Unit 1 (P3)

Unit 1 (P3)                                                                                                                         Scott Manton     
Discuss potential barriers to effective communication


There are several barriers that can occur when it comes to effective communication.

One of these barriers is: Background Noise.

Background Noise

When you are trying to communicate with someone, or even a group of people, having noise in the background will make it difficult for people to hear what you are saying. If you are trying to give instructions and there is too much background noise these instructions can be misheard or missed entirely. In the work place you need ensure key instructions are given clearly to prevent any problems that can appear due to miscommunication.

Another example of a barrier is: Cultural Differences

Cultural Differences

In some cultures people communicate differently, you will need to adapt to this to help them understand easier. For example: In some cultures they read text from right to left, not only text but websites are right to left instead of our way of left to right. This barrier can cause major problems because they will not be able to read or understand what you are saying.

Having a Diverse Audience is another barrier which may occur

Diverse Audience

When giving a speech if you have diverse audience it will become difficult to keep all of their attention. If your audience is a mix of children and adults, the children may become bored of listening to you talk for a long time. If you decide to make it more appealing to children the information may not be in great depth and the adults may decide to not pay attention. Also if the subject of the speech is not what everybody in the audience enjoys, the few may become restless and start to cause disruptions in your speech making it difficult for you to deliver it.

Barriers can happen because some words have Different Meanings

Different Meanings

When talking to somebody you have to be clear with what you are saying because the same word can have two or even more meanings, for example: BlackBerry. Blackberry is not only a fruit but recently become one of the most popular mobile phone companies. If you ask somebody who is not familiar with the different types of BlackBerry's if you wanted them to buy a BlackBerry phone they could end up buying the fruit by mistake.

Another example of a barrier is: Language

Language

Not everybody can speak and understand English. If you are talking to someone who cannot fully understand what you are saying it will be difficult to give instructions. They can mishear what you have said and do something completely different to what you have asked. If you are the one listening to someone who cannot speak English, you can become restless trying to understand them and just ignore what they have said.

Unit 1 (P2)

Unit 1 (P2)                                                                                                                         Scott Manton

P2-Explain the principles of effective communication.

General Skills:

Accuracy

When delivering a presentation you have to make sure the facts and figures you are saying are accurate. If the presentation is about how good a companies' sales are giving the wrong information will have drastic effect on the companies' future. For example; if you state the company made 1500 sales, of their product, last month with a total profit of £50,000 everybody will believe the company is doing well. But if the numbers you gave are inaccurate and in actual fact you only sold 750 generating less profit, £25,000, the company will go over budget because they believed they had £50,000 to spend. 

Question and Answer

When asking a question you need to ensure the question not only makes sense but is also relevant to the topic in hand. Asking the right question at the end of a discussion, or even during, will help you to understand the information easier because the answer will be more in depth. When somebody asks you the question and you have to answer you need to give a clear, definitive answer. Giving an example with your answer will help them to understand easier, try linking your answer to something they are familiar with this makes it easier to explain.

Techniques For Engaging Audience

There are many different techniques that can be used when engaging an audience, or an individual from an audience. For example: raising your voice. Raising your voice will tell the listener that what you are saying is important and it will stick in their brain as important information they need to remember or make notes on. Another example is body language. You will use body language to point out a specific a member of an audience, this will draw all of their attention on to you and they will register what you are saying easier. 

Interpersonal skills:

Barriers

Many different barriers can occur when giving a presentation or in a general discussion. For example: if you are talking to someone but they have their back to you they will not be fully engaged in what you are saying and they could miss key information. If in the work place key information or instructions are missed it will effect the outcome of the task and the work would not be fully completed. This can simply be prevented by saying the persons' name or tapping them on the back to get their full attention.

Techniques and Cues

Using different techniques when giving a presentation will depending on, not only the topic, but the audience you have delivering it to. If you are doing a presentation for kids at a primary school using pictures and videos is better way to go instead of using a bunch of text. Kids will lose interest quickly if the presentation is boring and full of text. As well as using pictures and videos, making it fun will help to engage the kids better. Making the presentation interactive, getting them all involved, will help them to remember the information given.

Methods

Using different methods when communicating with an audience or an individual will prevent it from becoming boring and losing the interest of the listener. This links in with using different techniques, such as using videos and pictures instead of text. You could also do a presentation in a different style. For example: have the audience asks you questions for you to answer making it more interactive and engaging the entire audience. This will make it easier for your audience to understand what you are talking about your answers will be question specific.

Written communication skills:

Spelling and Grammar

When writing out documents you need to ensure your spelling and grammar is correct. If the spelling is incorrect it will confuse the reader and they will not fully understand what you are trying to say. The same principle applies when it comes to grammar. Your grammar needs to be correct to make it clearer as well as making it easier to read. An example of a simple grammar mistake that could effect the reader is "Your" and "You're." "Your" meaning something belongs to you is different to "You're" which is "You are" meaning you need to do something. 

Proofreading

You need to proofread your document to make sure there are no spelling and grammar mistakes and also to ensure what you have said makes sense. If what you have said does not make sense the reader will find it difficult to understand and they may stop reading it all together. Proofreading ties in with spelling and grammar, you need to make sure you check everything is correct.

Note Taking

Note taking is important when it comes to presentations, because you may need to remember what information was given a number of months down the line. Not only is it important; it is also very useful because when it comes to doing a task yourself you have your notes there to read instead of trying to remember everything that was said. When note taking, make sure your notes are structured and clearly written so you can understand them easier when you come back to revise or use them.