Making Communication Work
Neil Thompson
'Nobody told me we had a communication problem’ was the comment made by the Chief Executive of an organisation I once worked with. This tongue-in-cheek remark was taken in the spirit it was intended, but it didn’t really take on board the fact that communication was indeed a major problem in that particular organisation. How often do we hear it said that communication is a problem? Communication can easily break down between organisations (the history of multidisciplinary collaboration gives us many examples of this) or within an organisation (anyone who has ever worked in a large bureaucracy will be able to testify to this). So, perhaps we have to accept communication breakdowns as a fact of life and just learn to live with them?
Well, yes and no is my answer to that. Yes, in the sense that, realistically, we will never be able to achieve a point where we can guarantee that communication will never go awry. No, in the sense that we should not be defeatist about accepting the prevalence of communication problems – there is much that can be done to improve communication.
For one thing, we can recognise that a lot of the problems we encounter come from the simple but hugely important fact that different people see the world in different ways. If I assume that you are ‘on the same wavelength’ as I am, then we should be able to communicate together successfully – as long as we are on the same wavelength. However, if we have different perspectives, different taken-for-granted assumptions, different values and/or different ideas about what we are trying to achieve, then my assumption about our respective wavelengths may well lead to serious difficulties getting our messages across to each other and taking on board what is being said. This can lead to immense frustration which, in itself, can become a significant barrier to effective communication – thereby leading to a vicious circle if we are not careful. This is often how conflicts start, of course.
The ‘diversity’ approach to equality issues, with its emphasis on the importance of respecting and valuing differences, is one that is becoming increasingly influential. However, this approach can be seen to apply not only to matters of inequality and discrimination, but also to a wider range of important human relations issues – not least communication. If we are not aware of significant differences between ourselves and the people we are trying to communicate with, we should not be surprised when we fail to ‘connect’, when our attempts at communication push us further apart, rather than bring us closer together.
However, the other side of the coin can also be seen to apply. That is, communication can also suffer when the people trying to connect with one another are too similar, too entrenched in their own cultural assumptions – not able to see the wood for the trees. For example, people who have much in common may be reluctant to challenge one another and risk ‘rocking the boat’, with the result that important issues remain unexplored – important, perhaps vital, communication does not take place.
This all sounds very complex and contradictory, and in some ways it is, but the simple fact underpinning all this is that, in some ways people are the same and in some ways we are different – either way this can become a barrier to communication if we are too entrenched in how we see the world, if we are not open enough to seeing things differently. Communication isn’t just about sending and receiving messages – it is about sharing the world together, taking account of both similarities and differences.
Neil Thompson is Professor of Applied Social Studies at Staffordshire University and managing director of Avenue Consulting Ltd (www.avenueconsulting.co.uk). He is the editor of the British Journal of Occupational Learning.
© Neil Thompson 2005
www.neilthompson.info
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