Friday, January 3, 2014

Communication - Barriers

In the last byte, we began our discussion on Barriers and Gateways to communication. In today's byte, we look at 2 such barriers to communication - Physical Separation.

Physical Separation:
In the current era of multinational companies, we often find teams working across time-zones and collaborating on work with people whom one would not have met in the real world. This sort of a collaborative environment at work relies heavily on communication and modern technology like telephone, e-mail etc have played a phenomenal role in making this possible.

While these medium of communication have definitely been helpful, they aren't as rich as face-to-face communication. Periodic face-to-face interaction acts like an antidote to the problems of physical separation. This is primarily due to the non-verbal cues that the receiver derives during such interactions.

In short, the richer a medium, lesser the potential for confusion and misunderstanding.

Another gateway to overcome this barrier of communication is the use of periodic/regular scheduled meeting for the people who collaborate in the workplace. A simple meeting which is attended by all the members of the team helps not just build the confidence but also reduces the mental misconceptions created through physical separation.

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