Blog
Feb 21
workplace communication competitive edge performance solutions

Barriers to Effective Workplace Communication

What is the number one complaint by your workforce?  Statistically, poor communication is at the top – the very top!  Do we put enough emphasis on training our workforce to effectively communicate?  The answer is usually, “No, we don’t.”

Why is it so difficult?  Communications are sent through what’s called ‘noise.’  Noise comes in three forms: environmental, physiological, and psychological, with the latter causing the most concerns.  Environmental involves adjacent activity, interruptions, distractions, etc. Physiological can be hearing issues to headaches to message processing.  Psychological is the most pervasive and introduces the largest barriers to communication.  Psychological involves stress, multi-tasking, workload, attitudes, value of communications, cultural ignorance, listening tendencies, etc. 

Did you know that after the average communication is transferred by the sender, only 50% is understood by the receiver, and after two days only 25% can be recalled!

Question: do you listen to respond, or listen to understand?  If we listen to respond, we miss the majority of the communication.  If we listen to understand, we receive the full communication and the intent behind it.  Then and only then we can actively communicate and accomplish action.

Educating your workforce on these barriers to communication, and helping them determine their listening tendencies are the first steps.  Establishing listening and communication skills and strategies is the next.  Actively applying those new skills and strategies is the prize!

Applying these newfound skills will transform your company with improved morale, relationship-building, workforce engagement, customer satisfaction, and improved bottom line.  Competitive Edge Performance Solutions can help your staff improve the delivery of communications, and the effectiveness of communications.

To learn more about how Competitive Edge Performance Solutions can help you achieve your goals, click here.

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About The Author

Rick is the President, CEO, and founder of Competitive Edge Performance Solutions, headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina. Rick has over 30 years of experience in management, and over 25 years of training experience. Rick has developed highly effective training materials and models in many disciplines and has taught these sessions all over the United States. Rick specializes in leadership, teamwork, management systems, systematic process improvement, strategy, continuous improvement, project management, performance management, innovation, re-engineering, organizational development, auditing strategies, risk management, executive coaching, and human resources management. Rick has been involved in the writing of many national guidance manuals associated with organizational management, environmental management, Lean Six Sigma, and continuous improvement. Rick is an adjunct professor at a Charleston college. As a professor he teaches management, strategy, communication, quality, auditing, and human resource management courses.