poor communication essay

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“Poor Communication” Is Often a Symptom of a Different Problem

• Art Markman

It’s a common organizational scapegoat.

Do employees complain that your company suffers from a lack of communication? That the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? Maybe the one doing the complaining is you. Or perhaps, as many companies do, you conducted an employee engagement survey and “lack of communication” emerged as a top gripe.

• Art Markman , PhD, is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin and founding director of the program in the  Human Dimensions of Organizations . He has written over 150 scholarly papers on topics including reasoning, decision-making, and motivation. His most recent book is Bring Your Brain to Work: Using Cognitive Science to Get a Job, Do it Well, and Advance Your Career (HBR Press).

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Poor Communication Skills Can Lead to Loads of Stress—Here's What to Do

The good thing is that they can be improved

Nuttawan Jayawan / Getty Images

Half Listening, Listening to Respond, Or Not Listening At All

Passive-aggressive communication.

• Aggressive Communication Is Definitely Stress-Inducing"

Healthy relationships can feel so good and even bring us some much-needed stress relief. When communication is open and clear, small problems are dealt with quickly and easily, and the relationship moves on.

Sadly, toxic relationships are totally different. In fact, these relationships can be the biggest creators of stress. Often, toxic relationships (toxic friendships exist too), involve lots of poor communication. When communication is less healthy, stress ensues, small problems can become larger problems and resentment can grow.

At a Glance

Bettering our relationships often starts with working on our communication skills. There are some communication strategies (like tuning each other out) that should be avoided completely and others can make us feel more validated and heard. Implementing healthier communication strategies can improve our relationships and relieve stress.

There are several forms of poor listening, and they all wear away at relationships in one way or another.

A few types of poor listening include:

• Half listening (aka lazy listening) : This is the listening-but-not-really-listening style of someone who isn’t really paying attention but is politely saying, “Uh-huh…uh-huh.” This is only mildly detrimental, but it can damage a relationship when it's one-sided or chronic, and when one partner realizes that much of what they say isn’t really being heard or remembered. This can make a person feel less valued than they should feel.
• Listening to respond : More damaging than lazy listening is the type of listening where an important discussion is taking place and one person is merely waiting for their turn to talk rather than really hearing what their partner is saying. This creates a situation where listening isn’t really happening, therefore, understanding cannot take place. This wastes both people’s time and brings them no closer to one another when personal details are being shared, and no closer to a resolution when done in an important discussion.
• Not listening at all : Perhaps the most damaging form of poor listening is when one person simply refuses to listen or even tries to understand the other side. This happens all too often and creates a standoff situation more often than not.

Why These Types of Poor Listening Styles Stress Us Out

When we aren't listening well (or at all), one partner can easily feel that their time is wasted. Think of how stressful it is when you're venting to your friend but all they can do is keep looking at their phone while you're speaking. That feeling not only sucks, but it's also stressful. Instead of venting, you'll have to spend time asking your friend to put their phone away and listen. Or, you may just give up and not speak about your stress at all. Because what's the use right?

What to Try Instead

We've all been bad listeners at one point or another. But since you're here reading this article, it's clear you're looking to improve—kudos to you!

If you've been called out for half listening or not listening, try to be present, first and foremost, when you communicate.

Use active listening strategies like repeating back what you understand of what the other person has said. Try to validate feelings, and try to be sure you’re truly listening as much as you’d like to be heard. It’s more than worth the effort.

Sometimes, you'll even be stressed and won't have the bandwidth or patience to really listen to someone else. When this happens, it's better if we let the person know of another time we'll be able to chat.

This form of communication can show itself in many ways. One partner can undermine the other by agreeing to do something and then “forgetting,” or seeming to agree, but saying the opposite the next time the subject comes up.

Passive aggressiveness can also show itself through constant disagreement over small issues, particularly in front of others.

This Is Why Passive-Aggressiveness Makes Us So Mad and Stressed

It's been shown that passive-aggressive personality disorder (PAPD) leads to interpersonal stress and dysfunction.

Also, passive-aggressiveness can make us upset because it is hard to address. For instance, it can be easily denied, creating a “gaslighting” situation.

Moreover, when someone is being passive-aggressive with us, it feels as if we're communicating with someone who wants to make us feel bad or doesn't really care about us. Being on the receiving end of this kind of pettiness never ever feels good.

Again, active listening can help here. Assertive communication, where you directly discuss if you have a disagreement or an issue with someone, is also helpful. Using "I statements" (e.g., "I feel frustrated when...") can help others understand how you feel as well.

While this may seem like a conflict at the moment, it actually circumvents long-term conflict by resolving issues as they arise.

If you start to feel like someone is gaslighting you, it may be time to re-evaluate the relationship you have with them.

Hostile and Aggressive Communication Is Definitely Stress-Inducing

Aggressive communication involves overtly hostile communication, including criticism or even name-calling. It devalues the other person overtly, leaving people feeling defensive and leaving no veil over the overt conflict.

This is a form of verbal abuse and is something that no one should ever tolerate in a relationship.

If you or a loved one are a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential assistance from trained advocates.

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database .

Why Aggressive Communication Can Be So Hurtful and Stressful

 It never feels good to be attacked. Those using aggressive communication tactics are more interested in power and “winning” rather than coming to an understanding. This brings the conflict to a new level and makes mutual understanding elusive. 

If you find yourself on the receiving end of aggressiveness  and can’t get the person to understand your perspective, it may be time to distance yourself and use assertive communication techniques when necessary. Setting boundaries is a must.

If you're communicating with someone and feel as if you're about to say something mean, it's best to walk away and return to the conversation later.

What This Means For You

All of us can benefit from better communication skills and doing so will reduce so much unnecessary stress in our lives.

If you're struggling to communicate in a healthy way, reach out to a mental health professional.

Cohen D, Rollnick S, Smail S, Kinnersley P, Houston H, Edwards K. Communication, stress and distress: evolution of an individual support programme for medical students and doctors .  Med Educ . 2005;39(5):476-481. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2929.2005.02122.x

Laverdière O, Ogrodniczuk JS, Kealy D. Interpersonal Problems Associated With Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder .  J Nerv Ment Dis . 2019;207(10):820-825. doi:10.1097/NMD.0000000000001044

By Elizabeth Scott, PhD Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

How poor communication exacerbates health inequities – and what to do about it

Subscribe to the economic studies bulletin, stuart m. butler and stuart m. butler senior fellow - economic studies nehath sheriff nehath sheriff public health consultant - health management associates, former senior research analyst & project coordinator - economic studies.

February 22, 2021

• 14 min read

In the United States, we know that long-standing systemic health and social inequities increase the likelihood of poor outcomes or death for members of racial and ethnic minority groups. For example, Black babies are more likely to die before their first birthday , and Black women are more likely to die from childbirth-related causes than their white counterparts. The COVID-19 pandemic has also underscored the fact that economic and social circumstances , social determinants of health (SDOH), and maldistribution of resources contribute significantly to health inequity.

Many of the more tangible and measurable factors driving inequity could be addressed through a heightened national political commitment to achieving a better balance in health-related budgetary and organizational reforms . But some of the factors are less easy to see and measure – yet are perhaps just as challenging. Distrust and poor communication related to racial and cultural differences pervade the health system and frustrate many efforts to reach the goal of good and equitable care for all in America. All too often, Black patients and other minorities are spoken to rather than talked with; the result is less-effective interactions, less empathy and acknowledgment of concerns, and ultimately, worse outcomes.

Poor communication is a failing of the health system, not of patients. A good health system engages fairly and respectfully with everyone who seeks care, and it recognizes that its patients and plan enrollees come with a range of previous experiences with the health care system, as well as different literacy levels, language fluency, and cultural norms. It is the responsibility of system managers, and front-line providers, to ensure that everything from examination room interactions to provider training is guided by good communication techniques. But while health managers will usually say they recognize the importance of good communication, there remain profound barriers to introducing and implementing the techniques needed to achieve better outcomes and equity.

These barriers have deep roots.

Distrust of the medical system

The medical system has lost the trust of communities of color – and suspicion of this system is widespread in minority communities . A Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted in the Fall of 2020, for instance, found that far fewer Black adults trust doctors and hospitals to do the right thing most of the time than is the case for white people.

There are grim historical reasons for this distrust , emanating from such episodes as the 1932-1972 Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the forcible sterilization of Native American women throughout the 1970s. Cases like these are widely known throughout and across communities of color and diminish their confidence in the health system.

This history contributes in many communities to a lack of trust in the recommendations and actions of health care providers they view as holding racial and cultural biases. It is reinforced by perceptions by some groups that they are routinely treated unfairly when they interact with the health system, with a much higher proportion of Blacks than whites , for instance, expressing the feeling that it is hard to find a doctor who treats them with dignity and respect. This combination of history and ongoing disrespect leads to many population groups being less likely to follow physician instructions, less likely to access available medical care, and less inclined to heed public health recommendations. In September 2020, a study on race and health conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, for instance, found that half of the surveyed Black adults were not planning to take a coronavirus vaccine, even if it is free and deemed safe by scientists.

Poor communication

Even when there is trust, simple difficulties in communication can pose a significant barrier to good outcomes, disproportionately affecting some population groups. Defining and measuring “good communication” is not easy. The success or value of the same pattern of interaction between a provider and patient can be perceived quite differently by different pairs of individuals. Nevertheless, in medicine, there are several common reasons for poor communications that can affect health outcomes.

Using a professional interpreter, for instance, can still lead to subtle but important information being lost during interactions between immigrant patients and health providers, and can also make it more difficult to establish the close relationship and empathy that aids good treatment and outcomes.

But good communication goes beyond just language. Being sensitive to cultural differences is important even in interactions with a common language – from understanding conventions regarding eye contact to physicians appreciating ways in which lifestyle and culture can influence the relative effectiveness of alternative treatment plans. For success, some experts argue the approach of health providers should be that of cultural “humility” rather than cultural “competence.” However it is viewed, the degree of cultural connection can have profound implications in health care.

For example, a recent study in Oakland , California, found that when Black men were randomly assigned to either Black or white physicians for a checkup, Black physicians were more than 50 percent more effective than non-Black physicians in encouraging Black men to agree to preventative tests and vaccinations. Although they did not offer policy or practice recommendations, the authors concluded that generally achieving that level of “increased screening could lead to a 19% reduction in the Black-white male cardiovascular mortality gap and an 8% decline in the Black-white male life expectancy gap.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, a 2017 review of multiple studies found that “Black patients consistently experienced poorer communication quality, information-giving, patient participation, and participatory decision-making than white patients.”

Medical training

Medical schools and hospitals have been criticized for not focusing enough on communications training, thereby contributing to distrust and poor communication being a common characteristic of medical services. In addition, medical schools have been faulted for doing too little to debunk health stereotypes about different races and cultures, such as pain tolerance and race-related risk measurements in assessing patient conditions – even perpetuating them. One study of medical students found on average that these students endorsed over ten percent of a series of false differences between Black and white patients regarding pain, including differences in skin thickness and sensitivity to pain. Added to this are widespread unconscious racial biases among both providers and patients.

