How communication noise can be managed and eliminated

BUT I DIDN’T SAY WHAT YOU THINK I SAID

In this article in a series of three, (Part 1, Part 2), you’ll discover why communication fails.

Either subconsciously or consciously, we know communication often does not include actual understanding! You might walk away believing the other person understood what you communicated, but he or she might have gotten a completely different idea. I recall an education class where, as instructors, we were reminded that asking the students if they understand does not mean they do: They understand what they think they are supposed to understand. Only clarification and inquiry can discover whether what one communicates is decoded by the receiver as the sender intended.

So, more communication is not always better. Better communication is better.

If you are communicating with one person, you only have the dyad (Part 1) to consider. But what if you are giving a speech or chairing a meeting? You must consider each receiver in the audience individually. Of course, that complicates things: Every dyad is susceptible to ambiguity, differences in punctuation, differing contexts and relationships… Scary, huh? Well… it’s about to get worse! (But will clear up every argument, misunderstanding, and communication issue you have experienced.)

NOISE

Why can’t we just get along???

Aside from psychological and sociological reasons, communication is at the core of these problems. Yet, within the communication process is the solution to all that ails us — as long as we use what we know and learn to communicate better.

Examine the Transactional Model from earlier in the chapter:

To highlight the point I’m about to make, I omitted one important item from The Transactional Model — the last part of the definition of communication: affected by external, physiological and psychological noise. Look at this more realistic example:

Notice the receiver decodes the sender’s intended message incorrectly, decoding the message as a lowercase q — not a capital A as was intended. This over-simplified example is to allow you to grasp that, more often than not, the message sent is not received as intended.

Why? You wonder: How can such a simple thing be misinterpreted?? Think about how many times, every day, what you say is not what is understood. Or what you understood the speaker argues he or she did not intend?

The reason is Noise: the influences on an otherwise effective communication that alters the interpretation of the message.

Noise includes external noise and internal noise.

EXTERNAL NOISE

Notice in the diagram the heavy scribble-orange bolts cutting across the channel? Those lines represent external noise: elements that interrupt the message by cutting across or cutting off the channel. Here are some examples:

· Loud sounds that drown out the speaker. (construction sounds, loud fans, crowd noise.)

· A failed internet connection.

· An interrupted satellite signal (like when we drive into a tunnel).

· Loss of electricity cutting off the device, like a radio, computer or television.

· Actual cutting of power or phone lines.

I usually joke that the United States Postal Service is the epitome of noise. Why does it take four days to mail a letter from one town to the contiguous town? Where does the letter go??? What cuts across that channel?

Another example: When you’re in a crowded place, like a bar or restaurant or concert–and the noise is so overwhelming, you can only see your friend’s mouth move but you cannot hear a word! External noise alters or eliminates the message completely.

Most times, we can deal with external noise by using an alternative channel: We email instead of mail; we leave the room with the friend to find a quiet place to talk. Easy.

INTERNAL NOISE

Less easily handled is internal noise, represented in the diagram by the heavy black lines in front of the sender and receiver. Internal noise is our own or our receiver’s internal blockages that influence the encoding or decoding of messages. Internal noise is divided into three classifications:

· Physiological noise

· Semantic noise

· Psychological noise

We now examine each of these in detail. Pay careful attention to the classifications and examples as we will be applying them to improve communication.

PHYSIOLOGICAL NOISE

Physiological noise is, very simply, bodily distractions. It includes: Being under the influence of drugs (legal or illegal) or alcohol; being hungry or tired; being ill; being emotionally shaken (shock). Physiological noise also includes physical incapacity–like hearing loss, visual loss, speech loss.

Have you ever tried to listen to someone when you are tired? How about trying to explain your position to a person who is sick or drunk? Not easy! I often coach couples and find communication issues result because the partners simply do not recognize how strongly physiology affects communication. Maybe your partner is too tired to have that serious discussion?

The state of our bodies not only affects how well we can listen, understand and decode a message, but also how well we can encode a message. Are you able to put unclear thoughts into a clear message? Not likely.

But we can fix physiological noise, in most cases, by waiting. Wait until you’re not hungry or tired. Wait until the person’s fever subsides. Wait until your emotions settle. Wait until she’s sober. A little time goes a long way.

SEMANTIC NOISE

Semantic noise is noise caused by the sender using unclear encoding of the message. The sender might use words the receiver does not understand–or may use phrases or speaking structure that confuses the message for the receiver. As an example, if a doctor says: “Your father has acute thrombosis of the gastrocnemius,” you will very likely frown and ask what the heck is gastrocnemius?! What the doctor would say if she were aware of semantic noise is: “Your father has blood clots in his calf muscle.”

Notice the way semantic noise cuts off the message and causes an inability to decode the message? Semantic noise includes jargon, idioms, different languages, vocabulary, sentence construction–and many other aspects of the actual verbal component of the message. Semantic noise can also include nonverbal gestures that can mean different things to different people, and we will address this type of noise throughout the book.

We can often easily cure semantic noise by choosing appropriate vocabulary, defining or clarifying our terms, choosing a shared language, and so on.

PSYCHOLOGICAL NOISE

Psychological noise are internal preoccupations, prejudices, opinions, and other mental qualities which affect a person’s ability to encode or decode clearly. Notice, I did not just say decode. Appreciate that when you are encoding a message, you are sending it through your own filters, misconceptions, stereotypes…

Psychological noise includes several sub-categories:

· Distractions and preoccupations

· Preconceived notions (expectations about the speaker or the message)

· Cognitive biases (things that cause us to not be able to think or reason clearly)

· Stereotypes (the whole list of “isms”)

· Learning or conceptual difficulties (often classified as physiological)

· Mental illness (also, often classified as physiological)

Psychological noise is the insidious of the categories of noise.

With external noise, the parties can change the channel. With physiological noise, the parties can wait until the physical issue resolves–or they can adapt to the bodily interference. The same is possible with semantic noise: The sender can adapt or alter the encoding to facilitate understanding.

With psychological noise, the blockage must be addressed directly–and this often cannot occur because the cause of the noise itself solidifies and reinforces the blockage. (We are using a broken tool to fix itself!)

For example, a racist receiver will decode a speaker based on the speaker’s race: anything that speaker says will pass through that noise and be misinterpreted, attacked, and shunned. The bias–the noise–reinforces itself.

But also: A racist sender will encode messages through that bias.

Stew on that one.

Basically, we like to think we are right all the time–and letting go of this type of noise is very difficult, indeed.

EXERCISE: Revisit the transactional model exercise and draw a conversation between you and another person, but this time, include the external and internal noise present during the exchange.

EXERCISE: Review all you have studied about communication and note your realizations here. What have you learned? What more would you like to learn?

In future articles, I will offer situations and solutions so you can become a competent communicator. See you then!