What is Effective Communication?
Effective Communication is a process where a message is received and understood by the receiver in the manner that the sender intended it to be.
Definition of Interpersonal Communication
I
nformation
exchanged between people via words, gestures/signs and body language.
The entities (sender and receiver) can be:
• One sender to one receiver • One sender to many receivers • Many senders to one receiver • Many senders to many receivers. This sounds crazier than it is, as an example think of a chorus singing at a church.
Definition of Business Communication
Business communication takes place in the context of people and organizations transacting business, so the definition of communication as listed at the top of the page applies.
The entities exchanging information are employees, customers, bosses, boards, stockholders, companies, departments and so forth.
One specific - and subjective - dynamic that applies to business communication is that it tends to use its own "language" (business jargon) and the entities (sender and receiver) tend to adopt and maintain their public identities while communicating. In some sense, business communication is not as authentic as other types of communication.
Summing Up
Communication in its most basic sense is transferring information from sender to receiver.
The various definitions of communication (organizational, business, interpersonal and so forth) are just flavors of the basic definition of communication.
Communication in its most expansive sense is everything and anything (not just information) that gets sent and received. Under this definition, all sentient beings are constantly communicating. But that's a whole different conversation that we won't get into just yet.
Working group
Small Group Communication
Small group communication includes: staff meetings, planning sessions, working sessions, project team meetings and committee (комиссия) meetings, board (правление) meetings and any other small group that meets and communicates.
In small groups, a facilitator (помощник) leads the discussion and the group participates as needed. The dynamics of small groups are different than those of large groups or one-on-one interactions.
In a group, the individual is affected by the attitude of the leader and the attitude of other members of the group. The need to look good (or avoid looking bad) is stronger. People may also bring their own agendas (повестка дня) to influence the group beyond the pre-established group goals. Individuals may also tend to agree with the group to avoid confrontations, a dynamic (динамика, движущие силы) known as groupthink.
Small groups can meet face to face or remotely aided (помогать) by technology. The dynamics are almost the same, the difference is that they play out via text or video on a screen; or voice on a telephone. The absence of presence does influence the way small groups communicate, but to a small degree.
Team
With the way today’s organisations are structured you probably work as part of team, even if it is a virtual one. Working in a team means getting work done with, through, and for others – and the thing about other people, is that they are different! It is this difference that makes team work both exciting and frustrating.(расстраивать)
An important realisation when working in a team is that the way you perceive and respond to the world (your personality) is NOT the “Right Way” or “The Only Way” to do things. This realisation reduces (уменьшать) our frustration and opens us to the possibility of collaboration (сотрудничество) rather than compromise (пойти на компромисс).
The team work cycle highlights the need for different personalities. Some people are better at generating ideas, some at evaluating ideas, some at making decisions and others at execution (implementation). If everyone on the team were the same, then some parts of the team work cycle would be left out.
Most team issues are due to a lack of effective communication resulting in people becoming aggressive creating conflict or becoming passive and de-motivated. The key self-leadership skill for team members is therefore ‘assertive (напористый) communication.’
IMPLEMENT – выполнять, осуществлять.
GENERATE – производить, генерировать.
Communication occurs when those involve have shared meaning and understanding. Since we don’t know what something means to someone unless we ask, communication involves asking questions and getting clarification. It also means speaking up (assertive) so that others know your meanings and understandings about what and how things should be done.
Assertive team communication has been made more complex in the virtual world where we don’t have non-verbal cues and we have to factor in cultural differences in speech styles and meanings.
In my experience, what remains a constant for high performing teams is that the following things are communicated and understood by all.
Vision - How this work/project is important to the company and the team members.
Group Identity – That we are all on the same team and all benefit from the success of the work.
Role Clarity – That we each have a role to play and that role is clearly defined.
Trust - We are all different but we can trust each other to do the work to the best of our abilities.
Recognition - Each of us will do our best for the team and appreciate others for doing the same.
Communication - We will both listen to others and speak up as appropriate so that everyone shares an understanding of what is possible at each stage of the work cycle.
Celebration - We will celebrate together with each milestone (этап) we reach.
Professional staff
All the workers employed in an organization considered as a group (medical/library staff)