Medical schools and nursing programs have also generally done an inadequate job in training future medical personnel to appreciate and inquire about non-clinical factors in health, such as housing conditions, stress, nutrition, and other SDOH. The health of all patients is affected to some degree by social determinants, but they are disproportionately important for some patients and in some under-resourced communities. While medical students generally learn about social determinants as content areas, too little weight is given to how they should be understood and factored into strategies to assess and address a patient’s needs. For example, among chronically homeless patients, just  finding a safe place  for the patient to stay is often crucial to both improving health and decreasing costly hospital admissions. Yet there is rarely training offered to physicians on how they can help facilitate steps to address such issues.

In practice, most SDOH education is acquired on the job through informal experiential learning in hospitals and clinics. Medical personnel rarely learn effective non-clinical procedures for dealing with social factors affecting the health of their patients.

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Stuart M. Butler

December 9, 2020

Stuart M. Butler, Nehath Sheriff

November 23, 2020

Addressing Communication and Cultural Competency in Healthcare

If we are to achieve a more equitable and efficient healthcare system, it will be important to address these communication barriers that impact the operation of this health system. Fortunately, there are strategies available and some progress being made in utilizing them.

1. Enhance medical training

Better training of medical personnel is essential for improving communication between providers and patients. Medical schools have been taking some important steps. One is to amend course material that may inaccurately suggest racial differences in data related to diagnoses and patient reactions to treatment and procedures. At the University of Washington, for instance, medical students successfully questioned race as a coefficient in measuring kidney function . Some schools, such as the University of California San Francisco , are introducing courses for clinicians on how to avoid unconscious racial stereotyping and provides cautions for researchers on how to avoid unintentional bias. In 2016, a University of Minnesota team undertook a lengthy and detailed set of conversations with a diverse group of community members to help reshape medical training to reflect racial factors.

Medical schools have also sought to increase diversity in medical school admissions so that minority patients can more easily find physicians that may connect better with their background and life experience. Diversity requirements were put into place in 2009 by the Liaison Commission on Medical Education and the results indicate some modest improvement . Between 2002 and 2017, for instance, the percentage of Black enrolled students rose from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent; the proportion of Hispanic students rose from 5.4 percent to 8.9 percent. Much more still needs to be done. But some institutions show what is possible. For instance, 73 percent of the University of Houston College of Medicine inaugural class come from underrepresented minorities in medicine.

Another important step is to educate medical students more extensively on ways in which social factors can influence health conditions. In one example of trying to address this educational need, a group of clinicians and health educators at the University of Pittsburgh developed an SDOH “Fast Facts ” teaching tool: brief, evidence-based summaries of key SDOH topics commonly encountered by clinicians. Combining medical training with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) that covers social determinants is another way of equipping physicians with valuable skills to address social health factors, but that does require a longer period in training.

Hospitals and health systems also play an important role in the later stages of physician training and continuing medical education. Indeed, given the classroom focus of medical schools, there is generally more opportunity for gaining experience and training in communication during residency. Fortunately, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education now requires residency programs to address factors that lead to health disparities. Johns Hopkins responded in 2011 with a program that, among other things, requires every resident to develop partnerships with neighborhood religious and community groups.

2. Reach out to people and local institutions

Well-trained medical interpreters are important in overcoming the most obvious communications obstacles when medical providers are working with limited-English patients, but that is only one step for some patients and there are several reasons why interpreters are often underutilized or not used effectively. Health systems that are looking seriously at communications barriers also know they must go much further, combining better and culturally sensitive translation services with improved ways to connect more broadly with patients. The nation’s experience with combatting HIV in marginalized communities underscored the importance of working closely with respected local institutions to build trust and a network of support. Learning from such efforts and recognizing its troubled history with the non-white community in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins hospital has organized teams to go into communities and build trust with residents and their leaders, working with senior centers, churches, mosques, and other neighborhood settings. Since 2013 the Mayo Clinic has developed a similar partnership with Black churches in Minnesota, focused on cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions. North Carolina and the Washington, D.C. area are among the places where community clinics are working closely with Black churches to build greater acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. Trust-building approaches like these are urgently needed to increase the vaccination rate in non-white communities.

Community clinics have advantages over large hospital systems in tackling communications and trust issues because as primary health centers and neighborhood institutions, they are a more integral part of the neighborhood culture and community. Siloam Health in Nashville, Tennessee, has built on this inherent strength by training teams of community health workers to work closely with dozens of immigrant communities, enabling providers to work with patients in culturally sensitive ways. Meanwhile, Mary’s Center , a clinic system in the Washington, D.C. area, has formed over one hundred partnerships with service and cultural organizations to help address social determinants as well as language and cultural barriers faced by its mainly immigrant patients. A critical component of Mary’s Center’s service delivery model is building strong relationships with patients and key community stakeholders. 1

Such efforts to communicate directly to communities and individuals who may be distrustful or skeptical appears to be paying off in areas like COVID-19 vaccination. Thus, while the September Kaiser Family Foundation poll on race and health found that half of the surveyed Black adults were not planning to take a coronavirus vaccine. After concerted efforts using trusted spokespersons and Black medical personnel 62 percent of Black Americans said that will likely get vaccinated by December of 2020 (though still below the white percentage).

3. Use intermediaries

Respected and trained intermediaries can be crucial to building the relationships needed to assure trust, good communication, and often the connections to other social service needs. The frontline community health workers used by clinics and other parts of the health system are critical to this task. As an example, in Spanish-speaking communities, the promotores de salud model creates a link between members of the community and health care resources. While their primary role is linking vulnerable populations to the health care system, they also handle some aspects of case management, as well as language assistance and cultural competence support, advocacy, informal counseling, and building community capacity. The community health worker needs to operate as a member of the whole health team, with all team members sharing their insights and skills. But the cultural knowledge and shared experiences of these intermediaries allow them to deliver messages about available services in a way that community members can understand and trust and are more likely to follow.

Key establishments within communities, such as religious institutions, grocery stores, and even barbershops are effective ways to create trust and relationships to improve health and convey key public health messages. For instance, Health Advocates In-reach and Research (HAIR) partners with Black barbershops and beauty salons in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The shops and salons in effect credential health professionals with their clientele so that providers’ advice is more likely to be followed. Meanwhile, HAIR also trains barbers and stylists to be “Lay Health Advocates” to promote screening and help deliver public health and medical services to the Black community. Similarly, St. Louis University has for many years undertaken a “ Barbershop Tour ” program, in conjunction with the local chapter of 100 Black Men of America, a civic organization and service club, in which nursing and public health students screen barbershop patrons for blood pressure, smoking, nutrition, stress and other factors related to hypertension, and provide guidance on how to reduce health risks. Again, the role of the trusted, credentialing intermediary is critical to the program’s effectiveness.

Lay workers are critical intermediaries that improve communication between patients and the health system, which helps reduce the challenges and frustrations for both patient and provider. Harlem-based City Health Works , for example, imported a model from Africa and India to create a team of lay workers, known as “health coaches,” who go into the homes of patients. They help patients manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes, address social determinants (from housing problems to nutrition and transportation), and act as the patient’s agent with health providers. “They come from the community, with a different perspective,” says a senior local hospital official.  “They speak the language. And they can look in the refrigerator.”

Hospitals, physicians’ offices, and health plans should make greater use of such intermediaries. While an individual physician or hospital may lack the skills and resources to address issues that require trusted relationships, they can partner with organizations that do. Health Leads is a pathbreaking example of such a linking organization. For instance, a discharging hospital physician can write “prescriptions” for a patient’s social service as well as medical follow-up needs, and Health Leads can connect the patient with service programs and mobilize its networks of community-based organizations. Health plans and hospitals are also making more use of partnerships with trusted local community clinics. And COVID-19 vaccination efforts are also turning more to community clinics to address income and racial differences in take-up rates, thanks to their authoritative reputation close relationships with minority communities. Indeed, if we are to achieve an equitable health system, there will need to be strategic federal investments in community clinics and other community-based health services.

___________________

Achieving an equitable health care system requires action on several fronts. Much of the systemic inequity we see in the U.S. healthcare system today is the result of conscious decisions on the allocation of health resources. Those decisions need to be reassessed. In recent years we have become more conscious of “upstream” factors in health, such as housing, education, and other social determinants of health – and we have begun to consider steps to address these factors. It is important to recognize that person-to-person communication is also a critical component of equitable health; it is time for us to address that, too.

• Stuart Butler is an unpaid board member of Mary’s Center.

Economic Studies

Vani Agarwal, Chloe Zilkha, Richard G. Frank

July 16, 2024

Top of the Hill, Washington DC

10:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

Quinn Sanderson

July 9, 2024

Masking Poor Communications: Existing Relationships Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Efficiency and trustworthiness of communication are highly influenced by the nature of the existing relationship. While close relationships could help foster effective communication, failure to ensure that the information being communicated is objective, timely, and well encoded could result in poor communication.

Ineffective communication often goes unnoticed. A close relationship is often interpreted by people to mean that communication between the parties concerned is effective. Sole (2001) is of the opinion that the existence of close relationships makes the sender of information not to be focused on conceptualizing the exact manner in which the information being communicated would be decoded and understood by the receiver.

The greatest challenge that hinders effective communication among people who relates well is making the weird assumption that such a relationship will automatically translate to clear conceptualization of the information being communicated (HealthDay, 2011).

One such instance happened in a situation where a close friend winked at me in an attempt to signal me not say what he believed I wanted to say in response to a question that had been directed to me in a meeting. Presumably, the friend intended to tell me not to provide an answer to a question that had just been asked about the misappropriation of funds by another friend.

Unfortunately, having been used to the fact that the friend often winked at me when giving me a go ahead to do something, I went ahead to tell the truth to the committee members on the matter. The events that ensued were very disastrous as the friend who had misappropriated the money was expelled from the group. Had proper communication been undertaken, the issue would have been addressed through a more constructive and objective approach.

To avoid a repeat of such an episode, the choice of clear, universal, and easy to interpret communication approaches should always be done. To foster effective communication and interpretation of nonverbal communication mechanisms, people should never assume that mutual relationships and interests automatically translate to clear understanding the information being communicated.

As evidenced in my scenario, people in close relationships could be tempted to assume or exaggerate the information being communicated based on both their past experiences in life and their daily interactions (Sole, 2011; HealthDay, 2011).

In the event that such an unfortunate incidence happens again, instant explanation should be given so as to avoid possible misjudgment and severe repercussions. This will help to make communication clearer and thus eliminate poor judgment and making of unwarranted and detrimental assumptions.

It would also help to ensure that people in close relationships understand each other’s perspective by eliminating the “illusion of insight” and being more focused on establishing actual conceptualization of the information being communicated (HealthDay, 2011).

The “closeness-communication bias” syndrome highly contributes to over-estimation of the effectiveness and reliability of communication (HealthDay, 2011). Use of signals and phrases that have unclear or ambiguous meaning should always be avoided.

In a social setting, this would help to strengthen relationships by reducing conflicts, improving people’s adoption of ideas, and fostering diversity. Close relationships at the workplace are sometimes dangerous as they hinder transparency, accountability, team building, innovation and creativity, and faster and cost-effective project completion.

The above discussion reveals that if not objectively addressed, close relationships can only help to mask disgraceful communication. It is also evident that ineffective communication skills are dangerous not only for effective communication but also to the thriving of a relationship. Communication problems encountered in close relationships should be identified and addressed in a timely and efficient manner.

HealthDay. (2011). Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication. People may think loved ones understand them better than they actually do, research shows. The U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web.

Sole, K. (2011). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication . San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

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1. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?

