We have all been in a situation where it seems as if we are missing a piece of a puzzle when we talk to others. Whether it's an informal, personal, or professional conversation. The message delivered by one person is not appropriately conveyed to the other person. This problem may lead to uncertainty, misunderstandings, and conflict if the message is wrongly interpreted.
In this blog, we want to discuss communication, where the misinterpretations come from, tendencies, and how we can effectively maneuver such obstacles preferably in a subtle manner.
Understanding Communication
The dictionary's definition of communication is: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior", which basically means the exchange of information.
There are many models that serve their purpose in each context. However, the sender-receiver model carries the essence of other models and is simpler than all of them. It consists of five elements:
1-THE SENDER(ENCODING): They start the communication process. Their speech is highly influenced by the frame of reference, mood, setting of the situation, and many other factors that come into play depending on the context.
2-THE RECEIVER(DECODING): On their end lies the understanding of the message. A receiver could either be one person, an entity, or an audience. In order to have successful communication, the message transmitted needs to be understood by the receiver.
3-THE MESSAGE: To ensure effective communication, it is important for the message to be conveyed and recognized. It could be in the form of a spoken language, a sales copy, a document, or non-verbal(facial expression, posture, hand movements, etc.), and many other ways. The message isn't what it's being said, rather what is intended. The sender has to carefully assess what they communicated. And the receiver's perception and interpretation encode the essence of the message.
There is a famous scene played in the movie Shutter Island, in which Leo Decaprio's character Teddy asks Chuck; "Which would be worse - To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?".
There is an undeniable indirect message being communicated in this passage, as Teddy may have subtly let Chuck know he was voluntarily admitting himself to a lobotomy. We can see Chuck's reaction as he called for Teddy, which Teddy refused to respond to.
4-THE CHANNEL: With today's technological advancements many channels of communication exist. Internet, phones, newsletters, TV, and the spoken language.
5-THE FEEDBACK: It is created by the receiver's response, whether be it verbal or non-verbal. Once the feedback is transmitted this simple model of communication reaches its full cycle.1
The Misinterpretation
Misinterpretations come from various factors such as:
Differences in experience: Different experiences shape different interpretations.
Differences in culture: People from dissimilar upbringings have values that are poles apart. Which influences the way they communicate.
Doublespeak: Deliberately speaking in an ambiguous language/tone. Open to many interpretations.
Mood: Mostly underestimated, a person's emotional state plays a major role in the way they communicate.
Among other factors are a language barrier(lost in translation), and differences in age and gender.
An example of misinterpretation is the tragedy of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The United States demanded that Japan completely surrenders or they would face "prompt and utter destruction." according to the Potsdam Declaration statement.
After the statement was made, Japanese prime minister at the time Kantaro Suzuki was pressured to respond, so in a conference, he responded to it by saying: "No comment, we're still thinking about it." However, it was interpreted as "We are ignoring it in contempt.", resulting in a fatal interpretation error, that may have caused the historic catastrophe in August 1945.2
Fallible Tendencies
We are error-prone, and it's crucial to be wary of certain behaviors that we elicit, for instance:
Taking things at face value: One of the mistakes we fall into is taking what's being said at face value. One must not be oblivious to people's intentions, so one must take precautions, especially when it concerns self-interest.
Assumptions: We also may fall into the hands of preconceived notions, which make us misinterpret because of our own biases.
Lack of context: Lacking context in most cases leads to disregarding information that we needed to attain, which would result in a foggy state that prevents us from interpreting the meaning accurately.
Ignoring non-verbal cues: One of the most important aspects of communication is non-verbal cues. One of the famous models of communication is the Mahrebian model. This suggests that communication is; 7% verbal, 55% non-verbal, and 38% tonality(the way our voice sounds). We can see that it's important to pay attention to certain signals, to fully get the message that is being transmitted to us.3
There is an example of non-verbal communication in a video of Rupert Murdoch(who controls The Times London, The Wall Street Journal, and most notably Fox News)4 and his son James testifying for a phone hacking media scandal at a British Parliament hearing. When his son wastes no time giving information, he interrupts him by reaching over with his hand to stop him from talking and changes the course of the hearing by reverting to a more time-consuming form of communication(as the hearing is bound by a limited time).
Final thoughts
Acknowledging the difficulties we face helps us better recognize where the issue, so it's important to put in the effort and navigate the challenges ourselves by:
1-Thinking before speaking: Taking deep breaths and calmly assessing the situation.
2-Getting used to uncomfortable situations: Experience and repetition help acquire a foundation to tackle these issues.
3-Building a stable state of mind: This doesn't come easily as it requires a fundamental change in behavior and determination.
4-Understanding communication: In all aspects, it proves to be critical in defined circumstances.
Even though we'd want our communications to be concise, conspicuous, and less mind-boggling, we have to come to terms that it is within human nature to speak and communicate in different ways depending on the subject, context, and other factors that we discussed.
Reading about psychology can help us understand these types of behaviors better, and trust in our judgements. Which we will uncover in future posts. For now, here is a book suggestion that explores how people often misinterpret each other's words, and how these misinterpretations can have consequences for our relationships.
I'd also like to thank our Communication Skills instructor Dr.Alireza Arshadikhamseh at Nisantasi University for the potent content in the course!
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1 Communication Handbook.https://meskc.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/elements-of-communication.pdf
2 A Translator's thoughts.https://translatorthoughts.com/2014/04/the-most-famous-examples-of-misinterpretation/
3 The British Library. Albert Mehrabianhttps://tinyurl.com/uk29r22h
4 Forbes. Ruper Murdoch & Family. https://www.forbes.com/profile/rupert-murdoch/?sh=58505173b1af
4 Comments
Awesome … keep going dude !!
ReplyDeleteWell written and love reading your ideas
ReplyDeleteA lot of informations! Thanks
ReplyDeleteGreat read, and thanks for the book recommendation!
ReplyDelete