How To Handle Communication Break Down At The Office?

How To Handle Communication Break Down At The Office? – Break down of communication is a common occurrence which can happen to the best teams or at any office or at your of work and despite the fact that it is very crucial to the success of any team in meeting its set goals when together than when divided. The famous incidence of ‘Tower of Babel’ that was not able to reach the point of completion even though there were huge amount of resources and adequate manpower that was put in place to it was simply due to communication break down.

So , is your office currently experiencing communication break down or do you just want to learn how to handle it should in case it occurs? This article covers all you need to know about handling communication break down at your office or place of work!

What is Considered to be a Good Communication in an Office?

Communication is best described as a two-way street. It basically involves the exchange of information between two or more people in a particular environment be it work environment or community of humans. If one of the party involved doesn’t hold up their end, this will result to miscommunication.

What Causes a Communication Breakdown in a Workplace?

Here are some of the most common instances of how a communication breakdown that occurs in the workplace can present, this is to make it clearer for you to understand all these instances: when a member of staff makes a mistake due to miscommunication or not enough details given in training, when 2 members of staff team are doing the same task and are not realizing, when a work colleague is not treating a client correctly, when some certain important tasks are not being completed either on time or to the best set standard because no worker in the team is dripping updates to the team.

Other instances might be due to an overworked manager sending an email missing crucial information to their team because they have probably gotten a client on their case concerning completing work, when an office junior spreads Chinese whispers about the level or state of a project’s completion simply because they misheard the information that their manager was passing across.

How To Handle Communication Break Down At The Office?

1. Approach it From A Different Angle

First of all, you should know what lead to the communication break down and then you can take a different approach. The different angle of approach here could be your choice of language, channel or the tool that you will use in passing the message. Try figuring out where or what actually led to the communication breakdown as this would make sure that you are trying something different.
Get a new way to communicate better with your team and work mates. There are a wide range of tools that are technology driven which are available for you and your coworkers to make this a success. In other words, find out how the communication break down occured and then resolve it.

2. Focus On Providing Solutions

When total breakdown in communication occurs to a point where it effect in a chaotic workplace, the usual reaction that will be witnessed naturally is to panic when it occurs. Most people spiral into portioning blames on the one person, group or they may blame the team but this is not the right approach.
Ideally, when you are taking stock of what actually went wrong and what you want to do differently to resolve it, it is very crucial to focus on a solution to move on from the present communication break down. Putting your focus on the way forward could be a simple as extending the timelines for such work, changing your use of language to effectively communicate with your fellow teammate in mind. You will also be expected to get feedback from all parties that are involved to be able to achieve this.

3. Ask Questions To Prevent Miscommunication

Making assumptions is a very strong agent for disaster in the workplace and it will by extension cause damages to your career. If you are delegated a task, even when you feel that you understand all it entails, take the bold step to ask questions where you are not clear , if you have any form of doubt do well to ask. If there is an already existing communication breakdown, which is a blockage to accomplishing the desired project or your tasks, never you waste time, ask questions as soon as possible. When you get to any point that you are not sure about anything, you should ask questions.

4. Work on your Perception & Listening Skills

Paying keen attention to your coworkers and their backgrounds are strong agents that will help you to improve your perception as well as your listening skills. When there’s a communication break down in your office, it is a great time for you as a strategist to work on the above-mentioned set of skills. You will have to make this possible by paying attention to what is being passed across or communicated to you.

What Effects can a Communication Breakdown have on your Business if Not Handled?

The effects of break down of communication can create many difficulties for your company , office and its people. The effects include but are not limited to the following; Loss of morale, de-motivation, Embarrassment, Anger, Tension amongst the team, Stress caused to individuals, Loss of clients, business and sales, disorganization, Gossip and Higher employee turnover/ lack of retention.

Conclusion

We can always recover from any form of communication breakdown in our respective offices in order to be able to communicate better.Get a new way to communicate better with your team and work mates. There are a wide range of tools that are technology driven which are available for you and your coworkers to make this a success. In other words, find out how the communication break down occured and then resolve it. A perfect to achieve this is by making sure that we pay keen attention to the receiver as well as how the receiver will consume and interpret the information. This would assist you to minimise the risk of communication breakdown at your work place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reference

• Planday.com- 7 Ways to avoid communication breakdowns in your workplace
• M.economictimes.com – Five ways to deal with a breakdown in communication with the boss
• Jobberman.com – Communication Breakdown: Ways to Handle It
• Blog.joblisto.com – How To Handle Communication Break Down At The Office
• Perkbox.com – 5 steps for solving a communication breakdown

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