1.4 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Communication

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions.  In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone are close to $4 billion annually! [1] Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year; if they are not properly or clearly defined, the problems remain unsolved.

You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before ( Figure 1.4.1 ); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse or a flood. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “ Comma Quirk ” in the Rogers Contract that cost $2 million. [3]   A small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million. [4]   Examine Edward Tufte’s discussion of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. [5] The failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. [6]   The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.

In small groups, examine each “case” and determine the following:

• Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
• Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
• Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
• Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. [7]

CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results

Bruce, a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and data from toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly safe and effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Bruce had since left the company, because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 2: The rejected current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more affordably, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that the new Acme regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed the potential cost savings over 3 years.

The proposals did not receive any response. Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

CASE 3: The instruction manual the scared customers away

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls

Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: Big science — Little rhetoric

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, [8] itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: The co-op student who mixed up genres

Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.

He wrote the essay first, because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.

• J. Bernoff, "Bad writing costs business billions," Daily Beast , Oct. 16, 2016 [Online]. Available:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll ↵
• J. Reiter, "The 'Project Cartoon' root cause," Medium, 2 July 2019. Available: https://medium.com/@thx2001r/the-project-cartoon-root-cause-5e82e404ec8a ↵
• G. Robertson, “Comma quirk irks Rogers,” Globe and Mail , Aug. 6, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/ ↵
• “The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business,” (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian [online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons ↵
• E. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint , 2001 [Online]. Available: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf ↵
• C. McFadden, "Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse," Interesting Engineering , July 4, 2017 [Online]: https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse ↵
• T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing ↵
• C. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York, NY: Random House, 1995. ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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More From Forbes

Why poor communication can slow down your team (and how to avoid it).

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In today’s fast-moving world, it’s very hard to stay focused and clearly communicate and understand important information. One of the biggest components that leads to poor communication is the number of channels we use on a daily basis to discuss pretty much everything.

We’re having conversations over the phone between meetings trying to explain the details of a task to one of our employees. We’re using video conferencing to catch up with co-workers abroad, updating them on the most recent changes to a project. Not only do we write and receive emails constantly, but we instant message the person sitting two desks ahead of us and text our spouse during lunch breaks — and on top of that, we keep in touch with old and new friends over multiple social media platforms.

The number of channels we are confronted with on a daily basis is exhausting. It has the potential to lead to a lot of problems in life and certainly at work. And the ways of communicating are only going to increase. How many times are people not hearing and understanding essentials, misinterpreting messages that make them angry or not executing right? It can be incredibly frustrating to have a conversation in one form or another, only to find out hours, or sometimes even days, later that the person on the other end has misinterpreted everything we’ve said, leaving us disappointed in having to start explaining all over again.

Confusion, misunderstandings and sometimes even arguments arise from using too many different channels over a messaging window or on the phone to educate others on their responsibilities and share our thoughts, ideas and feelings. We live in a multicultural world with language and cultural challenges, which makes it even harder to get on the same page with a person or team, especially in the workplace.

Bottom line: Of the many different symptoms of communication is an overload of information with no clear structure and vague directions. Not many truly understand the foundation of effective communication — the kind that saves us hours of unnecessary texting, defeated peers and more headaches. We can't always communicate and understand the message behind the words and sometimes can’t really express what we’re trying to say. Does a smiley really take out the sting behind the message? Can we use only words to explain our intentions and expect the person on the other end to read our minds?

Too often, due to a lack of information, people don’t understand what they’re supposed to do. In the end, it doesn’t matter that we have all the tools if we can’t use them properly to make them work in our favor.

If poor communication is the root of all evil, the question is: how we can change and communicate more efficiently? There are multiple ways to try to get a point across while avoiding misunderstandings:

First, choose the right form of communication for the right occasion. If the subject is important and sensitive, choose an in-person meeting or at least a phone call to discuss the matter. Additionally, always double-check that the other person understood everything, and leave space for questions.

Be aware, and don’t presume that your attempt of communicating was successful. Maybe even hit the “mental button” and think things through. Seek to gain perspective and know who the receiver or audience is, and then communicate in their language. Ask yourself how they might interpret certain information, based on their experience, language, religion or culture, and explain more detailed if needed.

When in the role of the receiver, reflect back, and don’t hesitate to ask for further clarification if something is not understood on your side.

Effective communication could be considered a long-lost art in the 21st century. Things come at us from left and right, and we often don't take time to think, reflect and set an intention for a conversation. But if we want to speed up processes in the office, be well understood and have people execute properly, it’s important to know the fundamental principles of communication.

When we know the person we’re communicating with, we can seek to understand things from their point of view and then clearly explain the matter, leaving less space for miscommunication and disappointment.

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Dissolve Disagreements: How Communication Impacts Conflict

In this podcast episode, we discuss how forms of “psychological distancing” can be used to build trust and encourage tolerance.

April 01, 2021

“Communication, conflict, and cooperation are intertwined in a multitude of ways,” says Nir Halevy , associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Halevy sits down with host Matt Abrahams, lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford GSB, to discuss how we can often solve conflicts and disagreements by employing the correct strategy in our communication.  

“How you articulate a particular grievance, your choice of words, the nonverbal aspects of your claim, such as the tone of your voice, can definitely influence reactions to your claim,” Halevy says.

Think Fast, Talk Smart is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business. Each episode provides concrete, easy-to-implement tools and techniques to help you hone and enhance your communication skills.

Full Transcript

Matt Abrahams: Our professional and personal lives are filled with conflict, disagreeing about project resources, arguing over screen time, debating strategy, discussing if the toilet seat should be up or down. Luckily, communication done right can provide a clear avenue for resolving these conflicts and kerfuffles.

Hello, I’m Matt Abrahams and I teach Strategic Communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today, I am really excited to be joined by GSB Professor Nir Halevy. Nir’s research focuses on conflict and cooperation, interactive decision-making, and hierarchy in groups and organizations. He explores how individuals and teams make decisions, manage conflicts, and cooperate to achieve shared goals. Welcome, Nir.

Thank you. It’s great to be here.

Matt Abrahams: I’ve had the pleasure of working with you and watching you teach your insights with an interactive approach. Really help your students learn. I’m looking forward to learning from you today. Shall we get started? I’d like to start by asking you to share how you think about conflict and the role communication plays in both initiating and resolving conflict.

Nir Halevy: This is a great question. It’s also a challenging one. Communication, conflict, and cooperation are intertwined in a multitude of ways. We can think about answers to your question from at least three different perspectives. First, communication often plays an important role in initiating disputes, disputes arise when one party makes a claim and the other party rejects that claim. How you articulate a particular grievance, your choice of words, the nonverbal aspects of your claim, such as the tone of your voice, can definitely influence reactions to your claim.

For example, claims vary in their directness and in their oppositional intensity, and these particular characteristics can influence the ensuing conflict. Second, we increasingly have more options available to us when it comes to choosing which communication medium we wish to use to manage conflicts. Different communication channels vary in their richness how much they provide you with valuable, visual, and auditory cues such as others, facial expressions, and their circumstances while they’re talking to you. Different communication channels also differ in their synchronicity and whether or not they create a paper trail or a digital footprint.

We know from research that using lean modes of communication like email, which involve low levels of synchronicity, can offer several benefits when it comes to resolving particularly intense disagreements. One benefit, for instance, concerns the fact that the asynchronous nature of email as a communication medium provides conflict parties with time to cool down, to think more deeply about the best way to get their message across. Another potential benefit of email is that it can level the playing field, to some extent. When the conflict involves parties with different levels of power or status, using an email can help parties level that playing field. A third perspective beyond the role of communication in instigating conflict and our use of different communication technologies to manage conflict, has to do with the content of our conflict-related communications. For example, how much we should poise and seem in control when communicating during conflict versus express high arousal emotions like anger is another important aspect. These choices have important consequences for the process and outcomes of the conflict.

For instance, using abstract communications can signal social distance, whereas using concrete communications can signal proximity. These three perspectives taken together that I just mentioned, are some of the topics we discuss in our negotiation classes.

Matt Abrahams: Oh, well, I absolutely have to sign up for that class because as I was thinking about what you were saying, you know, in the interpersonal conflict, I have it just at home. I was wondering maybe the best thing I can do with my kids is say, go to your room and send me an email about it rather than just go to your room and leave me alone. It’s really interesting because I, I my intuition would tell me that e-mail because it’s devoid of that that ability to to read emotional response would actually make conflict worse. I find it really interesting that lean methods of communication can actually improve conflict. I have to really think about that and can see how that could help me.

Nir Halevy: So just to kind of add to my previous response, I would say that it really depends on the nature of your preexisting relationship with the other party with whom you have a conflict. So, in choosing your mode of communication, your medium, your technology, I definitely keep in mind the nature of the preexisting relationship you already have with the party with whom you have the conflict.

Matt Abrahams: OK, so I can’t just send my kids to their room and say, send me an email and we’ll figure it out later. I appreciate that. So let’s move from interpersonal conflict to intergroup conflict. What are some of the things you’ve learned from your research about the role of communication in intergroup conflict?

Nir Halevy: Thank you for that question. Several research findings come to mind. Let me mention, here two projects that I think are particularly timely. The first project I want to mention, has to do with the challenges that speakers sometimes face in intergroup interactions. In that project, we were curious to know which approach people think is more effective for promoting tolerance and understanding when communicating in a diverse setting. Overlooking differences, for example, colorblindness in interracial interactions or emphasizing differences, for example, multiculturalism in cross-cultural interactions. We discovered that the critical factor that shapes people’s preferences for either approach has to do with a perceived intentionality of group-based discrimination. When people believe that others intentionally discriminate against these similar others, they prefer deemphasizing differences. An approach consistent with colorblindness, however, when people believe that others are simply uninformed, that their bias is unintentional, they prefer emphasizing differences between groups. The second project I want to mention illuminates the role of communication, intergroup conflict, and cooperation from a different perspective. Specifically, that project shows how the questions we ask shape the answers others provide. Consider, for example, the question, who would you blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israelis or the Palestinians? Now, consider a variation on this question. Who would you blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli right wing bloc, the Israeli left wing bloc, or the Palestinians? The second question simply unpacks Israelis to two subgroups. As it turns out, this simple change dramatically influences people’s answers with substantially more of the blame being attributed to the Israeli side when people get the second question rather than the first question. So this research shows that you can powerfully sway the narratives of intergroup conflict that people have in their minds using slight variations to the questions you ask them about the conflict.

Matt Abrahams: Wow, that’s really fascinating. It the way in which you frame the conflict influences the way in which people perceive and then react to it. That’s fascinating. And many of us, I think because of our emotion and because we get caught up in the conflict, we just frame it a certain way. And what I’m taking from what you just said, in both cases, stepping back and really thinking about how you frame the situation matters a lot.

Matt Abrahams: So let me move on. Beyond conflict, you’ve conducted research on psychological distance. Can you share what you mean by psychological distance? And what are some of the implications of that research for normal communicators?

