Distortions in Communication

We communicate whenever there is a need to express our thoughts or feelings, to inform or to find something out. This need may be entirely based on our own feeling or it could be based on a demand made by an external factor. 

To communicate, we need to put our thoughts into sequence, select the right words, the right medium and then convey the message. This process is called encoding. The recipients of our message then interpret it according to various factors and the level of their understanding. This process is called decoding.

It is normal for us to be able to only convey a part of our thoughts and that too in a way that it is indistinct.  Similarly, it is equally normal for audiences to receive and comprehend perfectly clear messages in an indistinct manner. These are often referred to as distortions in the communication process.  There are a multitude of reasons why distortions take place, the key ones being:

Experience: Everything we do and say is based on our own and unique experience. From what we consider the best way to sit or sleep, to how and when we communicate is because we saw or did it in a certain way and found it to be the most appealing.

For instance: a person who grows up in a conventional Indian family may think that the only way to greet anyone older than oneself is to touch their feet. Such a person may find those who do not follow this custom to be extremely rude.  Someone who uses words like ‘sorry’, ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ frequently, must be doing so because of his or her education at school or home; some may find this artificial.

Pre-occupation: Very seldom do we have just one thing on our mind and even then, there are likely to be several other linked thoughts regarding that one and only thing we are supposed to be focusing on. This is normal and we are all equipped to deal with it. The problem starts creeping in when something else that is of great importance or consequence is playing on our mind; this is when communicating about unrelated matters requires effort. Our preoccupations act as a screen to sending or receiving messages.

This preoccupation could be something as ordinary as a social event that we will be going to soon that keeps us from paying complete attention to work-related communication. Preoccupations could also be complex like a distressing situation in the workplace that keeps us from communicating effectively with people in our personal life. 

Stereotypes: We hold certain mental images of how each type of person ought to appear and behave; these images are often formed based on universal images and perceptions or commonly known as stereotypes. Stereotypes have a considerable amount of effect on how we receive messages. A well-groomed and well-dressed lady will be expected to speak with confidence, poise and be impressive in most of the things she does.  If we enter a restaurant and we see a man in a pair of black trousers and a white shirt standing somewhere near the entrance, we will automatically assume that he is a member of the staff at the restaurant.  Such mental stereotypes can have a huge impact on the way we communicate with people.

Hidden Agenda: Whenever we communicate with an ulterior motive which we do not reveal to our audience, we have a hidden agenda.  We will steer the entire communication to meet that agenda.

It could be a grudge we bear against someone and wish to bring it out into the open to prove a point. It could be steering a conversation in a direction that will sabotage the outcome of a meeting. It could even be when we ask a lot of veiled questions to extract information in a crafty way.

Physical Surroundings: Noise, weather, distracting influences or external influences can distort the impact of any communication. Messages can get distorted, misinterpreted or missed entirely only because of the physical surroundings of the sender or the receiver of a message.

When we receive a phone call while we are on a busy street it is possible that the traffic is so noisy that we can hardly hear what the caller is saying. If we hold a conversation in a room where there is a television program going on in the background, the sound and the visuals are bound to distract and distort the messages being given or received.

Semantics: Our understanding of the meaning of a word may vary from that of the person we are communicating with; the study of the meanings and changes of meanings of words is known as semantics. The problems related to semantics arise from a complete mismatch in the interpretation of a word each person in any communication may have.

A good example of this is the phrase, ‘just a minute’; that ‘minute’ may be anything from 60 seconds to half an hour to an eternity.  Similarly, the word ‘tasty’ most certainly means different things to different people based on their palate and preferences.

Non-Verbal Messages: Often the non-verbal messages we send out, add more meaning than the words we use while communicating. Much has been said and understood about this but, a few of the more common types of non- verbal communications are:

Gestures- movements we consciously or unknowingly make to add more flavor to our words.

Eye Contact- looking at a person, mainly his or her face while conversing with them.

Sub-vocals- small sounds we make, often without being aware of them; like hmm, ah or a sigh.

Intonation- how we stress on a particular word or set of words to indicate their meaning, while speaking

Posture- how we hold ourselves while communicating.

When referring to non-verbal communication we often forget that even written messages have  a few aspects that work like non verbal communication. The form and format of the written word always create an impression, I will post more on that in the future. 

Like I said at the beginning of this post, there are a multitude of factors that go into effective encoding and decoding. If we begin by being conscious of the few that I have mentioned in this post, it will be remarkable.