What I mean is not really what I said

I’ve said this before, but talking with one of my classes recently has convinced me to say it again.  When we communicate with others, we assume that our words have only one meaning.  We know what we mean, and we assume that they will interpret our words exactly as we intend.  That is a false [...]

Assumptions

We all make assumptions.  They undergird everything we say and do.  We drive when the light turns green because we assume that everyone at the cross street will stop for a red light.  We get to work on time because we assume that we will be punished for being late.  Or we show up late [...]

Communicating in Probabilities

Why do miscommunications happen in organizations? Yes, sometimes it is because people don’t listen or don’t pay attention, but I would argue that those times may be in the minority. Miscommunications often occur because we communicate in probabilities. Clampitt (2005) explained it well. We have the mistaken impression that the words we use have only [...]

Business Communication as a Dance

“Dance” may seem a strange metaphor to describe communication in business, but Clampitt (2005) argues that seeing communication as a dance overcomes the shortcomings of the arrow and circuit perspectives for communication between managers and employees.  He explains that dances are used for a variety of purposes, involve coordinated activity and co-orientation, is governed by [...]

Circuit Managers

The textbook that I referenced in the last post also discussed “circuit” managers.  Rather than seeing communication as an arrow, circuit managers see communication as a two-way event.  Circuit managers use employees’ feedback to understand their needs, hoping that meeting the needs of employees will lead to increased productivity.  This metaphor is better than the [...]

Arrow Managers

One of the textbooks that I am using in one of my organizational communication classes describes three ways that managers may see communication.  One of those (I would argue the most popular) uses the metaphor of an arrow to describe communication.  Many arrows see their communication as an arrow.  These managers think that if they [...]

Open Door Policies–How to Make Them Work

One response to the idea of managers accepting dissent might be to initiate an “open door” policy.  Yet some research implies that open door policies may often be ineffective (Harlos, 2001)—the idea that “the open door leads straight to a push out the open window.”  Harlos argued that, for open door policies to work, employees [...]

Fields of Experience and Miscommunications

One last thing for now about miscommunications.  As we communicate with others, we can only speak about what we’ve experienced.  Even if we know the words, if we don’t know the concepts, we cannot use the words in meaningful ways because words are only symbols.  Because I can only communicate about things in my field [...]

Don’t Listen to the Noise

Another obvious source of miscommunication is noise, which refers to any thing that interferes with a message getting from me to you.  Noise could be mental distractions (annoyance at the person speaking, pre-lunch stomach grumblings, post-lunch sleepiness, etc), a room that’s too warm or too cool, or actual noise in the area.  When the noise [...]

What you heard is not what I said!

Communication may seem simple, but it is one of the most complicated things that we do.  The meanings of anything we say or do are not in the words or gestures that we use—those words and gestures are only symbols.  Let me explain.  If I use the word, “chair,” you may have something in your [...]