Barriers to Effective Communication
Task 3A & 3B Barriers to Effective Communication and How They Can Be Overcome
Background Noise:
Background noise can be a barrier to communication as it can make it harder to hear what someone else is saying or it can also make you loose concentration while working, this can make you loose you focus and give you a mental block, this is where you can’t think of what to write even though you already know what needs to be written.
You can overcome this when having a conversation by going to a quitter place, where you will be able to continue the conversation that you were having. If you are working and the background noise is effecting your concentration, you can put ear buds in which will block out all sound and allow you to concentrate on your work again.
Distractions:
Distractions may cause you to do something else when you should be working, this could cause you to fall behind on the work that you are doing and could cause you problems further down the line.
Distractions can be overcome by moving rooms, as the other room may not have the thing that was distracting you, if you are getting distracted due to a game, you could delete the game so that you won’t be tempted to go on it whilst you should be working.
Physical Barriers:
A physical barrier can be someone speaking a different language; this can cause a problem as if you are trying to talk to that person they might not fully understand what you are saying as well as you might not understand what they are saying either.
If the person that your talking to speaks a different language, you can overcome the barrier by getting someone that speaks both your language and theirs and get them to translate what both of you are saying so that you can understand each other.
Location:
If you are in a different country and you are supposed to have a business meeting that you can’t attend due to not being at your office, this can be a barrier as you would have no way to get there in time.
This can be overcome by using VOIP, you can use things like Skype to video call people and it will allow you to attend the meeting over the internet, you would still be able to see each other, you just would not be in person. Most VOIP services are free too.
Lack of Concentration:
Lack of concentration can be a barrier to communication as it can cause you to loose focus while working; this can be bad as it can make you fall behind on the work that you are doing or you could start to lose track, this could cause you to do your work wrong.
Lack of concentration can be overcome by taking breaks when you need to, this will let you think more clearly when it comes back to doing your work as you will be more focused on the tasks that you need to be doing.