Ineffective Communication is when a Disruption during the Communication Process

Have you ever been talking with a friend and suddenly realize you have no idea what they just said? Have you ever had your teacher repeat your name multiple times in class to get your attention? Have you ever been really angry and just ignored everyone around you? If you said yes to any of these, you participated in ineffective communication.

Ineffective communication can occur at any time to anyone. Maybe the information was boring, the sender's voice could have been too low, or you were daydreaming. No matter the case, we want to avoid blocking as much as possible. Blocking means interrupting, distracting, and preventing the give or take of ideas and feelings between two or more people. Someone who covers their ears and hums to not hear what someone is saying is an example of blocking. Consider the following statements. How would you feel if they were said to you ?“Now, I don’t want you to get upset about what I am going to say, but…”

“Tom, you are always late for meetings. Can you tell time?”

“Your problem is that you don’t like yourself.”

“When you interrupt me like that, it makes me want to stop talking to you. Stop doing it.”

“I could easily work with you and had fun if you had a better sense of humor.” Communicating can be a difficult process to master even without being thrown a curveball along the way. Sometimes it is better to think about what we are going to say and to whom it will be said before it actually happens.

Being disrespectful, to place no value upon or disregarding, is never okay in any situation. Although, it does happen from time to time. Despite efforts put forth to not disrespect someone, everyone is entitled to their own point of view. A point of view is a position or place from which one looks at something (can be object or opinion-based). Each person involved in the communication cycle will have some sort of opinion related to the topic being discussed. An opinion is a belief that an individual has. When encountering a situation where someone else's opinion differs from yours, it is wise to practice tolerance. Meaning, that you are willing to let others have their own views and opinions. The diversity of the group promotes different perspectives. Although you might not always agree, these differences can be beneficial at times. Such as, having a team meeting to brainstorm for a solution to a specific problem, or collaborating on a team project.  

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