Effective Communication | Organization Development Basics Models

Building a definition of effective communication

Scan the activity in your organization on any given day. Phone conversation. Memos and reports. Proposals and presentations. Gossip. Junk mail and letters. The air is thick with communication. In this article you'll learn the meaning and value of effective communication, and its importance to you and your organization. When you communicate well, other people will understand what you want to say and take the actions you expect. Let's begin with a clear understanding of what communication is. Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages. Effective communication helps you: anticipate problems, make decisions, coordinate workflow, supervise others, develop relationship, and promote products and service.

Effective Communication

• Achieves shared understanding.
• Stimulates others to take actions to achieve goals.
• Directs the flow of information to help people overcome barriers to open discussion.
• Channels information to encourage people to think in new ways and to act more effectively.

Common forms of Effective Communication

If you are watched television , you're familiar with mass communication. More often than not, you're simply on the receiving end of this kind of communication, so that will not be a focus of this article. Instead, this article will help you understand the following forms of communication and make you more effective when participating in each form. Note that all these forms of communication can occur verbally, or can transpire in another way, such as via a written documents, e-mail, or voice mail.

• Conversational communication occurs between two or three people, and is generally very direct. You talk ( send a verbal Message ), and receive an immediate response.
• Small group communication occurs between eight to ten people, and remains fairly immediate, although transitions between the different message senders can become more tricky.
• Large group communication occurs in groups of roughly 10 or more. the communication may be more formalized, with a single speaker sending messages and designed time for receivers to ask questions.

The positive value of good communication

For a moment, forget what happens when information is garbled, hoarded or badly expressed. Effective communication takes effort, and worrying about consequences won't motivate you to make the effort. Concentrate instead on all the good reasons to work on your skills. When you communicate effectively you sort out relevant data from a huge amount of available input and convey only what helps your audience take productive action. You turn data into information that has clear meaning and relevance to your audience. Finally, remember, effective communication helps you help your organization because it promotes shared information and also promotes teamwork and increase productivity. In this article you learned the meaning and value of effective communication, and its importance to you and your organization.