Nir Halevy: Sure, psychological distance captures the experience that a particular entity, for example, another person or an event, is far from the self in the here and now. As you can tell from my answer, psychological distance has several different aspects. One obvious aspect is temporal distance. Right? Events can be in the near future or in the distant future. Another obvious aspect is physical distance: an event can take place close by or far away. Other aspects of psychological distance include social distance: how similar or dissimilar another person is to you and hypothetically: how unlikely or likely an event is. What we’ve done is, we’ve studied the role of psychological distance in different kinds of communications. So let me tell you about two contexts in which we have studied the effects of psychological distance on communications. The context of leadership and the context of contracting. In the context of leadership, we found that the communications that are most effective for promoting engagement and satisfaction among followers are those that match the level of psychological distance with the level of concreteness versus abstractness of the communication. Now, what do I mean by that? If you’re the CEO of a large corporation and you’re talking with employees that you have never met, the high level of psychological distance inherent in that situation calls for abstract communication, for example, for articulating broad vision for the future of the organization, the distant future.

However, if you’re a team leader discussing task performance with your direct subordinates, the low level of psychological distance inherent in that situation calls for concrete communications. You want to provide context-specific, detailed feedback and mentoring about the task at hand. So when a communicator’s match high psychological distance with abstract communications like vision, and they match low psychological distance with concrete communications like detailed feedback, they achieve what we call construal fits. The psychological experience of construal fit among listeners is fluency, they experience the message that we communicate as more fluent and the pleasure they derive from this fluency. The experience of fluency fuels positive reactions to the message.

Matt Abrahams: Wow, cool.

Nir Halevy: The second context in which we studied the use of abstract versus highly specific communications is employment contracts. Broadly speaking, employment contracts have two kinds of clauses. You have control clauses that aim to curb opportunistic behavior of the other party. You want to constrain their behavior through those control clauses. These tend to emphasize the parties opposite goals, thus creating a strong feeling of high social distance. However, you also have coordination clauses that aim to help the parties collaborate effectively. These kinds of clauses emphasize the parties’ shared goals, and they create a feeling of low social distance.

What our research shows is that optimal employment contracts, the ones that provide employees with feelings of autonomy, with a sense of intrinsic motivation, and make them persist on tasks and exert considerable effort, are those in which the control clauses are abstract and less detailed, and the coordination clauses in them are concrete and highly informative in a manner that supports coordination. We believe that achieving construal fit is extremely powerful as a tool for communicators, whether you’re a CEO, as in my first example, seeking to articulate broad and timeless vision, a team leader who is engaged in mentoring and giving feedback, or hiring manager who seeks to optimize the language of employment contracts.

Matt Abrahams: I love this research so much Nir. We have spent a lot of time on this podcast and I know you’ve seen me teach. And, you know, I spend a lot of time on this too, where we spend time telling people you’ve got to really understand and know your audience and you at a very specific nuance. To that, you have to think about what is the psychological distance you have relative to that audience. And then based on that answer, you have to then adjust the concreteness of the messaging that you create, be it spoken or in the case of contracts written because that can have a direct effect. Ultimately, you said it leads to fluency, this notion of positive affect towards the message and the messenger. I find this really, really fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you. So let’s get specific here. What are some specific tactics we can use in our communication to increase construal fit and thereby increase the fluency of our messages and their effect on the audience?

Nir Halevy: That’s a good question.

The most important aspect in preparing your message is being mindful of different kinds of distances. Think about how you as a speaker, who are you in that moment when you communicate with your audience, who your audience is and how similar or dissimilar you are from your audience. Think about the temporal aspect of your message. Are you talking about the distant future? In which case you should emphasize why the goals you talk about are important or are you talking about the near future, in which case, you should emphasize how to achieve these goals. Then when delivering your message or thinking through your delivery, in retrospect, you want to be mindful of any signs of dis-fluency in your communication. Did your audience seem puzzled by any of your choices? Did it happen when you were speaking too abstractly or too concretely? Finally, you also want to be mindful of the power of communication to change psychological distances. So it’s two-directional influence, really. You can make your audience feel psychologically closer to you by sharing a personal story with some detail, for example.

Matt Abrahams: I think this is really, really useful. So the piece about just thinking about the temporal nature of it really can matter because I have worked in my coaching practice and even with my MBA students where people get too tactical when talking about the future. And what you’ve just shared is in the future, when you’re when the distance, the temporal distance is great, you need to be more abstract. And I think that’s really important for people to think about. And I really am fascinated by this notion that we can adjust our psychological distance with people through what we say. So telling personal stories, self disclosure can increase the closeness we have with somebody. And I assume there are things we can do that would also increase distance. So we aren’t just victimized by our psychological distance. We actually can orchestrate in architect ways of bringing ourselves closer to or farther from the people we’re communicating with. Before we end near, I’d like to ask you the same three questions I ask everyone who joins me. Are you up for that?

Nir Halevy: Sure. All right.

Matt Abrahams: If you were to capture the best communication advice you ever received as a five to seven-word presentation slide title, what would it be?

Nir Halevy: That title would be the power of repetition. One instance in which the power of repetition became particularly apparent to me was in a meeting I had together with several other GSB faculty, with Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. Some of my colleagues asked him a range of different questions, and in his responses, he repeated his main message multiple times, in different ways. That kind of persistent focus made the message not only very clear, but also very memorable.

Matt Abrahams: Right, so saying the same thing over and over again, repeating yourself, helping people hear it again and again, see what I did there? That was a lot of repetition, but that can be really, really helpful. Who is a communicator that you admire and why?

Nir Halevy: I’ve often enjoyed watching President Barack Obama speak. I appreciated his masterful use of humor, which I find thoughtful, appropriate, and engaging, and his ability to garner both respect and liking from audience members.

Matt Abrahams: I also admire former President Obama and his speaking. I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know one of his speechwriters and have had that person join me in my class as a guest lecturer. And he has shared that that former President Obama is naturally very interested in and spends a lot of time on his communication and speaking. And we certainly can see that as those who hear it. Let me ask our final question. What are the first three ingredients that go into a successful communication recipe from your perspective?

Nir Halevy: So those would be you, them, and the message.

When I say you, I mean, who are you? You should know your strengths and your weaknesses as a communicator. When I say them, I really mean to ask, who are they? What would make the audience care about your message? And when I say the message, to make your message memorable, make it simple, make sure it evokes emotions and repeat it again and again.

Matt Abrahams: You know, I think you’ve summarized all of the episodes that we’ve had in our podcast in your simple three ingredients, you see them in the message that’s very powerful. Thank you for everything you’ve shared with us. Today is incredibly insightful and powerful. I feel psychologically much more close to you than I have before. So thank you for that.

And I really encourage everybody listening in to take stock of what Nir has shared with us and try to apply it to your upcoming communications. Thanks, Nir.

Nir Halevy: Thank you, Matt, for hosting the podcast.

Matt Abrahams: Thank you for listening to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast, a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business. To learn more, go to gsb.stanford.edu. Please download other episodes wherever you find your podcast.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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March 12, 2021 Question Everything: Why Curiosity Is Communication’s Secret Weapon In this podcast episode, we discuss how asking strong questions helps you build trust and connect with your audience.

July 17, 2020 The Art of Negotiation: How to Get More of What You Want In this podcast episode, we discuss the common mistakes people make during high stakes communication and how to effectively approach these conversations.

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Lack of communication in the workplace: causes and effects

Workplace communication is the exchange of information and ideas within an organization. Effective workplace communication is essential for companies to work effectively and productively.

With great internal communication between employees and employers comes increased morale, productivity, and commitment, especially with employers who spend the time and energy to create open communication lines.

These types of managers quickly build trust among employees , resulting in increased productivity and performance. Employees who effectively communicate with their colleagues and bosses continue to be valuable assets to the company.

Why is communication so important in the workplace?

• It avoids confusion
• It provides purpose
• It fosters a transparent company culture
• It creates accountability
• It builds productivity and growth

Effective communication in the workplace is central to reaching all business goals, as it defines organizational goals and helps coworkers better collaborate with one another. However, not all communication in a business environment is created equal. Some companies suffer from poor communication, resulting in friction, frustration, and confusion.

Poor communication often creates a tense environment where people are not motivated to be productive and not inspired to collaborate. This lack of motivation then affects how employees relate to clients and potential customers, negatively affecting the bottom line. So what is poor communication, exactly, and what are some of the causes and effects of poor communication?

What is poor communication in the workplace?

Poor workplace communication might mean that lines of communication are entirely broken, but this is relatively rare. More often, communication issues occur when there is a discrepancy between what is said and what is heard, whether between colleagues or between an employee and a manager. More specifically, the understanding between two people is not mutual when the person being communicated with misunderstands what you’re trying to communicate.

Here’s an example. An employer sets a deadline for turning in data on Friday, and an employee readily agrees to get the data in on Friday. On the surface, this may seem like good communication. However, the employee might think they have until 5 p.m. to deliver the data when it is actually due on Friday at 10 a.m. This mismatch of deadlines stemmed from poor communication — the information communicated between the employer and employee was incomplete.

What are the causes of poor communication in the workplace?

Poor leadership.

Employees look to business owners and their managers for direction in the workplace. Good communication that starts from the top down motivates staff members to be more productive and innovative. These good leaders clearly communicate objectives, goals, and future visions.

Poor leaders, on the other hand, are often indecisive and unable to inspire their teams. They may be impatient in their communication style, conveying that impatience through their tone of voice, facial expressions, or other means of nonverbal communication.

Poor communication and bad leadership may also stem from managers who lack information themselves. These managers are unable to answer questions or clarify points, so their employees are left even more confused and frustrated than when they started.

Unclear Objectives

Goals and objectives are powerful in business, as they focus attention on achieving desirable outcomes, such as profitability. Profitability does not just happen magically. It requires attentive employees who know what management expects them to accomplish and transparent objectives provide that direction.

If organizations lack clear strategic goals, or if managers are not informed of the tactical objectives their teams are expected to meet, employees will not receive the direction they need. This leads to confusion and frustration. Employees may end up underperforming even when trying their best.

Limited Feedback

Feedback is information that flows to a person who performed an action, informing that person of the results of that action. It is one of the most important forms of communication because it’s where real learning happens.

Effective employee feedback , both positive and negative, provides valuable information for making important decisions and improvements in the future. Top-performing companies recognize feedback as a key step in their continuous improvement cycles.

Without clear testing steps for each iteration and action, feedback will be limited. For example, does a new website form represent a significant improvement over the old one? Is a new product feature significantly easier to use? Without good feedback, employees will not have clear direction for improvement.

Demoralized Employees

When an employee loses interest in their work, they often become disengaged, creating communication problems for the company. Employees who feel demoralized often feel unvalued, unappreciated, and even disrespected despite their capacities and talents. This will often lead to the employee becoming unproductive and irritable, disregarding open lines of communication.

Restoring employee morale may involve reevaluating workplace culture to create an environment in which employees are personally invested enough to work—and communicate—with a good attitude.

Learn 5 Ways to Motivate Disengaged Employees

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

Diverse work environments have been proven to help companies grow, as they bring in new ideas for greater creativity and innovation. However, one challenge of increasing diversity in the workplace is the potential for poor communication. Different people from different backgrounds relay messages in different ways, with varied nonverbal cues, and the way messages are interpreted will often be different.

What are the effects of poor communication in the workplace?

Unpredictable work environment.

Poor communication causes a lack of predictability and stability within the workplace, leading to an uneasy environment for employees to work in. Employees might not clearly understand their objectives for the week or might misunderstand the process for a project, leading to poor productivity and ineffectiveness at their job. Employees and employers have a responsibility to facilitate an active dialogue in order to create a stable work environment in which employees can do their best work.

