“At its most basic level, communication is about the exchange of information between individuals” (PSU, 2021, p.1, para 2). This exchange of information in the workplace can come in a variety of forms. This includes verbal which can be written or oral, as well as non-verbal which would include gestures, facial expressions, body language etc. (PSU, 2020). “For our purposes, we will define communication as interpersonal acts that exchange meaning and information” (PSU, 2021, p. 1, para 2).
The process of communication is fairly basic idea, essentially you have a message, and it is conveyed by the sender, and interpreted by the receiver. This process is understood as encoding and decoding. With the sender being the encoder, and the receiver being the decoder. This process is extremely important because the message can easily be misunderstood because of noise and bias (PSU, 2021, p. 2, para 2). This noise is critical because it can consist of a variety elements that can distort the message. They can be a multitude of factors such as values, beliefs, vocabulary, interests, goals, mood etc. (PSU, 2020). With these factors in mind, a person can begin to understand how and why it is essential to be clear and concise when attempting to send messages.
When we communicate we are trying to create a shared reality. A situation where the encoder and decoder are able to understand a message, and have created a mutual understanding (PSU, 2020). Unfortunately this is not always easily done. More often than not egocentrism plays a huge role, in a lack of understanding during the communication process. Egocentrism is basically “an inability to take on other people’s perspective” (PSU, 2021, p. 3, para 1). Because of this messages are too often muddled, and not easily understood. And generally can create scenarios where colleagues are not able to understand each other, which leads to breakdowns in communication, and at times animosity within the workplace.
A recent example of the importance of communication, and how it relates to the workplace was on full display at my place of employment. I work in sales, but am more involved in the overall process because I am a department lead. Typically our sales people turn in a job, and then are hands off as it relates to the rest of the process. In my position since I oversee the sales team, I follow the process as it relates to scheduling, execution, report submittal, and then billing.
Last week when my colleagues were in the scheduling aspect of the process, I witnessed firsthand how important communication is at relates to the workplace. A colleague of mine sent an e-mail (verbal- written) to another colleague asking for her to update the the tracker with the correct scheduling contact. The tracker is simply a database where we house contact info, manpower for the job, cost etc. She stated that the scheduling contact was incorrect, and asked for it to be updated because she got an earful from the person she tried to contact. At the basic level a relatively harmless e-mail, just trying to get an update.
Unfortunately because of a lack of shared reality and bias, the person who received the message (decoder) responded in a negative fashion, and the entire communication process had a breakdown. My colleague who was the receiver was defensive, and responded in a manner that was inappropriate. What she perceived was a slight, was truly nothing more than a question. Her response was snarky, and even involved bringing the sales person into the issue as well. This highlights the importance of how you address someone in e-mail, the tone that can be perceived, and how this can hurt a team’s camaraderie, and a person’s feelings. Unfortunately a few more e-mails were sent back and forth before I got involved in the process. This transpired on Friday towards the back half of the day, and for my part led to me having to sit down with both of my colleagues, and discuss what happened.
Today my morning will be spent on follow up between my colleagues, and trying to continue to soothe a situation that got out of hand rather quickly. What started once again as a harmless question, turned into an employee getting defensive and escalating the situation from there. This example without boring everyone and getting into more details, highlights the importance of communication, and it’s importance in the workplace. What one person may perceive as harmless, another person may perceive as a slight towards them. In my opinion this ties directly back to egocentrism, and how it relates to taking on other’s perspective!
References
The Pennsylvania State University, (2020). Lesson 2: Communications in Organizations. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2085495/pages/l02-overview?module_item_id=29870127
The Pennsylvania State University, (2021). Lesson 3: Diversity. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847665
The example you provided is good because written communication lacks the non verbal queues which are so important to high quality message transmission between the encoder and decoder. I have come to believe that e-mail communication is not only a skill to be studied and mastered but also an art form. There are people who understand the dynamics and intricaies of e-mail communication and also have a command of the language which they are able to impart a finess of feeling and to some degree emotion in their message.
I believe a good e-mail communicator is one who can at the very least clear their own mental clutter and distill their thoughts into the most relevant bits of information while at the same time correctly ordering the delivery of the information which provides the decoder with the least chance to incorrectly decode the message.
One key requirement in trying to achieve good e-mail communication is knowing your decoder(s). If you know who the receipents are you have a unique opportunity to anticipate what they want to know and what they may ask. I believe it’s a good practice to take a minute and put yourself in their position. Asking yourself, “Based on what I’m sending them, what questions may they ask?”. It may be possible to answer those questions before they have to respond and ask you.
In my personal career this approach has been very successfull. It’s a never ending journey though as you can always work to improve your skill and just like any skill if you don’t use it you’ll loose it.
It is certainly tough to hear the word “egocentrism” thrown around, especially when it is directed at you, but the more I read about this subject and the more I experience circumstances much like the one you describe, the more I understand it is at the heart of most miscommunications. Pennsylvania State University hits the nail on the head for this particular occurrence when it states, “As we are writing an e-mail, we write it with our own perspective. We know what we mean, after all.” (2021). If you’ll excuse a tangent, I think that is part of the reason why .gifs gained so much popularity in text communication formats because they add contextual information to a conversation that expresses a sort of synthetic emotion or nonverbal cue for the receiver to have more data available to create a sort of enhanced empathetic perspective as opposed to simple text. Stay tuned for my Ted Talk on the subject, ha ha. Great blog entry, though. I’m sorry to say it sounds like you and I spend a lot of time on the same kind of avoidable issues, stay strong.
References
Pennsylvania State University. (2021). Lesson 02: Introduction to Leadership in a Global Context. Errors in Communication. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847667