Reading this article instantly brought me back to almost exactly one year ago when I was
promoted to a position within another unit. Although within the same law enforcement agency,
this unit’s work function was significantly different and legal jurisdiction fell within an entirely
different law section which felt like I was reading a new language. b As explained by Wien claw
(2021), “to communicate effectively, both parties need to speak the same language”, from first-
hand experience this “language” barrier can be extremely frustrating(para.10).
The first meeting I attended was comprised of 20 bureau leaders sitting around a large conference
table talking mostly in acronyms or referring to different forms by their id number. Every state form
not only has a title but is categorized by a letter/number sequence which is how many employees
refer to them as a form of short hand. For an example, a Driver’s License Application is a DSMV
450. Due to my lack of knowing what was being discussed, within the first five minutes I was
completely zoned out of the conversation. Not only could I not decode the message due to not
knowing the business specific jargon but it was leading to psychological noise that was emotional
based and only further distorted the message. Obviously being new and not necessarily wanting to
show my lack of knowledge I relied on my experience with body language and listened to social
clues to be able to encode and send a message back that everything was being understood. I took
some ample notes and did a significant amount of real time google based research on all the
acronyms to put together all the puzzle pieces. I spend more time trying to learn the language
than understand the message. This experience certainly led to a new appreciation to defining
abbreviations or acronyms when I give presentations or new audiences. b b
Our interpersonal interaction is impacted by several barriers to communication that can keep the
receiver from understanding the messages we intend to convey. Some common barriers to
communication include gender, race, culture, filtering, language, jargon, ambiguity, medium and
personal biases. Our varying perspectives, which include our assumptions and expectations, often
affect the communication process resulting in miscommunication.
Let me share an example of how culture and language can impact the communication process. I
was born in Guyana, South America which is culturally connected to the Caribbean or West Indies.
Guyanese often use the phrase “just now” to indicate response time. However, “just now” (for
Guyanese) does not mean, just this moment or now, it means when I am done with my present
task which could be two minutes or two hours from now. Well, you could imagine the confusion I
caused a former colleague when I told him “Just now” after he requested my assistance on a
report he was working on. He was expecting me to be at his desk in just a few minutes, but I
meant I would be there as soon as I was done doing what I was working on. The
miscommunication caused a bit of friction. According to Wien claw (2021), “To communicate
effectively, both parties need to speak the same language and use words that clearly say what is
meant” (p. 11). It is recommended that we use inclusive language to improve the effectiveness of
our communication.
References
Cardon, P. W. (2021). Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world (4th ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Wien claw, R. A. (2021). Communications in the Workplace. Salem Press Encyclopaedia.
b b
Wien claw, R. A. (2021). Communications in the Workplace. Salem Press Encyclopaedia.