Less Effective Collaboration

Collaboration and communication go hand in hand. If employees are unable to communicate effectively, collaboration is very likely to suffer as well. Collaboration in the workplace is important in many ways, from promoting self-analysis to efficient problem-solving. Without collaboration, teams end up working in isolated silos, unaware of the progress and learning that has been achieved in other areas.

Workplace Conflict

The effects of poor communication may cause tensions to rise, resulting in potential conflicts between employees. Although they might not be immediately obvious, these tensions can cause two-way communication to break down even more.

An unwillingness to communicate may cause employees to make the wrong assumptions, resulting in work that has to be repeated—sometimes over and over. Good communication prevents workplace tensions from arising in the first place.

With poor communication, employees may have a harder time meeting expectations and deadlines, resulting in them falling behind. This could leave them with a sense of guilt, embarrassment, or even low self-esteem. This, in turn, can lead to significant drops in job satisfaction and a significant rise in attrition.

Lack of communication between management and employees

Although the lack of effective communication between management and employees can lead to significant frustration, poor communication is rarely intentional. In most cases, breakdowns in communication can be traced back to poor communication skills or simply not having the right communication tools.

Tips for more effective communication in the workplace

Effective workplace communication starts with strong workplace communication skills. The following communication strategies and effective communication practices can significantly improve communication between coworkers.

Active Listening

Ineffective communication often begins when the desire to communicate information is so strong that it overpowers the impulse to listen. Effective teams employ strong two-way communication to ensure that messages are communicated well in both directions.

When a manager conveys information, for example, employees may raise concerns about what they are being asked to do. Managers need to listen actively to those concerns, repeating them to ensure understanding and addressing them directly.

Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback is the art of conveying feedback that is clear, actionable, and positive. For example, a creative director might say something like this: “I love how you’ve incorporated our brand elements into this design. Let’s make this section here larger to really draw the eye to the focal point. Nice work.”

The first statement is positive, making sure the listener feels appreciated. The next statement provides clear, actionable direction that the artist can easily follow. It will improve the design while also conveying information the artist can learn from. The final statement returns to the overarching message of appreciation, recognizing the effort that the artist has put into the work.

Eye Contact

In oral communication, maintaining eye contact while listening will reassure the speaker that they are being heard. It is important, however, that facial expressions remain calm and open. Eye contact can be perceived as aggressive or derogatory when accompanied by negative emotional cues.

Nonverbal Communication

Eye contact is just one example of the nonverbal communication that makes up a huge portion of the information we take in during face-to-face communication. Effective workplace communication skills involve profound self-awareness of body language and facial expressions. The speaker must be aware not just of the words they’re choosing but of the way in which those words are delivered.

One common misconception is the idea that strong communication is delivered with a sense of force. In fact, remaining calm, even under pressure, conveys inner strength and is a far more effective communication method. A team leader who listens openly and addresses concerns with empathy is much more likely to foster active team collaboration and achieve operational results.

Frequent Communication

To combat poor communication, good team leaders write project descriptions clearly, assign individual tasks fairly, check in regularly to ask how things are, and set aside time each week to address workplace concerns. They also maintain an open-door policy to make sure grievances are addressed quickly and efficiently.

For these leaders, informal conversations, casual interactions, and honest communication often play key roles in their effective communication skills.

How to address poor communication in the workplace

To open communication channels, break down communication barriers, and build more effective teams, conveying key communication skills may not be enough. Company goals and company policies need to be conveyed consistently, across multiple communication channels. Senior management depends on middle management to bridge the gap between strategy and tactics, fostering collaboration and strong communication across every human interaction.

This requires more than good communication skills—effective communication also requires the right communication tools. At the managerial level, this might include project management tools to keep everyone on the same page or video conferencing tools to include remote teams in face-to-face interactions. Effective teams need many types of workplace internal communication tools to foster and maintain employee satisfaction.

For enterprise organizations, company communications present an even bigger problem. Maintaining a strong, vibrant company culture across remote teams in different cities and even around the world requires communication tools that are designed to address these unique needs.

Improving company communications—how to solve poor communication in the workplace

From demoralized employees to workplace conflicts, poor communication detrimentally affects an organization’s productivity and overall workplace culture. Improving communications can prove valuable for any business, leading to increased productivity, higher morale, and a positive benefit to the bottom line.

Enterprise businesses in particular need to prioritize investment in communication for a strong, vibrant corporate culture —including new technologies that can promote and maintain open lines of communication across a widely distributed workforce.

Here at Simpplr, we devote our time to simplifying employee communication , making it easier to connect and align with your employees. Our modern intranet solution opens multiple lines of communication with your employees so you can reach them where they are—in the ways they want to communicate—fostering an open culture of growth and transparent communication.

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Related Resources

Key Communication Styles for Leaders

Enhancing Employee Communication Strategies

Key Insights on Internal Communication Statistics

Effective Communication Strategies in the Workplace

Common Communication Mistakes in the Workplace

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Poor communication by health care professionals may lead to life-threatening complications: examples from two case reports

Abhishek tiwary.

1 Department of Internal Medicine, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal

Ajwani Rimal

Buddhi paudyal, keshav raj sigdel, buddha basnyat.

2 Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Patan hospital, Lalitpur, Nepal

Associated Data

All data underlying the results are available as part of the article and no additional source data are required.

Peer Review Summary

We report two cases which highlight the fact how poor communication leads to dangerously poor health outcome. We present the case of a 50-year-old woman recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis from Southern Nepal presented to Patan hospital with multiple episodes of vomiting and oral ulcers following the intake of methotrexate every day for 11 days, who was managed in the intensive care unit. Similarly, we present a 40-year-old man with ileo-caecal tuberculosis who was prescribed with anti-tubercular therapy (ATT) and prednisolone, who failed to take ATT due to poor communication and presented to Patan Hospital with features of disseminated tuberculosis following intake of 2 weeks of prednisolone alone. These were events that could have been easily prevented with proper communication skills. Improvement of communication between doctors and patients is paramount so that life-threatening events like these could be avoided.

Introduction

Communication refers to exchanging information with the help of different mediums, such as speaking, writing or body language 1 . It is of great importance in the field of medicine. Effective physician-patient communication is vital as it is related with favourable health outcomes such as increased patients satisfaction, compliance and overall health status 2 . A study in 2008 by Bartlett G et al. concluded that communication problems with patients lead to increased preventable adverse effects which were mostly drug-related 3 . It has been estimated that 27% of medical malpractice is the result of the communication failures. Better communication can reduce medical errors and patient injury 4 . Poor communication can result in various negative outcomes, such as decreased adherence to treatment, patients dissatisfaction and inefficient use of resources 5 . The cases discussed here highlight the importance of proper communication, how such unfortunate events could have been prevented with good communication skills. The traditional medical education curriculum in South Asia usually focuses more on technical expertise than teaching communication skills. This fact has hindered the capacity of technically expert health professionals to effectively communicate with their patients regarding the disease and treatment approach 6 , 7 . Thus, a concerted effort needs to be made to improve the communication skills of health professionals in South Asia.

Case reports

A 50-year-old woman diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 3 weeks previously presented to Emergency Department of Patan Hospital in June of 2018 with complaints of multiple episodes of vomiting and oral ulcers for 5 days. She had a history of multiple joint pain for a year, for which she sought medical attention in New Delhi, India as her son used to work there. She visited New Delhi with her neighbour, and there was diagnosed with RA. As per the standard treatment of RA, her treating rheumatologist prescribed her 15 mg methotrexate once weekly and 5 mg folic acid twice weekly without emphasizing that methotrexate is to be taken weekly and not daily. The pharmacist also failed to stress the weekly dose schedule. Unfortunately, she consumed methotrexate 15 mg daily for 11 days. At 11th day, she presented with those above complaints to the National Medical College and Teaching Hospital near her home in Birgunj, in the southern plains of Nepal. There she was managed conservatively with folic acid and fluids for 2 days, then referred to our centre for further management. She had ongoing vomiting and her examination of the oral cavity revealed multiple erythematous and ulcerative lesions. Her total white blood cell count (WBC) was 2400/µl (normal range, 4000–11000/µl), with an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of 1200/µl (normal range, 1500–8000/µl), haemoglobin of 9 g/dl (12–15 g/dl) and platelets of 84000/µl (150,000–450,000/µl). She was immediately admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for methotrexate toxicity (myelosuppression and mucositis). Her methotrexate was stopped and she was managed with leucovorin (15 mg once daily), GM-CSF (300 µg once daily) and nasogastric feeding as she was unable to eat anything because of the oral ulcers.

After 3 days in the ICU, she was transferred to the ward, where treatment with leucovorin and GM-CSF was continued at the same dose. She was discharged after a total of 11 days of hospital stay when her blood counts came back to within the normal range (WBC, 12300/µl; ANC, 6888/µl). Her haemoglobin increased to 13 g/dl and her platelet reached 340,000/µl. Her oral lesions subsided, and she was able to feed orally. She was started back on the correct dosage of methotrexate (15 mg once weekly) and counselled about the disease, medications (dosage and adverse effects) and was advised to follow up in rheumatology clinic. She has been followed-up every 3 months since then, is in remission and is taking medications properly.

A 40-year-old man from hills of Nepal presented to the emergency department of Patan Hospital in August 2018 with complaints of weakness in the right half of the body, deviation of the left side of the face and slurring of speech for 4 days. At 3 weeks prior to this, he had visited another tertiary level hospital in Kathmandu for pain in the lower abdomen and fever, where he was diagnosed as having ileo-cecal tuberculosis based on colonoscopy and biopsy with positive Ziehl-Neelson staining. He was then prescribed with antitubercular therapy (ATT) that included 3 tablets of Fixed dose combination consisting of isoniazid 75 mg, rifampicin 150 mg, pyrazinamide 400 mg and ethambutol 275 mg once daily and prednisolone 40 mg once daily. He was advised to take ATT from a health centre near his residence, whereas prednisolone was dispensed from the hospital pharmacy. Unfortunately, he just took prednisolone, but no ATT. As a result, he ended up in emergency with the aforementioned complaints. On evaluation, his chest x-ray showed features of pulmonary tuberculosis. Cerebral spinal Fluid (CSF) analysis was done which showed red blood cells (RBC) 200/µl (normal value, 0/µl), WBC 64/µl (normal range, 0–5/ µl), neutrophil 24%, lymphocytes 64%, protein 294 mg/dl (normal range, 15–45 mg/dl) and sugar 49 mg/dl (normal range, 50–80 mg/dl). Cerebrospinal fluid GeneXpert testing was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis . He was then diagnosed as disseminated tuberculosis with meningeal involvement and was admitted to Patan Hospital with ATT (3 tablets of fixed-dose combination consisting of Isoniazid 75mg, Rifampicin 150 mg, Pyrazinamide 400 mg and Ethambutol 275mg once daily) and dexamethasone (6 mg three times a day) for 3 days. He was then discharged with ATT (same dose as above) and prednisolone (40 mg once daily) after proper counselling about the nature of the disease and site of availability of anti-tubercular drugs. He came in for follow-up after 2 weeks with improvement in the symptoms and has been taking all medications properly.

