We communicate every day. The patterns of these communications have evolved throughout our lifetime and reflect our relationships with others, including family, friends, work colleagues and those with we whom deal in business and leisure.

We often don’t think about our communication, but we usually know when we haven’t communicated well because this can often lead to discomfort and some damage to the relationship.

Leadership requires clear communication because you will need to share your vision and keep people on track and feeling good about their involvement in the group. Clear and assertive communication will enable group members to understand the direction of the group, whilst enabling them to feel comfortable with its process.

The Basic Communication Process

When two people are communicating, the process looks a little like this:

Person A: Thinks about what she wants to say, formulates a sentence or verbal message and, delivers the message.

Person B: Receives the message, interprets what it means and reacts to it.

Now you can see that their a number of things which can go wrong in this process.

Person A

May not use the exact words which she had originally in mind when considering the message. Her non-verbal (body) language may not quite match her verbal language, thus giving a confusing message. Her message delivery may be impeded by not speaking loudly or clearly enough. There are a number of ways in which this message may not come out exactly right.

Person B

The person receiving this message may not hear it clearly. She could be distracted by her own ideas or preconceptions about the message, or by background noise and interference. She may not interpret the words to mean exactly the same as Person A.

Further Complications…

When you consider other issues which can interfere with the smooth and clear transmission of messages, it is sometimes quite amazing how we can understand each other at all. For example, you will probably need to take the following differences into account when communicating with people:

• Age. Different generations often have their own words or meaning for words.

• Gender. Power issues may be relevant here, and use of gender-free language could be important.

• Culture. Different cultures have different verbal and non-verbal communication norms. We need to be sensitive to these and not put our culture’s interpretations upon the verbal or non-verbal communication of others.

Sending and Receiving Messages

Ultimately, communication is about the sending and receiving messages. I have found the following ‘rules’, adapted from Johnson & Johnson (1987) to be very useful in creating an atmosphere which promotes clear communication:

When Sending Messages:

When Receiving Messages:

The most important aspect in being a good receiver of messages is looking as though you want to listen. How many times have you been put off by a person who looks bored or disinterested. If they look as though they don’t care, you are less likely to feel confident in your communication, or take the time and effort to communicate clearly.

In anglo-celtic culture, the following basic points represent an image of a person who wants to listen:

• Maintain eye contact

• Smile

• Give small positive verbal reinforcements during the message ("uh uh" "yes" "go on")

Having got the physical attention part of receiving down pat, you can now concentrate on the actual content of the message.

Johnson & Johnson (1987) give the following suggestions to ensure that you can receive the message more accurately.

• Paraphrase accurately and non-evaluatively the content of the message and the feelings of the sender. For example, "I am hearing you say that you would like me to stay with you for a while and you are quite anxious for me to do this".

• Describe what you perceive to be the sender’s feelings. "I think you are quite sad about what has happened to you, is that right?".

• State your interpretation of the sender’s message and negotiate with the sender until you reach agreement about the content and meaning of the message.

Communication Rules for Groups

It is a good idea, when running a group to discuss communication processes and develop some rules for how the members of the group will communicate. This is particularly important for groups where members may not have a high level of communication skills or there are age, gender or cultural differences which may act as barriers to clear communication.

Such rules can be based upon those listed above, and should be demonstrated by the group leader. Therefore, you will need to practice these so that they become second nature.

Simple listening skills exercises, such as talking back-to-back or with blindfolds on can illustrate the importance of non-verbal cues and looking ready to listen in the communication process.

The further reading listed below can also provide some useful exercises and develop more complex concepts regarding communication in groups.

References and Further Reading:

Brill, Naomi ((1995) Working With People, Longman, New York.

Evans, Anne (1990) Managing People, Australian Business Library, Melbourne.

Johnson, D.W. & Johnson F.P. (1987) Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills., Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.

Robbins, Stephen (1989) Training in Interpersonal Skills Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.

Exercise 4.1: Communication Between Groups

This exercise is designed to examine communication between groups in conflict situations. It illustrates the problems which can occur when communication is indirect and based upon assumptions.

Because it involves conflict between small groups, this exercise should be conducted when the group is past the storming stage, and group members are feeling reasonably comfortable in challenging others.

You will need at least one hour to complete the exercise, and need to allow at least 30 minutes for debriefing and discussion. If the groups are separated in different rooms, the exercise could last up to three hours.

Directions:

Divide group into three equal teams, with at least three members to each team. Separate the teams around the room, or to add a touch of reality, separate them into different rooms.

