How to Overcome The Seven Barriers to Effective Communications

Communication between two individuals should be simple. Keeping it simple keeps it successful in getting your point across to the person you're communicating with. It's essential to know that there are differences between talking and communicating. When we talk, we tend to build or establish barriers that hinder our ability to communicate. On that note, let’s talk about seven Barriers, overcoming which lead to effective communication.

Physical Barriers

Physical barriers include everything from your personal space to your office desk; essentially any part of your immediate environment in which you wouldn’t allow strangers into. Physical Barriers include distance as well. Research shows that one of the most important factors in building cohesive teams is proximity. Let’s say you work regularly with another person. Would your communication be more effective if they’re on the same floor of the building, or another?

Right now, both environment and distance have proven to be a problem in light of the many issues brought with the COVID-19 pandemic. That also brings the issue of communication medium. The manner in which a message is sent can hamper communications.

Would something you want to communicate be effective face-to-face, by email or by text? In a world currently encouraging social distancing, we need not socially disconnect. There are a multitude of collaborative tools that help us keep in touch around the clock, and overcome such barriers.

One such tool that can host such calls under a mobile device is MultiCall, which lets you call many with the ease of calling one. A group call can be set and scheduled for any time of the day. As seen in practices of effective conferencing, preparations ahead of time allow for more convenience, both for your business and for all the participants involved.

Perceptual Barriers

We all have our upbringings. This creates our individual preferences, values, attitudes, origins and life experiences. They act as barriers too. You can liken them to filters on your experiences with people, events and information. Seeing things through the filter of your own unique life experiences, however, may lead to assumptions, stereotyping and misunderstandings of others whose experiences are different.

The point we make is subject to how we make it. Elements like tone and volume come into play. When face-to-face, nonverbal elements such as body language and facial gestures play a role as well. For example, picture a sales pitch you’d give to a client, against reprimanding an employee you supervise for their misconduct. The tones and words used would be quite different, wouldn’t they?

Watching these elements during interactions are key to overcoming this barrier, and having more effective interactions. MultiCall’s Call Monitoring can help you with this, with features like muting to help reduce potential disruptions, and Call Recording, to review later and assess as to how better you can improve your interactions.

Emotional Barriers

Another type of barriers equally subject to tone and words are emotional barriers. Whether the communications are personal or professional, emotional elements such as fear, mistrust, and suspicion can be extremely corrosive to effective communication. But these are merely the symptoms that stem from certain emotions.

Anger, in its greater difficulty processing logical statements, creates mistrust due to  hampered ability to accept explanations and solutions offered by others. In a similar manner, anxiety can create suspicion, due to constant worries hindering the ability to concentrate on the information given or received.

As a result, many people hold back from communicating their thoughts and feelings to others, due to the perception of vulnerability. Discretion is wise, but excessive degrees of holding back can also stunt our development as effective communicators. In the long run, our ability to form meaningful relationships is impacted too.

Keeping the points previously mentioned in mind, the best step to overcome this would be to remove yourself from communication until your thoughts are collected and composed, free of comments that are insensitive or uncalled for. It’s also important to come to be receptive to imperfections, as the drive to try win every argument can result in hampered communications.

Cultural Barriers

It’s human nature to acculturate and become part of a group that we join. With the wish to remain in it, one adopts the behaviour patterns of the group, as these tend to be what the group accept as signs of belonging. The group rewards such behaviour through acts of recognition, rewards and inclusion in opportunities.

Does this sound like a family, group of friends, or the company you work in? That’s exactly what it is! The wanting to conform to the group creates a mutuality of interest, and results in a win-win situation. However, each have their own cultural barriers, which in the membership of a group, can impact communication. This isn’t just on grounds such as religion or race. It can be generational too.

Each age group has a different general approach to work. This however, can lead to conflicts. Older workers describing younger workers as "slackers" or “inexperienced”. Younger workers conversely may criticize older workers as being “out of date".

The best variety to overcome the variety of barriers involved thus would be to find out how best to accommodate the differences. Some cultures may be more group-centric, others more individualistic. MultiCall lets you collaborate in both manners if need be. You can collaborate with contacts one-to-one, or set and add them into different groups based on optimal efficiency.

Language Barriers

English may be the international language, but that doesn’t mean it’s free of barriers, or that it’s the only one used for communication. Dialectsand other local languages may present themselves as barriers to others who are not familiar with expressions, slang, and jargon.  Understanding this is key to developing effective communication.

In a world that is rapidly looking to be smaller and more connected, interacting with another in their own language is the greatest compliment we can offer. Couching our communication in such language, however, can potentially exclude others. This is further compounded by barriers previously mentioned, such as emotional. To understand how, here’s a story.

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s leader Nikita Khrushchev apparently said "We will bury you!" to the Americans at the United Nations. Given the superpower’s capabilities, this was taken as a threat of nuclear holocaust.

However, a later reading of his words showed that this actually could have meant:"We will overtake you!", meaning a pledge toward economic superiority. One might argue the contrasting languages used were the problem.

But worse than this was the fear and suspicion that the US had of the Soviet Union, leading to a far more malicious interpretation. Keeping all critical matters clearly discussed in one language would be the best step forward in overcoming such a barrier.

Gender Barriers

Gender as a barrier to communication isn’t just about the topic of equality. It’s also about the generalizations involved in each. Understanding said generalizations are critical to furthering effective communication.

Women may communicate to probe and gain an understanding, while men may communicate to give information, rather than asking for it. Women are more likely to talk to others should a problem arise, while men may attempt to handle it internally. Women gossip. Men talk about sports.

Such generalizations stem from a lack of awareness. It is therefore important, to educate your team about bias, so that opportunities for change are created and acted on.

Interpersonal Barriers

The element of interpersonal skills, has always been critical toward effective communicate. This includes aspects such as desire to participate and explore the communication process, along with the different ideas and opinions that come with it.

Good interpersonal contact enhances integrity and acceptance in any group, personal or professional. Having an effective process of interpersonal communication, involves simplifying language, and keeping it easy to understand.

The art of listening is critical to this too. A person tends to try to get his opinions across first before listening to the other's point of view. To improve interpersonal communication, it serves anyone well to listen intently and proactively.

In a nutshell, remember that communication is a two-way street. Being open is a first step to have others trust and open upas well. By overcoming these barriers to communication and using the right collaborative tools, you can ensure that the what you convey is understood, by the person you are speaking with.