in a way that makes adjustments for potential defensiveness.
Effective Feedback
An effective communicator is not only capable of listening they should be able to effectively respond to what they hear. This is known as feedback. Part of the feedback process is predicting how the other person will respond. People will often respond defensively to negative feedback so it is important for the sender to attempt to persuade this response and to be prepared if such a reaction occurs. Characteristics of effective feedback include the sender:
• Refraining from judgment
• Focusing on a behavior and not a person
• Trying to avoid becoming defensive
• Checking for possible misunderstanding
• Gathering information from other sources
• Not over reacting
• and asking for clarification
Communications in Cyberarmy
Prior to this point we have discussed the generals of effective communication. The rest of this article will focus on tools and methods of communicating within the Cyberarmy.net community. It is vital that the principles we have previously discussed be applied to the methods discussed below.
CAIRC-
IRC is an abbreviation for Internet Relay Chat. Cyberarmy.net maintains it’s own IRC network at irc.cyberarmy.net:6667. CAIRC(Cyberarmy IRC) is perhaps the best way to get started in Cyberarmy. Cyberarmy members use IRC for a variety of purposes including brigade meetings, brigade recruiting, arguments, discussions, small talk, and many other things. For more information on CAIRC refer to www.cyberarmy.net/about/CyberArmyIRC and www.cyberarmy.net/wiki/irc
Forums-
Cyberarmy has many different forums that can be used for communication. Some forums are restricted to members only, members of certain brigades/projects only, certain ranks, etc. but many helpful forums are open to the general public. The Cyberarmy forums can be found at www.cyberarmy.net/forums . For more information the forums please see www.cyberarmy.net/about/TheForums?
cMs-
cMs or Cyberarmy Messaging Service is another Cyberarmy specific means of communication. cMs is basically email restricted to the Cyberarmy.net site and users. Many users find cMs to be a great method for either private or more formal communication with someone who can not be reached via CAIRC.
Sources:
http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/interper/commun.htm#barriers
http://www.cyberarmy.net/about/TheForums
http://www.cyberarmy.net/about/CyberArmyIRC
By: kleenedge
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