Overcoming Challenges in Communication
When it comes to communication, there are many challenges that we face every day. As we discussed in the previous post, effective communication does not happen accidentally; we have to work at it with intentionality and perseverance! But what exactly are we up against? What are the biggest challenges to our communication, and how can we overcome them? That’s what we’re talking about today. We’ll look at three of the most common obstacles that disrupt our communication with others, and we’ll see what steps we can take to avoid them.
Three Kinds of Noise
In communication theory, there is a term called noise. And while it does include actual sounds that you hear around you, this kind of noise includes a lot more. Think of radio communication. If two people are trying to have a conversation via two shortwave radios, what might get in the way of their information swap? Static. The two people’s voices will be muffled, and the messages they’re trying to relay will get mixed up or cut off. It’s true that a big threat to healthy communication is when people simply don’t try to communicate. But, you might not know to watch out for metaphorical static, and it can be just as harmful.
Noise, in this context, is anything that threatens to disrupt communication between people. There are endless examples, but there are three major categories of noise (there are actually four, but we’ll only discuss three in this post). Those three categories are physical noise, physiological noise, and psychological noise. We will look at each kind of noise and lay out some steps for dealing with each.
Physical Noise
The first kind of noise – physical noise – is the most obvious. Physical noise is disruption to communication that comes from your physical environment. Sounds, then, are included in this category, and I’m sure we can all think of instances where sounds throw off our communication with others. Your screaming toddler makes it impossible to hear your husband calling from the other room. The bustle of the crowd makes it hard to hear your friend on the phone.
But the category of physical noise actually extends much further than simply sounds. Examples of physical noise could also include a flickering light during a lecture, which makes it more and more difficult for you to focus on what your professor is saying. Noise could take the form of a terrible smell that takes your attention away from a conversation, or maybe what disrupts your focus most is being too warm or too cold wherever you are. Trying to track with a presentation your boss is giving while sitting in a stuffy room? Good luck. Chances are, the noise in your environment will tamper with the communication between you and your boss, and the stuffiness of the room will keep you from receiving the information you were looking for.
That’s what physical noise is, now what can we do to combat it? Sometimes, there isn’t anything we can do to change the noise itself, but, as always, awareness is the first step towards change. Being conscious of the noise in your environment can be a help in itself, because you can then intentionally commit more focus to whoever you’re trying to communicate with in spite of the noise. For instance, if your coworker is trying to tell you something, but you’re distracted by an unusual humming sound you’ve never heard before, just recognizing that fact could help because you can rededicate your effort to listening well in that moment.
You could also, in this example, mention to your friend that you’re trying to listen but are struggling because of the distracting sound. You might be able to discover the source of the sound and solve whatever the problem might be, or you could move to a different place to finish your conversation.
Different kinds of physical noise will affect each of us differently, so it’s important to recognize what personally distracts you most. A stuffy room might not bother you, but it would definitely bother me. You might not be able to listen to music while you write an email, while others can. (Yes, I am using this example because I’m listening to music with words while I write this post.) Take a moment to consider and try to notice when it happens – what disruptions in your environment are most detrimental to your communication with others? Is there anything you can do to prevent or prepare for those things?
Physiological Noise
The next category of noise is physiological noise, which might be a little less obvious than physical noise is, but it follows the same principle. Physiological noise is disruptions to communication that happen in your own body. Returning to the example of listening to a presentation at work, you might experience physiological noise in the form of a rumbling stomach because you ran out of time to eat breakfast before you made it out the door. Or, maybe you didn’t get much sleep last night, so now you’re finding it hard to focus on reading this post. What am I saying? It might be hard to process because you have a headache. This is physiological noise.
What can you do about physiological noise when it’s keeping you from effective communication? Setting yourself up for success is a big part of it. If you want to be able to focus and listen well so you can give and receive communication well, then take care of yourself! People who are hungry, sleep-deprived, and dehydrated are not effective communicators. People who run themselves into the ground because they don’t know how to set boundaries between work and their personal life are not effective communicators. Because if you can’t focus because of all the physiological noise inside you, then you can’t communicate well. And if you can’t communicate well, there’s not much you can do well.
In a sense, physiological noise is your body trying to communicate with you. Whether the message is that you need to eat something, drink more water, or get more sleep, we would be wise not to ignore our bodies when they’re trying to tell us something. Trying to communicate with others while we’re filled with noise inside of us is like trying to have a conversation while there’s someone standing next to you just groaning. Or kicking you over and over. Or yelling in your face. It might sound a little cheesy, but if you want to be able to listen to others, you may have to get a little better at listening to your own body.
Psychological Noise
The last kind of noise that we’ll look at in this installment of our Effective Communication series is psychological noise. After discussing physical and physiological noise, you can probably figure out what this kind of noise includes. Psychological noise is disruption to your communication that comes from your mind. Worried about a big presentation coming up? Noise. Replaying a tense interaction from yesterday again and again? Noise. Wondering if you remembered to brush your teeth this morning? Noise.
Psychological noise is the hardest to see, and it’s also often the hardest to silence. It can be small, like anticipating a text from a friend. Or it can be dominating, like waiting to hear if you were accepted into grad school. If you think you might be getting engaged this weekend, that’s loud. That’s wildly distracting, and communicating with anyone else about anything else might be next to impossible. Sometimes psychological noise is easy to dispel by resolving whatever’s causing it, but a lot of times we can’t address the cause of that noise in the moment when it’s distracting us.
So, if we can’t resolve it, what can we do about psychological noise in our minds? How can we communicate effectively in the midst of these distractions? We’re back to awareness here. You will need to be able to recognize quickly when your preoccupations are getting in the way of giving or receiving information. Depending on how loud the noise is, you might have to stop and resolve it. Step outside and call your sister about that conversation that you can’t stop analyzing. Or you might have to postpone some communication today because you can’t resolve the noise until the evening. You might have to say something like this: “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but could we possibly circle back to this discussion tomorrow? I have a lot on my mind today, and I’m finding it difficult to focus. I want to be able to give you my full attention, and, right this minute, I’m not able to do that.” That might seem silly, but effective communication doesn’t just require intentionality; it also often requires humility.
Effective communication isn’t always easy, but it is always worth the work! Take time to consider how you can quiet some of the noise that disrupts your communication with others and map out some steps to take to set yourself up for success.
