Barriers to Communication

A barrier to communication is something that keeps meanings from conversations.  Meaning barriers exist between all people, making communication much more difficult than most people seem to realize.  It is false to assume that if one can talk be can communicate.

-Reuel Howe,

Theologian and Educator

Have you ever entered a conversation excited and thrilled only to feel silenced and shut down?  You might have even prepared in advance what you were going to speak about only to find yourself once again feeling unheard and possibly rejected.

Since there is in most of us a strong desire for effective communication, why is it so rare and difficult to establish? 

One main reason this happens is that without realizing it, people typically inject communication barriers into their conversations.  It has been estimated that these barriers are used over 90 percent of the time when one or both parties to a conversation has a problem to be deal with or a need to be fulfilled.

Barriers

The challenge is to understand how you communicate, as a giver and receiver of information.  We all are responsible for how we choose to represent our information and how we choose to respond to information give. 

The good news is, barriers can be broken.  Break through happens when we choose to understand the barriers and how they work.

Communication barriers are high-risk responses- responses whose impact on communication is more times then not negative.  These roadblocks are more likely to be destructive when one or more persons who are interacting are under stress. 

They frequently diminish the other’s self-esteem.  They tend to trigger defensiveness, resistance, and resentment.  They can lead to dependency, withdrawal, feelings of defeat or of inadequacy. 

They decrease the likelihood that the other will find her/his own solution to her/his problem.  Each roadblock is a “feeling-blocker”; it reduced the likelihood that the other will constructively express her true feelings.  Repeated use of these road blockers can cause damage sometimes permanent in relationships.

If you feel stuck in your communication skills, most likely you are experiencing barriers that need to be broken. 

Join me tomorrow as I post about the undesirable responses that cause such blocking.

Cris