Effective and Productive Communication
Communication can be defined as the act of using sounds, signs, words or even behavior to express ideas or share information with someone else. Communication forms the basis of our daily interaction. It is a vital aspect that human beings cannot live without. Communication helps people to express themselves and to respond to the others. Human beings are social beings that need each other and this is achieved solely through communication. It is a means by which every sector of human life succeeds whether personal or organizational as it enables people to carry out their various tasks inter-dependently through communication resulting to a complete task being performed. Communication is a cycle that keeps recurring from one party to the other. It is therefore important to understand how it takes place and what it involves in order to ensure effective communication. According to my own experience, it is important to learn what communication entails in order to become an effective communicator and avoid communication breakdown or noise during communication (Robert and Jennings, 2000).
Before I learned about this, I had many problems when conversing with parents, colleagues and other people around me. Somehow, maybe the problem was understanding the message or my poor skills. Not until I learned about communication when I realized how essential it is to learn and apply the knowledge. According to Schramm, communication involves a two-way process whereby the source gives the message to the receiver who later replies the message upon reading and understanding it. He shows through a model how communication process starts by the communicator who is the source encodes an idea. He puts it in a message that that be understood and sends it to the receiver who decodes the message upon receiving it and getting the right meaning to the same and then encode another message to the source who decodes the message for the meaning and send feedback. This process keeps repeating itself. This is enough to summarize what is essential for effective communication.
It is usual for young people to express their prowess and show that they are very informed in every area. I had always had this character of trying to prove myself superior among my colleagues and family members. Every time we started a conversation, I would ensure that I dominate to show that I knew everything. Even what was yet to be said! I was very good a completing statements for other people and proceeding with their stories which irritated people very much. I never cared because I justified myself that the people were only jealous of how eloquent and well informed I was. This would even make me more overconfident, and I would continue with my behavior. I even knew more than my parents and teachers did which made them think that I was rude and arrogant.
The worst part of this behavior was that it affected my social life because my friends who were bored and irritated with my communication behavior stated to isolate me. Nobody would wish to communicate with someone who dominates the conversation giving no time to them and even worst of it speaking out of context! You would also not wish to be there either. It also affected my academic life because I would also do things my own way without considering the instructions which would result in failing in my exams. It was such a serious issue, but no one would help me not even my parents because they knew I would always interrupt and start my own stories. I believe you have also seen the situation was out of control and very hard to solve. Thanks to the communication classes that helped me to understand the problem and rectify if. I just lacked what could be called successful communication my Schramm in is communication theory.
Schramm in his……………………..
