Discuss the strength and weaknesses of the four levels of communication that you will be using in CBR work stating clearly the characteristic of each level o communication
Definition of communication
Communication is a process whereby information is enclosed in a package and is channeled and imparted by a sender to a receiver via some medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. All forms of communication require a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, however the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender’s intent to communicate at the time of communication in order for the act of communication to occur. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speech, song, and tone of voice, and there are nonverbal means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, through media, i.e., pictures, graphics and sound, and writing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication)
In every society, humans have developed spoken and written language as a means of sharing messages and meanings. The most common form of daily communication is interpersonal- that is, face-to-face, at the same time and in the same place (Encarta, 2005).
Communication, the heart of business, is the most important of all entrepreneurial skills. The destiny of the business depends on the quality of your relationships. Your ability to transmit information helps both clients and employees feel they can communicate with and ultimately trust you (Black Enterprise, Charles, 1998, pg 116).
Communication barriers can pop-up at every stage of the communication process (which consists of sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback and context) and have the potential to create misunderstanding and confusion. To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of these barriers at each stage of this process with clear, concise, accurate, well planned communications (Fowler & Manktelow, 2005).
Internal communications do not need to be extensive to be useful. The important factor appears to be a continuous flow of information, even if all the answers are not in yet-simply report progress. Think of your employees as public speakers for the business, because they are. Whether they are talking with customers or their neighbor at home, they are conveying a picture of the company and how it is doing. The more they are informed, the better they can represent the company in the broader community.. .(Phelps, 2000)
Communication skills
This competency means that the sender is able to express his ideas and reflections clearly, make contacts with people quickly and to maintain them, provide feedback, be tolerant to different customs and cultures. Communication competency means that the sender is able to look for, find and transfer different, information, coordinate all inner and outer information that reaches the organization.
The skill of listening becomes extremely important when we talk about “upward communication.” There are many avenues through which management can send messages downward through a business organization, but there are few avenues for movement of information in the upward direction (Nichols & Stevens, 1999).
Skilled communicators are able to build rapport with coworkers and business associates, which can help move projects along more efficiently. They know whose expertise to tap when thy need assistance and are adept at resolving conflicts and building consensus among team members (USA Today, 2002). One’s effectiveness in employing the attributes of leadership and the strengths of a company is enhanced by one’s aptitude for communication
Supporting effective communication
Managers and facilitators play an important role in supporting (complex) communication-processes. A very effective way to support communication processes is by placing conscious and targeted interventions. Placing interventions can lead to a better understanding of each other’s opinions in group interactions. They can speed up meetings and group-activities and they can also make them much more efficient.
Three levels of communication
To support the communication-process in a good way it is important to distinguish three levels (or layers) of communication:
- The content of what someone is saying;
- The procedure of what someone is saying (or the way someone is saying what he says);
- The process of the relations between the speaker and the listeners and also the emotions that arise during the conversation.
These three levels always exist at the same moment when communication takes place. In theory, we set them apart to understand the communication-process. A facilitator chooses the level on which he would like to intervene.
Pyramid showing the levels of communication
CONTENT
PROCEDURE
PROCESS
The figure above illustrates the levels of communications in a pyramid-form. The level of process is the lowest level of the pyramid. Process is the fundament of communication. Without good process there is no effective procedure. Without a good process and a clear procedure, the quality of the content will be very low. Therefore, emotion will also dominate over rationality, if you like it or not. Process is always followed up by content.
Content
An intervention on the first level, the level of content, is targeted at the content of what is being told. It is about the topic of the conversation. Questions in this level are about the who, the what, the when or the how of what someone is saying. For example: ‘who are the members of this board?’, and ‘what do facilitating skills mean in the context of learning to change?’. An example of facts: ‘what are the results
of this month?’.
Another very effective intervention on the first level is to summarize. Almost everyone likes to hear back the essence of what he has said by a listener – it is a sign that one has been understood. After
that, you can move to the next question (to discover more about what someone thinks), or the next topic (procedure). For a good facilitator, summarizing is one of the most frequently used interventions in supporting the communication of a group.
Procedure
Using an intervention on the level of procedure, level 2, means that you are reacting to the way something is being told, followed up by a question, a proposal or an agreement. This level represents clear and broad-carried schedules, or certain communication-structures. For example: ‘I perceive that you only talk about the resistance that arises with the cost-reduction. Personally, I would also like to exchange thoughts about the chances of realising our efficiency-objectives. My proposal would be that everyone gives his opinion on this briefly, as a closure to this topic.’ The last sentence (in italics) of this example is a proposal of procedure.
Process
The third level, the process-level, is most difficult. Many elements in communication are difficult to see or even invisible. Non-verbal signals help us understand why someone says certain things. Also, the tone of voice or the speed (half-verbal signals) of communication does say a lot about what someone actually means by his communication. Research points out that eighty percent of our messages are non-verbal (!). Closely observing and listening provides a lot of information about the process. What does actually happen on this level? Let us look at four categories:
Emotions
Emotions arise because of certain thoughts about a situation. They are being caused by beliefs or opinions. Examples of emotions are: fear, angriness, sorrow and happiness. Emotions are not very difficult to recognise because they typically touch deeply. For example: fury, crying, laughing. Emotions could also be disguised by cynicism, sarcasm or humour. Emotions cause physical, chemical reactions in your head that make you very selective in listening.
– Power
One of the less explored and understood elements of the level of process is power. Someone could have power because of status, expertise, experience, authority of decision making, having an distinct network, gender, age, access to information, hierarchical position and so on. We distinguish power (authority) and influence (expertise). Power is in the hands of the person who decides (for example managers). Influence is being taken by people who are not allowed to take decisions (for example: staff-members)
When you intervene on the level of process, you aim to make the emotions, opinions or the power visible which is shown by the person in charge. Only in this way can they become an explicit part of the communication and can you actually deal with them, when they disturb moving forward on the content. These interventions are also labelled as reflections. A reflection is an abstraction of, for example, an emotion or an opinion. When you reflect, you have to listen very well to the things that are being said between the lines. The essence of what someone is arguing is often kept by the combination of tone of voice, speed and attitude (half-verbal signals), and not by the spoken words.
We give three examples of reflections on the three categories:
– Opinion: ‘you think that we can not go on any longer, because of the delays’;
– Emotion: ‘you are very happy that you finally got rid of him’;
– Authority: ‘actually you already made your decision (power on the base of position), ‘I understand that we have to trust in your expertise’ (power on the base of expertise).
