In: Operations Management
Think about the last time you experienced very ineffective communication with another person—someone you work with, a classmate, a friend, a member of your family. Describe the incident. Then answer the following questions:
1. Why was your communication ineffective in this incident? 2. What stages of the communication process were particularly problematic and why? 3. Describe any filtering or information distortion that occurred. 4. How could you have handled this situation differently so communication would have been effective?
The one ineffective communication I remember I had recently was when I was provided the training for my marketing department for how to optimise and perform the social media platform for the generation of the leads.
1. The thing that went wrong in that communication was the whole communication pattern which was used to deliver the idea. The idea was to effectively provide the training to make myself understand with the optimisation concept. But instead, the training was done on an audio medium. A small tape recorder was placed besides my desk which answered a number of question if i asked about it. No personal touch or no human or video was used in this training session. Just the audio which was there to clear our doubts without even taking the feedback regarding what can also be done. I considered it one of the ineffective communication I had ever.
2. The stages of the communication pattern which were faulty were the Message, Medium and the Feedback analysis. The selection of the medium was absolutely wrong and ineffective. I couldn't able to understand what that person on the recorded was explaining it to me. I have to frequently ask the same question again and again. Also the feedback wasn't even taken. Nobody was asking if we udnerstood or not.
3. As mentioned, the medium that the organisation have chosen made the information distorted. The message was not at all clear. The Medium was also making the message hard to understand about what is being taught and disruption made the situation miserable to understand.
4. If I have to provide the same training, I'll go for the personalised training method. Instead of using any other media, I would personally go an train the person regarding what all has to be done. I'll show to him/her about how to use it and different aspects. I'll even ask the person about the feedback and if any problem arises or he doesn't understand, he could visit me anytime in the office to understand the same area. Every communication has to be converted into an effective one only when the right medium and message is used with the right situational factors.