#316: How to Take Down the Seven Barriers of Communication

Introduction

In today's "People Skills" newsletter, we're showcasing another one of our Professional Development Programme (PDP) presentations. And the topic today is "Communication Barriers".

Many people think that communicating is easy. It is after all something we’ve done all our lives. There is some truth in this simplistic view. Communicating is straightforward. What makes it complex, difficult, and frustrating are the barriers we put in the way.

So, if you want to be a better communicator, and stand out from others, here are 7 kinds of barrier that you must overcome...

01. PHYSICAL BARRIERS

When you create unnecessary physical barriers between you and others, for example, by marking out territories into which others are not allowed, you immediately create psychological barriers, a “Them and Us” mentality...

02. Why We Need Strokes Between Us and Others

The formalised behaviour of workplaces discourages the amount of touching that human beings can engage in at work but this doesn't mean that we do not need to feel physical contact with others...

03. 3 Levels of Stroking Depending on Your Closeness

Strokes may be positive when they are signs of approval or negative, when they are not. They may be given conditionally in expectation of something in return or unconditionally for nothing in return...

04. PERCEPTUAL BARRIERS

One of the biggest barriers to good communication is in our heads: our perceptions. When, through not really knowing others, we perceive others as somehow different from us and unapproachable, we immediately raise a barrier that is hard to get over...

05. The Traveller

A traveller was walking down a road when he met a man from the next town.

"Excuse me," he said. "I am hoping to stay in the next town tonight. Can you tell me what the townspeople are like?"

"Well," said the townsman, "how did you find the people in the last town you visited?"...

06. What You See Depends on What You Think

It is thought that there are at least six perceptual locking on and off actions in every communication...

07. EMOTIONAL BARRIERS

One of the chief barriers to communication is the emotional barrier. It is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and suspicion...

08. Improve Your Communication With Your OK States

A state of OK-ness is how we feel in relation to others and ourselves. We can categorise each relationship we have with others according to which of four states of OK-ness it is...

09. Shipwrecked for an “I’m OK, You’re Not” Attitude

History is littered with examples of how barriers between people have led not just to poor communication, but to human disasters. One such example was the wreck of the British naval fleet in 1707 under the command of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell...

10. CULTURAL BARRIERS

Cultural barriers are the barriers raised by people who belong to an exclusive group. It is a way of defining who is in the group and who is not...

11. Why People Play Psychological Games at Work

In psychological terms, "games" are patterns of interacting with others that are about confirming our view of others rather than learning about others...

12. Playing Games of Win-Lose

Here are 9 “games” that are often played at work as substitutes for genuine communication and contact...

13. LANGUAGE BARRIERS

There are thought to be around 5000 distinct languages in the world today. If you add on the dialects of these languages, the number runs into the tens of thousands...

14. Excluding People Through Language Barriers

Language that describes what we want to say in our terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with our expressions, buzz-words and jargon. When we couch our communication in such language, it is a way of excluding others...

15. GENDER BARRIERS

There are differences between the speech patterns of men and women. A woman speaks around 25,000 words a day whereas a man speaks around 10,000...

16. Why Men and Women See Things Differently

For a woman, speech has a clear purpose: to build relationships. For a man, speech is about solving problems, by conveying and analysing information...

17. PERSONAL BARRIERS

In working with others, there is a spectrum of choices about how we can connect with them...

18. Whales

Whales are highly-developed creatures in their ability to communicate with each other...

19. Interpersonal Barriers

There are six levels at which people can distance themselves from one another...

What Next?

If you have worked through each step in this newsletter, you will now have access to an invaluable resource to add to your e-learning store.

And, with this as your starting point, you can now move ahead by using the learning resources on Manage Train Learn to develop your knowledge and skills.

With over 22,000 learning resources on our 6 websites, with 2 sites offering free downloads, you can now take charge of your own learning.

Simply commit yourself each day to learning something new from MTL and then, - when you fully understand it, - reflect upon it, practise it, apply it, and review it, and in no time at all, you will have mastered the skill with confidence.

Thanks for reading this edition of the "People Skills" newsletter and good luck with your ongoing learning.

Oh, and one last thing.

In the spirit of making the world a freer, happier and more enlightened place...

...please pass this newsletter on.

Thankyou!

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