In the discussed cases, the treating physicians had used the standard treatment protocol to best serve their patients. They used their medical knowledge in an appropriate manner to treat the disease condition, but proper communication with clear-cut emphasis on how and when to take the therapy, which is of utmost importance in achieving an overall positive health impact, was lacking. Had the doctors properly counselled and educated the patients regarding the disease, treatment options and the correct way of taking medications, these mishaps could have been prevented. Another major part of the communication involves the judgment of the doctor in figuring out how much the patient understood. As our patients were not literate, they could have explained about the disease and especially the weekly dosing of methotrexate and the availability and importance of ATT very clearly to the patient family. In South Asian countries like Nepal, the patient seldom is alone and therefore making things clear to the patient’s family is obviously a very important option that needs to be utilized to improve communication against the background of rampant illiteracy. In Nepal, only 48.6% of the population is literate; hence this fact needs to be kept in mind when explaining about diseases and prescribing drugs, especially regarding medicines that have dangerous side-effects 8 .

In Nepal, 25.2% population fall below the poverty line and 3.2% population are unemployed 9 . The young working generation have to leave their house for better employment opportunities, meaning they aren’t able to take care of their parents. In one of our cases, the son had to work in India for better employment opportunities and the patient came with her neighbour with whom the treating physician did not spend any time. It is possible that if the son had been there, he may well have been more concerned and asked more questions to the doctor. However, it is the responsibility of the health care professional to try to make sure the patient and their family have understood the matter clearly. There was also no caution mentioned by the pharmacy where the patient bought the medicine explaining the weekly (and not daily) dosing schedule of methotrexate. Hence there was failure of clear communication at various levels that led to this mishap.

Problems in doctor‐patient communication have received little attention as a potential but a remediable cause of health hazards, especially in a setting like this one in South Asia. Communication during the medical interaction among the health practitioner and the patient has a pivotal role in creating a positive health impact that includes drug adherence, future decision making on the interventions and modifying the health behaviours of the patient. We consider the cost and the negative impact on the outcome of the health from poor communication, which includes non-adherence to drugs regimens that will increase the burden of the cost of the total drug therapy, poor health outcomes, and unnecessary treatment and investigations. Different measures need to be considered to improve the communication between doctors and patients which would improve the overall health outcome. The measures include providing communication skills training to health care professionals and regular evaluation of communication skills of these professionals by interviewing the patients after a consultation.

Clear communication is vital in the proper treatment of the patient especially against the background of rampant illiteracy in countries such as Nepal in South Asia. Poor Communication may lead to life-threatening complications, as in our patients. For better communication practice, proper communication training to health care professionals including pharmacists is paramount.

Informed consent for publication of their clinical details, in the form of a fingerprint, was obtained from the patients.

Data availability

[version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Funding Statement

This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust (106680).

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Reviewer response for version 1

Jill allison.

1 Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada

• This article provides two cases where a lack of information and clear understanding of prescription medication contributed to morbidity and unnecessary suffering for the patients. The cases are linked to a lack of health professional engagement with the patient and failure to ensure full understanding of medication instructions. The cases and events surrounding are clearly described. The outcomes are also clearly described.
• The clinical scenario is well described but it would be helpful to know what steps were taken with these two patients to prevent similar circumstances. There is no mention of what was done to educate and inform the patient or their families on discharge. Was there an interdisciplinary team involved to try to ensure the patient got sufficient information and how was their level of comprehension assessed?
• There is a bit of repetition in the discussion and not many concrete suggestions for improving the skills of physicians in this area. Continuing medical education? Cultural competency teaching?
• There are a few grammatical errors that could be corrected to improve the paper. 
• Overall, an important concept for discussion and excellent examples of why the discussion must happen. 

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Sharad Onta

1 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

2 Nepal Public Health Foundation, Kathmandu, Nepal

Introduction:

• This section should focus on contextual facts about the central issue of the manuscript, communication in clinical practice in the present context. It is better to avoid assessment of the contents of the cases and conclusion with recommendation. 
• The statement “ The cases discussed here highlight the importance of proper communication, how such unfortunate events could have been prevented with good communication skills” indicates to the assessment of upcoming contents of the manuscript. It seems inappropriate in the introduction. (It better fits in the discussion).
• The last phrase of this section “ Thus, a concerted effort needs to be made to improve the communication skills of health professionals in South Asia” carries a notion of recommendation, which seems premature for this section of the manuscript. (It can be moved to the conclusion).
• It will be better to highlight the objective and rationale of presenting cases in this section. It provides the space for the authors to justify importance of communication in clinical practice.
• Adequate exploration of the facts as the evidence of poor communication in health service/clinical practices and highlights of these facts (findings) are necessary in presentation of the cases for justification of explanations narrated in the section of discussion. The cases in the manuscript look weak, as the communication aspects are not adequately elaborated on. Elaboration of communication dimension in the case presentation is desirable and, hence, suggested.
• As emphasized in the discussion section, and in the conclusion, of the manuscript, socio-economic characteristics of the service seekers are not clearly mentioned in the cases. Therefore, rationalization of importance of communication in the basis of these attributes is not well justifiable.  

Discussion:

Few examples:

• In case 1 – it should be explored in depth whether the attitude and faith of patients to recover earlier by getting medicine in more (frequently) quantity than prescribed dose could be the reason for this situation.
• In case 2 – role of poor communication is not established clearly. Other possible reasons for not taking ATT like unavailability of medicines, distance to the health centres, and so on should be excluded to establish the role of communication. If prednisolone was the underlying cause of complication of the case, it should be analyzed, whether dispensing prednisolone alone without AT medicines to the patient was a right practice/protocol and correlate with the communication.

Confidentiality:

• In case 1 – name of the referring hospital as National Medical College and Teaching Hospital is mentioned whereas in the case 2 – it is mentioned as another tertiary level hospital in Kathmandu . It is better to maintain the consistency.

Conclusion:

• The conclusion is not well based in facts of cases. The manuscript has justified the importance of communication (in Nepal) in the background of rampant illiteracy . However, literacy and other socio-economic status of the patients in both cases are not known.
• Language could be improved.
• Manuscript has addressed very relevant and useful issues. It should be considered for indexing after improvement incorporating all comments. 

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• February 19, 2024

Communication Shipwrecks: Lessons Learned from Communication Failures in the Workplace (Part 2)

Table of contents, 7 examples of poor communication with awful (and tragic) results, and how to do better.

In the world of business, government, and academia, miscommunications can have major consequences. Products can fail, organizations can lose billions of dollars, and people can lose their jobs (or worse). In the 7 examples that follow, we’re going to look at some of the most notorious and sometimes tragic miscommunications in recent history.

Our objective here isn’t to mock or assign blame, however. Rather, we want to highlight the ways good communication practices could have helped to avoid such situations, which – in these examples – have affected everyone from LeBron James to Santa Claus.

7 Examples of Poor Communication

1: lebron james – take the right tone.

On July 8, 2010, basketball superstar LeBron James  announced  that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat. An Ohio native, James made his announcement in a highly stylized ESPN special called “The Decision.” It was like James were publicly thumbing his nose at Cleveland in as showy a way as possible. Within hours, internet and TV commentators were savaging him. Later, James himself said that if he had to do it again, “I probably would do [the announcement] a little bit different.” Indeed, when he returned to the Cavaliers in 2011, he made the announcement quietly in an essay in  Sports Illustrated .

Tone is as important as content.  News delivered boastfully on prime-time national television has a different effect from news delivered modestly in a magazine. It’s the same in the workplace: news delivered by company-wide memo, for example, has a different impact from news delivered by more carefully targeted emails or in-person meetings.

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2: Yahoo! – Respect your audience

In February 2013, the Yahoo! HR department sent a memo to all Yahoo employees  announcing  that henceforth all employees would be required to work in the company’s offices, overturning previous policy and instituting a major cultural change. But the memo was full of empty, generic, and unpersuasive statements like “I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.” As a result, morale plummeted.

In business, clear, honest, and respectful communication is critical.  Here, the audience wanted to know the real reasons for the change – productivity issues? Financial losses? Something else? When they didn’t get that information, they were frustrated and upset. Any workplace document should consider what its audience wants and needs to know. When you deliver important news, remember that spin is no substitute for substance.

3: Roswell Honda – Proof that proofreading matters

In July 2007, some folks in Roswell, New Mexico, went to their mailboxes to discover that they had each won $1,000 from the Roswell Honda car dealership in a scratch-off direct-mail  sweepstakes . The problem: thirty thousand folks received the same message, when only a single person was supposed to. The car dealership was left explaining to an angry mob that it couldn’t pay their “winning” tickets, all because the ad agency designing the promotion failed to check the scratch-off tickets carefully!

The power of proofreading is avoiding fiascos like this!  Never assume that someone else has taken care of the small details. Before being widely circulated, every document, no matter how small, deserves careful attention to detail, at every step of the process.

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4: Netflix – Poor planning can turn a stream of satisfied customers into a flood of unhappy ones.

At the beginning of 2011, if you subscribed to Netflix, you could have DVDs delivered to your home and stream them on your TV. But that year the company decided to  split itself  in two: “Netflix” would still mail you DVDs, but the streaming service would now be called “Qwikster.”

However, the Qwikster roll-out turned into one of the most notorious examples of poor communication. Customers didn’t understand it. The name “Qwikster” had no connection to Netflix or streaming. In fact, if they went to @Qwikster on Twitter to file a complaint, they ended up at the site of a marijuana-happy teenager who owned the name. Many customers left Netflix altogether. The company’s stock plummeted. Before long, the company’s CEO gave up and killed Qwikster.

Communication is critical to change management, and clear branding is key to retaining customer loyalty.  In the corporate world, big changes for customers or employees should be carefully communicated, through easily accessible media (a letter or email, perhaps, not a blog) and in language that makes sense. Even business or product names demand careful thought. “Qwikster,” for example, means nothing; “Netflix Streaming” might have made things clearer.

5: Ikea – Sometimes a picture  isn’t  worth a thousand words.

The Sweden-based home-furnishings company Ikea is famous for its modernistic furniture styles and for one other thing: its wordless assembly instructions. Buy an Ikea computer station, for example, and you get 32 pages of assembly instructions without a single word—only illustrations. In this way, the company, which has customers worldwide, can avoid having to print its instructions in many languages.

Wordless instructions, however, can have two drawbacks: 1) they sometimes leave out steps and 2) they don’t work well for those who are not good at translating the images they see into actions. The results can be tragic. In recent years, at least two children were killed  when Ikea dressers tipped over  onto them. Ikea claims that it warns buyers (in words) to anchor such items to walls to prevent them from tipping over, but image-only instructions are inadequate for conveying such important warnings. In response, Ikea has had to create a series of TV ads warning its customers always to anchor large pieces of furniture.

Instruction manuals and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are among the most important documents an organization produces.  Clear instructions, using an effective mix of images and words, are necessary to prevent frustration and safety problems.

Standard operating procedures: Every company has them, but not every team knows how to write them..

Hurley Write’s SOP writing course is a valuable tool for all types of firms in need of better SOPs. View Course Details

6: Deepwater Horizon – When communication problems spill over, they can be deadly.

This is one of the deadliest examples of poor communication. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, resulting in the deaths of eleven workers and the largest oil spill in history. Nearly 5 million barrels of oil polluted the gulf and its surrounding shoreline, killing millions of animals, damaging whole underwater and shoreline ecosystems, destroying Gulf Coast businesses, and costing BP, the company that ran the rig, more than $42 billion in criminal and civil settlements.

