3 Potential Barriers to Effective Communication

In every business or organization plays a vital part.  There can also be many barriers that can prevent us from communicating effectively.  I am going to present three different barriers to communication that prevent communication between people.

Some of these barriers to communication include:

• Distractions
• Lack of concentration
• Background Noise

Distractions

Distractions can often create a barrier to communication which in turn limits the amount of in-take of information of a person.  In some cases distractions could be unintentional such as spilling something or knocking something over, however they will still break the flow of the work that is going on.  Also if you are in a meeting that you are finding not very interesting and you are bored you may start tapping the table or fidgeting which could cause a distraction for the person that is speaking and they may loose their train of thought.  It also effects your level of intake.  

Distractions like this can be overcome by giving appropriate training in how to give presentations so that it is not so boring.

Lack of concentration

A lack of concentration can result in a loss of in-take in information, and will affect the group’s performance. It can be caused by multiple issues, including: 

• Being sat down for too long – Without regular breaks for small exercises and fresh air your mind will start to lose concentration after roughly 20-30 minutes.
• Interaction between the speaker and his/her audience is non-existent – If the speaker is not interacting with the audience, the audience do not feel involved and start losing interest and concentration as a result.
• Lack of breaks in the presentation – Breaks between slides or paragraphs in speeches are important to increase the concentration. If the presentation just continues onwards in a single monotonous tone without any pauses then the audiences’ concentration will slide quicker than normal.
• Content is not explained enough – If the content of a presentation is not explained in enough detail or it does not include active examples, then you become confused and your concentration begins to lapse.

 

Background Noise

Background noise can be both a good and bad thing. Soft, gentle music playing quietly in the background can often motivate people as it creates a more relaxed atmosphere, which people tend to strive better in.  However, different types of background noise, such as the running of a printer or coffee machines can block out what a speaker is saying, by diverting the group’s attention and affecting the in-take of information from the group.

There are several ways to overcome potential barriers, for example other people in call centres there are many people talking at the same time, and therefore there is a lot of background noise. Noise cancelling headsets so you can only hear the person you are trying to here are optimum for these kinds of environments. These are also useful for drowning out general office background noise such as computer buzzes or printers churning out paper.

There may also be background noise outside the building, such as construction work going on the site next door. The design of the building you are in can really help overcome background noise outside. Double glazed windows and solid insulation can help to reduce noise coming through the building.

In this video it shows a clip from The Two Ronnies showing the barriers of communication.