The Communication Playbook. Teri Kwal Gamble
these labels simply reflect the way the responses affect behavior.
Both positive and negative feedback can emanate from internal or external sources. Internal feedback is feedback you give yourself as you monitor your own communicative behavior. External feedback is feedback from others who are involved in the communication event. To be an effective communicator, you must be sensitive to both types of feedback.
Effect
As we communicate, we are changed in some way by the interaction. Communication has an effect and can be viewed as an exchange of influences.
An effect can be emotional, physical, cognitive, or any combination of the three. Communication can elicit feelings of joy, anger, or sadness (emotional); it can cause you to fight, argue, become apathetic, or evade an issue (physical); or it can lead to new insights, increased knowledge, the formulation or reconsideration of opinions, silence, or confusion (cognitive). Some effects are not always visible or immediately observable. Effects can be delayed.
Visualizing the Communication Process in Action
Through communication, we share meaning with others by sending and receiving messages—sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Thus, communication includes every element that could affect two or more people as they knowingly or unwittingly relate to one another. At this point, we need to reiterate that communication occurs whenever one person assigns significance or meaning to another’s behavior. But, you might ask, will knowing this enable you to understand or establish better and more satisfying relationships with your friends, significant other, employer, parents? The answer is yes! If you understand the processes that permit people to contact and influence each other, if you understand the forces that can impede or foster the development of every kind of effective communication, then you stand a better chance of communicating effectively yourself.
A Transactional Model of Communication
Now that we have examined the basic elements of communication, we are ready to see how we can use a picture, or transactional model, of the communication process to reflect our understanding of communication in action. A model is a useful tool in discovering how communication operates and in examining your own communication encounters.
The model of communication in Figure 1.1 is a transactional one. A transactional communication model depicts communication as a continuous circle with sending and receiving as simultaneous rather than separate acts. Such a model enables us to visualize the vital complexity and dynamic nature of communication. Each person in the model is pictured sending and receiving messages (including feedback) through one or more channels at the same time as the other, because they both have sending and receiving responsibilities and their messages will build upon and affect one another.
Figure 1.1 Gamble and Gamble’s Model of Communication
Each person’s field of experience—their culture, past experiences, education, biases, and heredity—influences the interaction. Of consequence is the extent to which their fields of experience overlap. In theory, the more individuals communicate with each other, the more overlap they create.
In addition, we see that noise can enter the interaction at any point—it can pop up in the message, be present in the channel, come from one’s field of experience, or derive from the context. Such noise can affect the sending and/or the receiving abilities and effectiveness of the communicators.
Every interaction we have with another has an impact on our future interactions with that person and potentially with others.
How Good a Communicator Are You?
Simply communicating frequently does not mean that you are as effective a communicator as you could be. Too often, we neglect problems with our communicative relationships. When we either lack empathy or fail to consider the feelings of others, our relationships suffer.
There is no such thing as being too effective at establishing maintaining and controlling personal and public contacts with others. Being mindful of the principles discussed in this section can help you to improve your communication skills.
Communication is Dynamic
When we call communication a dynamic process, we mean that all its elements constantly interact with and affect each other. Because we are interconnected, whatever happens to one person determines in part what happens to others.
Relationships evolve. Nothing about communication is static. Everything is accumulative. We communicate as long as we are alive. Thus, every interaction we engage in is part of a series of connected happenings. Present communication experiences can be thought of as points of arrival from past encounters and as points of departure for future ones. Do your experiences support this?
Communication is Unrepeatable and Irreversible
Every human contact we experience is unique. It has never happened before and will never again happen in just the same way. Our interpretation of the adage “You can never step into the same river twice” is that the experience changes both you and the river forever. A communication encounter similarly affects and changes people so that one encounter can never occur exactly in the same way a second time.
In addition to being unrepeatable, communication is also irreversible. We cannot take back something we have said or tweeted any more than we can erase the effects of something we have done. Just as toothpaste cannot be squeezed back into a tube, the e-mails, texts, and tweets we send are going to be out there forever.
When has the unrepeatable and irreversible nature of communication caused you a problem?
Communication Has No Opposite
We often assume that communication is purposeful and that we communicate only because we want to. Although this sometimes is true, it is also true that sometimes we communicate without any awareness of doing so—and just as often, even without wanting to.
pixelheadphoto digitalskillet/Shutterstock.com
Whenever we are involved in an interaction, we respond in some way. Even if we choose not to respond verbally, even if we maintain absolute silence and attempt not to move a muscle, our lack of response is itself a response; it constitutes a message, influences others, and communicates. We can never stop behavior—because behavior has no opposite. No matter how hard we try, we cannot not communicate, because all behavior is communication and therefore is a message.
Exploring Diversity
Focus on Hate
Years ago, researcher Gordon Allport wrote the following in his now classic The Nature of Prejudice:
See that man over there?
Yes.
Well, I hate him.
But you don’t know him.
That’s why I hate him.
Although Allport wrote this long ago, his observations remain true today and are being magnified by social media. To what extent do you believe that enhanced understanding can help resolve this? Why does a lack of knowledge or familiarity help breed hate? Why might some people experience “hate” when encountering individuals from a new or unfamiliar culture or group?
Culture Influences Communication