The Presidential Commission that examined the causes of the disaster found that technology failures were of course part of the problem, but so was something else: a “ failure of management ” that included major “communication failures.” BP, its engineering firm Halliburton, and Transocean, which owned the rigs, had not shared a number of technological issues clearly with each other from the very conception of the drilling operation. And on the day of the explosion, rig technicians had conducted pressure tests that suggested something might be wrong—but the results of those basic tests had never been communicated clearly to, taken seriously by, or properly interpreted by those in charge. After the explosion, further communication failures complicated the oil-spill cleanup in the region.

The President’s Report on the disaster explained that “better communication within and between BP and its contractors” could have helped to prevent the disaster.  Careful communication procedures are especially important when different departments or organizations are trying to work together. The disaster also highlights another key truth: It’s not just instruction-manual writers and PR folks, but also engineers, scientists, and technicians who must be taught how to analyze, receive, and share information effectively.

7: UPS – Mismanaged expectations can ruin Christmas.

On Christmas Day, 2013, Santa Claus himself was the victim of a communication failure. During most of the day on Christmas Eve that year, UPS, the package delivery company, continued to assure customers online that their  Christmas gifts would arrive  by Christmas morning. Then suddenly, at the very end of the day, thousands of customers were told that, nope, sorry, their packages wouldn’t arrive until after Christmas. For thousands of UPS customers, Santa would miss his deadline.

The failure to deliver was bad enough. The delay in communicating the problem was just as bad. And worse, still, was the way UPS responded to the snafu: it cavalierly tried to dismiss the problem, claiming that “only a small percentage” of customers were affected—hardly consoling to those thousands of households where Santa failed to show up.

Timely, accurate, honest communication is at the heart of good customer service—and of good business practices, period.

The good news: you can avoid becoming one of these examples of poor communication.

These types of errors occur for a variety of reasons, but, as we’ve illustrated, poor communication is at the heart. Ensuring that your team has the tools it needs to plan, write, and revise effectively and efficiently can prevent such errors.

For other examples of communication failures in the workplace – and the lessons we can learn from them – read our article about “ Communication Shipwrecks .”

Hurley Write can help you ensure that your organization’s internal and external communications are efficient and effective so you can avoid similarly problematic poor written communication examples . Our instructor-led writing workshops, delivered at your facility; interactive online courses; and customized webinars use readability studies as the foundation, which means that your team learns real strategies to help them write targeted documents that are clear, concise, and precise.

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Poor Communication in the Healthcare Setting, Essay Example

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Describing a poor practice and its consequences

Healthcare improvement is a subject that receives much attention from various stakeholders. Healthcare provision requires synchronizing the providers, financiers, equipment, and patients. In the provision of health care, communication is a crucial aspect. Effective communication between nurses and physicians is essential to care. There are situations where this link is most crucial, such as in older patients with comorbidities that require them to move between healthcare settings. Research has gone into the improvement of such crucial components of healthcare, with published work on the state of communication as well as the various suggestions for developing and improving the strategies, along with the creation of proper packing of the information for clarity.

The lack of proper communication in healthcare settings can often lead to adverse medical outcomes. Kunjukunju and Ahmad (2019) reveal how poor communication exists in healthcare settings and its negative effect on quality care. Deficient communication among healthcare providers existed when messages left for physicians were not received, nurses could not read the physician’s orders and not bothering to confirm, and physicians did not have the patience or consideration to listen to nurses’ opinions. These are the most common examples of deficient communication. Kunjukunju and Ahmad (2019)point out that this exists due to an apparent creation of warring factions. This is true since the health care providers often group themselves into factions that feel independent and superior. However, for communication to be efficient in the healthcare system, these factions need to unite and work co-dependently, as Kunjukunju and Ahmad (2019) suggest. Better healthcare outcomes are incredibly independent of effective communication between the different moving parts in healthcare settings.

Communication is a key component across all the steps of the healthcare process. Whether it is in the clinic or healthcare setting comprising of a multi-disciplinary team brainstorming on the relevant treatment options to provide patients with quality care while ensuring patient safety and effective communication should always be present. Across the United States, the lack of interactions in organizations providing care there has been a spike in medical errors and reduced patient outcomes (Ottosen et al., 2019). However, this implies that better communication in the healthcare setting can benefit both patients and healthcare stakeholders. Poor communication in the healthcare setting has been the leading cause of the high cost of medication, poor patient health outcomes, and declined day-to-day operations and working efficiency. With better communication, patients can receive better care and reduces the prospect of medical errors due to better interactions in multi-disciplinary teams to realize improved patient outcomes.

The critical argument of evidence-based practice for resolving poor practice

Patient’s values

Patient satisfaction is one of the reasons healthcare actors must have effective communication to involve them with patient-centered and quality care. Communication in a healthcare setting is one of the most important tools for providing patient care and improving patient satisfaction. Communication is the imparting or exchanging of information or news. The lack of better communication in healthcare settings can be attributed to the prevalence of adverse medical events and mortality rates in the previous five years. This shows that better communication methods would benefit patients and healthcare providers. Effective communication interventions in a healthcare setting, particularly when collaborating with other healthcare professionals in practices and the patient, is imperative in deriving improved clinical outcomes. By interacting effectively, healthcare experts can make informed medical decisions on the approach their treatment plans should take to ensure patient safety.

Patient safety is the priority in any healthcare setting when formulating a treatment plan. However, a treatment plan’s success and patient outcomes depend on effective communication. Poor communication can be detrimental because inaccurate information or lack of clarity makes medical experts make uninformed decisions that are likely to cause adverse medical events in healthcare settings and subsequently negatively affect patient safety. In a study by Greiner and Knebel (2018), an elderly patient hospitalized after falling and injuring her had other underlying issues, including diabetes and heart issues. On visiting a hospital, she interacted with different healthcare professionals, including cardiologists, therapists, and a palliative care nurse (Greiner & Knebel, 2018). After receiving treatment, she was later discharged further information was left with her care for further intervention. However, Greiner and Knebel (2018) denote that the patient was later readmitted to the emergency unit due to a lack of proper communication on her treatment plan leading to an adverse health incident. Such incidents demonstrate the significance of effective communication between healthcare professionals in healthcare settings to realize positive patient outcomes. The absence of coordination between healthcare workers can often result in the prospect of medical errors and, subsequently, adverse medical events. Similar sentiments are raised in O’Daniel and Rosenstein’s (2018) study depicting the effects of lack of coordination on a patient’s healthcare outcomes. More specifically, ambiguous information often leads to inconsistent decisions that might result in medical errors and, in the process, lead to complications that might have been prevented with effective communication between healthcare professionals. There is a need for interventions in healthcare settings to promote healthcare interventions that foster patient safety and enhanced patient outcomes.

Effective communication with patients is extremely important in e healthcare, especially before they leave hospital settings. Poor communication leads to many medical errors at home and in hospitals. The main factors that lead to ineffective communication are mental health status and access to ambiguous information on the part of the healthcare worker. A very strong and powerful relationship exists between a patient and the healthcare professionals in a healthcare setting. As a result, a mutual relationship is formed between the two parties where one party depends on the information that is provided by the other to come up with a solution. The research shows that for healthcare professionals to be of assistance to the patient, he/she must first open good communication with the patient despite the level of knowledge that these professionals have (Kee et al., 2018). Good communication between a patient and healthcare professionals has many advantages discussed in this paper and the roles that good communication plays in the healthcare system.

When a patient relates well to the physician, he or she will feel secure and tend to trust the physician. As a result, the patients will give out all their problems without leaving even a single one. Depending on the physician’s knowledge, he/she will ask for more clarification from the patient to get the specific problem that the patient has (Kee et al., 2018). The physician will then provide the right medication to the patient, and if additional tests are to be done, the physician will recommend the specific one. As a result, the physician will prevent the patient’s severe health complications, thus preventing re-admission and saving the patient’s money. Ultimately, the patient will be satisfied with the services provided in that healthcare setting.

There is the likelihood of chaos erupting when a patient from a different culture and special population does not process the services delivered in a healthcare setting or cannot understand the language used (Foronda, MacWilliams, & McArthur 2016). A misunderstanding between the patient and the professionals in the healthcare setting causes all this. The above scenario can be minimized by ensuring good communication between these patients and healthcare professionals. The physicians have to ensure that they carefully listen to the patients and fully understand them. Suppose the patient does not belong to that neighborhood or does not speak the language used in the healthcare setting. In that case, the physicians should be responsible for finding an interpreter to assist in the communication process (Foronda, MacWilliams, & McArthur, 2016). The relatives of such patients should also assist when needed to have smooth communication between the two parties. All healthcare practitioners should use the teach-back method to ensure that patients know and understand the information given to them (MacLean et al., 2018). The health care providers should communicate so that the patient easily gets what has been said. It should be short, simple terms and sentences using the patient’s language. The advantage of clear communication is the satisfaction of both patients and healthcare providers.

Professional expertise

As the literature suggests, nurse-physician communication has often been studied, and the opinions generally reflect poor communication between the two groups. Studies into the association between nurse-physician collaboration and patients’ outcomes reveal adverse outcomes when inadequate communication exists. Negative outcomes are defined by death or re-admission ratings (Kunjukunju & Ahmad 2019). These are justified situations since most deaths in healthcare settings occur from poor communication over medication or the care that should be provided.

In today’s healthcare setting, the failure of teamwork and collaboration among healthcare professionals has become a critical problem destabilizing many healthcare organizations’ smooth operations. Healthcare organizations often view teamwork and employee collaboration as the most critical factors that result in positive nursing practices and quality healthcare service delivery. Inter-professional teamwork among healthcare professionals and workplace collaboration have improved patient outcomes and quality access to healthcare services. Despite the importance of teamwork and collaboration in healthcare institutions, many nursing homes have failed to capitalize. Instead, it has created a negative working environment, which has decreased employee productivity and morale. When employees fail to collaborate, they always lose trust and needed respect. Employee trust is crucial in improving positive working relationships, job satisfaction, team performance, and openness in sharing organizational information. Workplace collaboration among healthcare employees is critical in ensuring that team members understand one another, gain self-confidence, and create a positive working environment.

Positives can be seen from the research by Kunjukunju and Ahmad (2019), with various suggestions being provided to improve nurse-physician communication. Going through the suggestions, there are quite a several positives that can be achieved. Developing relationships between the two groups is essential to improving communication, which will be based on mutual respect. Another critical means will be the definition of communication strategies: email, pager, voicemail, or fax. This will help improve communication due to the transparent sharing of information at a faster rate. Finally, one workable suggestion would be video conferencing between the nurses and physicians. Video conferencing helps create instant feedback and link off-site nurses and physicians to the patient setting. The suggestions by Kunjukunju and Ahmad (2019) would be workable in any healthcare setting and critically assist in improving communication and hence better care provision.

Critical thinking skills have been strongly linked to improved patient outcomes, safety, and quality of patient care in healthcare organizations. Healthcare professionals must stimulate and lead the dialogue about applying critical thinking skills to overcome some critical healthcare issues affecting healthcare service delivery. Critical thinking and healthcare service delivery should cultivate themselves among the nursing staff. Teamwork and collaboration in the healthcare setting go hand-in-hand. Healthy literacy is increasingly important in today’s complex healthcare informational ecosystem. In developed countries, the nature of healthcare information has created a wealth of accessible information systems through which patients can collaborate effectively with healthcare experts to improve their healthcare outcomes.

