Understanding Communication
Some brainstorming done to understand the landscape of communication and the scope of opportunity.
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Some brainstorming done to understand the landscape of communication and the scope of opportunity.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another.
Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. This may sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex subject. The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of things. These include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and even our location.
Human communication has evolved over a period of time. Initial interaction used to happen through facial expressions and gestures; then humans started talking to each other and later they started drawing and finally developed the languages. Since then human development didn’t stop and keep on developing. Communication is one of the primary aspects which helped us building relationships and creating great civilisations.
Now with the advancement of technology, humans have learned to use different modes of communication, to accomplish day to day tasks in efficient manners and keep increasing the efficiency day by day.
There are several different ways we share information with one another. For example, you might use verbal communication when sharing a presentation with a group.
Verbal communication is the use of language to transfer information through speaking or sign language. It is one of the most common types, often used during presentations, video conferences and phone calls, meetings and one-on-one conversations. Verbal communication is important because it is efficient. It can be helpful to support verbal communication with both nonverbal and written communication.
Nonverbal communication is the transfer of information through the use of body language including eye contact, facial expressions, gestures and more. Verbal communication is the use of language to transfer information through written text, speaking or sign language.
Nonverbal communication is important because it gives us valuable information about a situation including how a person might be feeling, how someone receives information and how to approach a person or group of people.
There are several types of nonverbal communications including;
Body language
Gestures
Facial expressions
Touch
Written communication is the act of writing, typing or printing symbols like letters and numbers to convey information. It is helpful because it provides a record of information for reference. Writing is commonly used to share information through books, pamphlets, blogs, letters, memos and more. Emails and chats are a common form of written communication in the workplace.
Visual communication is the act of using photographs, art, drawings, sketches, charts and graphs to convey information. Visuals are often used as an aid during presentations to provide helpful context alongside written and/or verbal communication. Because people have different learning styles, visual communication might be more helpful for some to consume ideas and information.
Direct communication is the natural physical communication between individuals and groups. From the origin of human race, direct communication is the key to build communities and relationships.
Remote communication allows people from the different locations to communicate and collaborate together. They use many tools and mediums like email, chat, and online collaboration tools to facilitate the communication. Remote communication is an area of the science that deals with the data transferring between the devices not located at the same place.
Visual mode - Video calling
Verbal mode - Voice calling
Written mode - Messaging
Personal remote communication could be easily managed through many available free or paid applications. Again any mode of communication for personal use could be used like, simple voice calls, Whatsapp or Facebook messages or by simple video calls as well.
If we talk about professional communication, there are multiple factors that need to be considered even in direct communication. But if we think about remote communication in any kind of organisation, there is a drastic change in how we communicate, based on the demography, nature of the organisation, geographical conditions, scale & impact of the organisation and the quantum of the challenge is even higher.
Irrespective of any kind of organisation there are different nature of communication that exists in any organisation. I have divided these into categories and further described in detail of each.
In organisations, there are communications which are very social in nature, people from different teams come together and communicate with each other. Many this social communication goes out of the organisation and across multiple organisation within the bigger umbrella. These communications sometimes have different ways to communicate like informative, explanatory, collaborative, open ended, restrictive etc.
private communication is restricted communication, or any communication made under circumstances creating a reasonable expectation of privacy. This form of communication can reach its intended receiver in a private space like, group, room, channel,1-1 etc.
Information exchanged between two people who have a relationship in which private communications are protected by law, and intend that the information be kept in confidence. The law recognises certain parties whose communications will be considered confidential and protected, including spouses, doctor and patient, attorney and client, and priest and confessor. The intention that the communication be confidential is critical.
Social
Private
Confidential
