Process of Communication

From the moment you wake up to the time you hit the bed, most of your day goes in conversations with other people. Phone calls, team meetings, email conversations, and even the listening process can all be viewed as different types of communication. 

Communication is important to exchange ideas and information. The right communication process helps you in understanding the requirements and issues well, and nudge you toward the right decision-making and problem-solving process. 

What is the process of communication?

Communication is a two-way process wherein you send a message. The message could be in any form including ideas, feelings, thoughts, and opinions. This message is transmitted between two or more persons or groups to understand the problem or situation, sharing information, or making a collective decision.

Let’s understand the communication process in detail.

The communication process in detail

Every communication process, whether it’s written or spoken, has seven stages.

• Sender

The sender initiates the conversation. As a sender or communicator, you have conceptualized the idea that you want to convey to others.

• Encoding

Message encoding means the sender uses specific verbal or non-verbal signs, for example – symbols and body gestures, etc., to transfer the information they want to convey into a message. Here, your knowledge and communication skills, along with other factors such as perception, background, competencies, etc. greatly impact how successfully you convey the message. 

• Message

Once the encoding process is finished, the sender is ready to convey the message. The message can be in any form, such as written, verbal, or symbolic. The message can even be conveyed through body gestures, silence, sounds, etc. It is basically any signal that triggers the receiver’s response.

• Communication Channel

When it’s time to convey the message, the sender chooses the medium to send it to the recipient. As a sender, you should correctly select the channel so the recipient can correctly interpret the message. 

And how you choose the medium will be determined based on the interpersonal relationships between the sender and the receiver. It also depends on urgency. For example, if you need to convey something urgent to your team you will choose the verbal channel instead of sending an email.

• Receiver

The receiver is the person for whom the message is targeted. The receiver tries to comprehend the message in the best possible way. The role of the receiver is to understand the objective of communication. To what degree the receiver can decode the message depends on their knowledge of the subject matter, experience, and relationship with the sender.

• Decoding

Once the receiver receives the message, they interpret and try to understand it in the best possible manner. Here, how well the receiver understands the message decides if the communication was effective. After all, the essential goal of the conversation is to ensure that the receiver understands the message in the same way the sender intended it.

• Feedback

The final and one of the most important steps in the process of communication is the receiver’s feedback. The feedback you get from the receiver shows if the message has been correctly conveyed and interpreted.

Conclusion

Before you initiate any conversation, decide the goals you want to achieve and the message you want to convey. Next, decide on the encoding methods and communication channels such as verbal, written, broadcast, downward, horizontal, vertical or upward communication. How effectively the receiver understands the message decides if the communication was successful. It also decides how effective the communicator’s skills are. 

You can always improve your communication skills by following the correct tips and practices of professionals and industry experts. Online courses by industry experts are the best way to start. Start early and continuously work on improving your skills. And within a short span of time, you will become a better communicator.