Barriers to Communication | Overcome Strategy

Barriers to Communication

Effective Communication depends on mutual co-operation and understanding. It is not a one-way street. If you want to have others open up to you, you must be open yourself at first. Moreover, you have to ensure that the person you are communicating with will not only hear but also understand the statement you are going to make. Though it seems that sharing information and ideas is very simple, there are many barriers that impede the process of effective communication every day. If you are able to identify the barriers that stand in the way of successful communication, you can more successfully overcome this challenge of barriers and engage yourself in effective communication.  So, it is a must to overcome the barriers standing in the way of effective communication and express your points proficiently if you want to become an effective communicator. Let us now briefly discuss the barriers standing in the way of effective communication, and see how we can overcome them.

Time barriers

You have to spend required time for effective communication. If you fail to spend the necessary time and attempt to share your information, thoughts, and ideas hurriedly, no doubt that you are running the risk of ineffective communication and misunderstanding. So, it is advisable to remove these barriers by taking required time for communication. 

Distance barriers

It is easier to communicate with the people working in the same office than the people who are scattered across the state or the country. Communication becomes more challenging when distance bars face to face communication. This challenge can be overcome with the help of technology such as tele-conferencing and/or written communication.

Distraction barriers

If you want to communicate effectively, you must be fully attentive to your task. If your attention is distracted for any reason, there is no doubt that it will create a big barrier to effective communication. There are many forms of distractions. Some of them are physical, such as noise which makes the simple task of hearing a message difficult. Sometimes internal distractions can also hamper effective communication. Though overcoming distraction is challenging, you can get rid of it by dedicating yourself to be an attentive listener from the start to the end of the communication session.

Language barriers

If effective communication fails for any reason, it is not necessarily the fault of recipient's. If the sender of the message fails to write and send message effectively, it is natural that it will create barrier to information sharing. For instance, if anyone writes an unclear message, and/or it is filled with technical words and/or jargon, it can naturally be difficult for the recipient to understand its content. If you find that the message you have received is not comprehensible for any reason, ask the sender necessary questions for clarification so that you can gain a complete understanding of the content of the message.  

Interpersonal barriers

Interpersonal communication may fail for many reasons. Your message sent to the parties may not be received rightly the way as you intended and so you might seek feedback to be sure that your message is clearly understood. A skilled communicator, however, requires being aware of the barriers standing in the way of effective communication through gaining skills of listening, reading, and clarification.

Apparently, barriers to communication may happen at any phase in the communication process, and these barriers may lead your message to be distorted. As a result, you may run the risk of wasting time and money as distorting causes confusion and misunderstanding. However, followings are the barriers that hamper smooth and effective communication:

The use of technical words or jargon.

The use of over-complicated and/or unfamiliar terms.

Barriers that arise from emotion.

The use of taboo words.

Lack of attention, interest, and the presence of distractions.

Physical problems such as listening and speaking difficulties.

Barriers standing in the way of non-verbal communication.

Accent difficulties that lead to misunderstanding.

Prejudices, false assumptions, and stereotyping.

Cultural differences that usually lead to misunderstanding.

Undoubtedly, you can become a skilled communicator if you are aware of these barriers earlier and try at your level best to overcome them and/or to reduce their impacts while communicating. What you need most for this is to gain knowledge continually to develop mutual understanding and to offer appropriate feedback so that you can understand whether there is any barrier and/or gap between you and your receiver.