Reduce impact of communication barriers

Reduce Impact of Barriers in Communication

General communication:

Language:

It is possible to reduce barriers which can disturb general communication, e.g. in you are in another country where people speak a different language and may not understand English  or other current language which you speak, the best method is to have an interpreter with you who can help with translating the language or just have  a dictionary which can be a mini dictionary or an app language translator using android tablet, smartphone etc. which can be downloaded from apps store or google play.

Also the other way to reduce barriers in communication , e.g. if the person speaks too quietly ask if they can speak a little bit louder or if the person speaks too fast ask can they repeat the sentence or speak a little bit slower.


Interpersonal skills:

Noise:

There are different ways to reduce the barriers in interpersonal skills such as the audience not paying attention to your presentation.

This means you have to make your presentation a little bit more interesting because the audience doesn’t like boring presentations. In order to make your presentation interesting you can reduce the amount of text, add sound, videos or pictures, also use your body language and keep eye contact with your audience during and after presentation, ask those questions or let them ask questions.

Also try to speak clearly and loud enough so the audience can hear you, check where the noise is coming from. If the noise is coming from the computer system call for the technician to check it, if the noise is coming from outside try to close windows and doors, this may help reduce the noise.

Also make sure all phones are on silent or switched off as the phone noises can disturb the presentation too.

If you still cannot reduce the background noise then it would better to move to another room which is quieter or postpone your meeting for the next day when the noise will be less of an issue.


Written communication

Documents not structured well:

There are ways of reducing the barriers in written communication such as fixing the layout, text font/colour and size etc.

You have to make sure first that the text is clear enough to see such as use correct text size, use bold only on the main points and titles, the text and layout shouldn’t be too bright or too dark, also make sure that the text and layout are not too colourful or too blurry.

The other way of reducing the barriers in written communication is to make sure that you use correct language and don’t use text language, just use the language which your audience speaks. Also do not put too much text as if there is too much text the audience may get bored and won’t pay enough attention to read it.

You’ve to also make sure that your spelling and grammar are correct as some audience may not understand the words which are written badly and contain spelling mistakes which some audiences may misunderstand. You can use spell & grammar check in your Microsoft Word document or you can just use spelling and grammar check online which is free to use.

Also make sure you use headings in your written communication and use bullet points and tables to make the information and explanations clearer and shorter.