When considering the effect of communication in the healthcare setting, patient safety is one of many reasons why effective communication should be enhanced in the healthcare setting. Smith et al. (2020) conducted a research study and found that teamwork and collaboration cannot occur without proper communication. Further, Smith et al. (2020) highlighted that lack of workplace collaboration and teamwork among healthcare professionals is the leading cause of poor healthcare service delivery in many healthcare settings. The literature review of 14 000 hospital deaths identified communication errors as the leading cause of death, twice the lack of workplace collaboration and teamwork (Smith et al., 2020). While effective communication is crucial in ensuring improved patient outcomes, teamwork and workplace collaboration among the nursing staff and patients should be significantly enhanced. Hearn (2021) argues that inter-hospital and intra-hospital collaboration can only occur with effective communication since it involves information sharing. Hearn (2021) further states that transmissions in the healthcare setting and between separate healthcare entities can be achieved better if the healthcare stakeholders maintain quality and improved communication. Capers (2018) found that many healthcare settings always encounter several barriers due to poor communication. The movement of patients from one hospital facility to another, sharing of medical records, and transportation of critical medical equipment all need clear communication between healthcare professionals, patients, and other healthcare providers. Poor communication regarding patient interactions with nurses, employee collaboration, and proper teamwork among healthcare professionals has been costly.

When addressing the issues of collaboration and teamwork among healthcare professionals, one must recall the importance of critical thinking skills in healthcare delivery. Capers (2018) found that collaboration among healthcare professionals is always driven by the ability of nurses and other healthcare professionals to think critically when solving organizational problems. The process of concluding, analyzing, and interpreting the medical or patient’s data is driven by the ability of healthcare professionals to think critically. Capers (2018) argues that nurses must consistently demonstrate high critical thinking skills when making clinical judgments and consider ethical, therapeutic, and diagnostic dimensions to solve healthcare concerns. Nurses must always think critically, be motivated, and demonstrate fair-mindedness, creativity, intuition, and flexibility. When healthcare professionals collaborate, they can easily solve the patient’s problem based on the assessment data. With proper critical thinking skills, nurses and other healthcare professionals can effectively evaluate and identify the nursing care outcome and assess the best medication procedure available to help a patient overcome their problems (Capers, 2018). Healthcare information should be produced and used in a meaningful manner. Healthcare professionals should not take advantage of patients because they lack healthcare literacy but should act within their consent while guided by nursing ethics and standards to help patients overcome their medical conditions.

Evidence-Based Research

Effective communication is interlinked with evidence-based practice (EBP) to derive improved clinical outcomes. According to a study by Dadich and Hosseinzadeh (2016), healthcare professionals must communicate effectively to appropriately apply EBPs in healthcare settings, and the channels through which they share such information affect health outcomes. Nowadays, healthcare providers, per the code of ethics, are required to incorporate recent EBPs in practice to provide quality care and realize positive patient outcomes. Such outcomes can be realized when healthcare professionals communicate with patients and their counterparts in practice to provide patient-centered care. That notwithstanding, involving the patient in understanding the condition they are grappling with and formulating a treatment plan plays a significant role in providing quality care and realizing positive health outcomes. Doing so demonstrates the significance of utilizing communication to engage patients and, in the process, enhance patient satisfaction.

Undeniably, the integration of EBPs in healthcare contributes to enhanced health outcomes, promotes the distribution of healthcare resources, and influences the formulation of government policy (Dadich & Hosseinzadeh, 2016). Through EBPs, healthcare professionals can seek government intervention in helping assist patients in vulnerable conditions to realize better healthcare outcomes by availing healthcare resources such as access to comprehensive insurance that covers their pre-existing conditions to prevent them from finding quality care. In addition, the government can utilize recent research to understand how the different demographics in the country are grappling with various conditions. According to Dadich and Hosseinzadeh (2016), identifying these areas helps distribute healthcare resources effectively. For example, with recent evidence, governments can easily identify regions with vulnerable populations and provide them with more resources compared to economically empowered ones. However, governments can utilize recent healthcare evidence with the help of healthcare professionals to determine the areas of need. While better communication would ensure the efficient distribution of resources, poor communication could jeopardize vulnerable patients due to a lack of access to the much-needed resources to receive quality care.

Recommendations

In summary, healthcare organizations often view teamwork and employee collaboration as the most critical factors that result in positive nursing practices and quality healthcare service delivery. When employees fail to teamwork or collaborate, they always lose trust and needed respect. Employee trust is crucial in improving positive working relationships, job satisfaction, team performance, and openness in sharing organizational information. Poor communication in the healthcare setting has been the leading cause of the high cost of medication, poor patient health outcomes, and declined day-to-day operations and working efficiency. Poor communication has been highly costly regarding patient interactions with nurses, employee collaboration, and proper teamwork among healthcare professionals.

To this end, for better healthcare outcomes in a given healthcare setting, cooperation between healthcare actors is imperative in guaranteeing patient safety and providing quality care. Nowadays, the use of EBPs has become relevant to be updated with recent healthcare practices to provide patient-centered care and improve patient outcomes. Effective communication between these parties can yield the desired outcomes in healthcare settings, and the contrary can often lead to adverse medical incidents. More particularly, nursing professionals in a multi-disciplinary setting must frequently interact to make informed decisions on the appropriate medical interventions to safeguard patient safety and improve their clinical outcomes. In simple terms, medical experts are recommended to integrate communication tools in the workplace to facilitate constant interactions on medical issues, including tracing treatment plans and understanding the appropriate evidence-based interventions to adopt when treating or discharging a patient. Proper communication between different departments in a hospital setting is important in ensuring their consistent conveyance of information to eradicate the prospect of ambiguity, considering that a patient’s life depends on accurate information from physicians.

Healthcare providers also have a role in ensuring that healthcare settings facilitate effective communication. Given the need for healthcare professionals to interact, healthcare providers must ensure that a company policy compels every employee to communicate effectively, and mechanisms must be implemented to track such events to avoid the prospect of victimization. The same applies to consumers who comprise patients that seek healthcare services in the facility. Regardless of their cultural background, they will be required to provide physicians with accurate information about their medical condition to allow them to make informed decisions on the appropriate treatment intervention they can adopt to realize positive health outcomes. In addition, healthcare providers must provide additional resources for training healthcare professionals on effective communication. Doing so ensures that all the medical experts are on board and fosters compliance with organization policy and code of conduct.

That notwithstanding, the community and government bodies play a significant role in providing healthcare actors and medical personnel with space to implement their interventions to provide patients with quality care. Both parties must promote interactions with each other, given that the community and government rely on the same personnel to deduce areas in the population that require more medical attention. It also informs the need for government to invest more resources in research to study healthcare issues affecting different demographics and formulate recommendations on how government can deal with healthcare problems affecting the population. By doing so, researchers can also provide healthcare professionals with additional insights on the most recent and effective EBPs they can incorporate in the healthcare setting to provide patients with quality care and improve their clinical outcomes.

Capers, T. (2018). Working Together to Improve Community-Level Health: The Evolution of the New York City Food & Fitness Partnership. Health Promotion Practice, 19(1_suppl), 57S62S.

Dadich, A., & Hosseinzadeh, H. (2016). Communication channels to promote evidence-based practice: a survey of primary care clinicians to determine perceived effects. Health Research Policy and Systems , 14 (1), 1-12.

Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B., & McArthur, E. (2016). Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice , 19 , 36-40.

Greiner, A. C., & Knebel, E. (2018). Challenges Facing the Health System and Implications for Educational Reform. Nih.gov; National Academies Press https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221522/

Hearn, J. (2021). Interprofessional Escape Room: Evaluating Teamwork among Healthcare Profession Students (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Arizona.).

Kee, J. W., Khoo, H. S., Lim, I., & Koh, M. Y. (2018). Communication skills in patient-doctor interactions: learning from patient complaints. Health Professions Education , 4 (2), 97-106.

Kunjukunju, A., & Ahmad, A. (2019). Effective communication among doctors and nurses: Barriers as perceived by doctors. The Malaysian Journal of Nursing (MJN) , 11 (2), 3-11.

MacLean, S., Kelly, M., Geddes, F., Della, P., (2018). Evaluating the Use of Teach-Back in Simulation Training to Improve Discharge Communication Practices of Undergraduate Nursing Students., E., Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 22, 13-21

O’Daniel, M., & Rosenstein, A. H. (2018). Professional Communication and Team Collaboration. NCBI; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/

Ottosen, T., Mani, N. S., & Fratta, M. N. (2019). Health information literacy awareness and capacity building: present and future. IFLA journal, 45(3), 207-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035219857441

Smith, C. A., Keselman, A., Wilson, A. J., & Midón, M. N. (2020). Consumer health literacy, the National Library of Medicine, and the public library: Bridging the gaps. In Roles and Responsibilities of Libraries in Increasing Consumer Health Literacy and Reducing Health Disparities. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0065- 283020200000047015

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Essay on Importance of Communication for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of communication:.

Communication is one of the important tools that aid us to connect with people. Either you are a student or a working professional, good communication is something that will connect you far ahead. Proper communication can help you to solve a number of issues and resolve problems. This is the reason that one must know how to communicate well. The skills of communication essential to be developed so that you are able to interact with people. And able to share your thoughts and reach out to them. All this needs the correct guidance and self-analysis as well.

Meaning of Communication

The word communication is basically a process of interaction with the people and their environment . Through such type of interactions, two or more individuals influence the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of each other.

Such interactions happen through the exchange of information through words, gestures, signs, symbols, and expressions. In organizations, communication is an endless process of giving and receiving information and to build social relationships.

Importance of Communication

Communication is not merely essential but the need of the hour. It allows you to get the trust of the people and at the same time carry better opportunities before you. Some important points are as follows –

Help to Build Relationships 

No matter either you are studying or working, communication can aid you to build a relationship with the people. If you are studying you communicate with classmates and teachers to build a relationship with them. Likewise in offices and organizations too, you make relationships with the staff, your boss and other people around.

Improve the Working Environment 

There are a number of issues which can be handled through the right and effective communication. Even planning needs communication both written as well as verbal. Hence it is essential to be good in them so as to fill in the communication gap.

Foster strong team

Communication helps to build a strong team environment in the office and other places. Any work which requires to be done in a team. It is only possible if the head communicates everything well and in the right direction.

Find the right solutions

Through communication, anyone can find solutions to even serious problems. When we talk, we get ideas from people that aid us to solve the issues. This is where communication comes into play. Powerful communication is the strength of any organization and can help it in many ways.

Earns more respect

If your communication skills are admirable, people will love and give you respect. If there is any problem, you will be the first person to be contacted. Thus it will increase your importance. Hence you can say that communications skills can make a big change to your reputation in society.

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Don’t Go Overboard With Your Point

The conversation is about to express your thoughts. And to let the other person know what you feel. It is not mean to prove that your point is correct and the other person is wrong. Don’t Overboard other With Your Point.

Watch Your Words

Before you say something to Watch Your Words. At times, out of anger or anxiousness, we say somethings that we must not say. Whenever you are in a professional meeting or in some formal place, where there is a necessity of communicating about your product or work then it is advised to practice the same beforehand

Communication is the greatest importance. It is important to sharing out one’s thoughts and feelings to live a fuller and happier life. The more we communicate the less we suffer and the better we feel about everything around. However, it is all the more necessary to learn the art of effective communication to put across ones point well.

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