Give a general briefing to the groups as follows:

Each group lives on a tropical island. The islands are part of a group of four, known as the Lost Islands. There are three inhabited islands, arranged in a triangle, with a fourth smaller island, Food Island in the centre of the triangle. Food Island has a farm on it. The aim of the exercise is for your island community to survive. You need to use your leadership and communication skills to do so.

Give each group their individual island instructions and sheets of paper to attach to their ‘carrier pigeons’.

Island A

You are inhabitants of Island A, which is a small island in the Pacific. It is part of a group of four islands, called the Lost Islands, which are quite close together. Historically, life has been wonderful on the Lost Islands. The inhabitants of Islands A, B & C were very peaceful and lived together in harmony. They shared food and intermarried and generally got along together extremely well. As the islands are rather small, they even established a common farm on Food Island which provided enough food for all of the islanders. People from each of the islands used to work together on the farm.

Island A is a paradise. You are proud of your traditions and way of life. You are particularly proud of your Gethi tree, which is found only on Island A, and an aluminium dingy which was left to your people by some lost day-trippers from Fiji.

Food Island is in the middle of a triangle formed by Islands A, B and C. Each of the islands have canons which can land shells on Food Island. The canons do not reach to the other islands. Communication between islands is done by carrier pigeons.

Five years ago the inhabitants of Island B started to worship a strange god and blast their canons at the seagulls. This terrible noise and destruction of life was really annoying and when their people started to try to convert inhabitants of Islands A & C to their new god it created conflict between Islands A & B. The people of Island C responded by shooting the leader of Island B when she was on the Food Island one day. Their canon damaged the farm and killed one of the pigs. It also caused the barn to collapse on top of two inhabitants of your island, killing them.

The people of Island A are traditionally very peaceful and never used their canons. But all of this noise and killing was just too much. When Island B retaliated against Island C by shooting more canons and refusing to work the farm with them, this left Island A people to do more and more of the work on the farm. Eventually this was too much and your people stopped working on the farm. You have replaced some of the farm food supply with a high energy sap from a tree which is found only on Island A. This not only tastes good, but deadens the sound of the canons.

This conflict has turned into war over the past two years. No one can get to the food on Food Island without being shot by one of the other Islands. There is no longer any exchange between islands. All of your canoes have been destroyed in the war and the sharks make it impossible to swim to Food Island.

Your food supply, however, is running out. Many people are starving and have died because of the war. Your situation is now critical. There are only three islanders who are still fit enough to do something.

Island B

You are inhabitants of Island B, which is a small island in the Pacific. It is part of a group of four islands, called the Lost Islands, which are quite close together. Historically, life has been wonderful on the Lost Islands. The inhabitants of Islands A, B & C were very peaceful and lived together in harmony. They shared food and intermarried and generally got along together extremely well. As the islands are rather small, they even established a common farm on Food Island which provided enough food for all of the islanders. People from each of the islands used to work together on the farm.

Island B is a paradise. You are proud of your traditions and way of life. You are particularly proud of your double-barrelled canon, which was developed on Island B and is proof that Island B people have received a great gift of cleverness in canon-making from God. You also have used this technology to understand the workings of an outboard motor which was left on your island by some lost day-trippers from Fiji.

Food Island is in the middle of a triangle formed by Islands A, B and C. Each of the islands have canons which can land shells on Food Island. The canons do not reach to the other islands. Communication between islands is done by carrier pigeons.

Five years ago the inhabitants of Island C turned nasty. They did not want the assistance of your great technological skill and turned savage. They killed your leader when she was working on Food Island and their canon fire killed a pig and wrecked a barn, killing two people from Island A.

This made the people on Island A go mad and they refused to work on the farm. They sat around all day, drinking the sap of a tree which made them drunk. Their laziness has ruined the food production on the farm because you cannot work with Island C people any more either. You have been able to supplement your food supply with seagulls which are shot down by your technologically advanced canon. The seagulls, however, carry a lot of disease and do not provide a very nutritional food source.

This conflict has turned into war over the past two years. No one can get to the food on Food Island without being shot by one of the other Islands. There is no longer any exchange between islands. All of your canoes have been destroyed in the war and the sharks make it impossible to swim to Food Island.

Your food supply is running out. Many people are starving and have died because of the war. Your situation is now critical. There are only three islanders who are still fit enough to do something.

Island C

You are inhabitants of Island C, which is a small island in the Pacific. It is part of a group of four islands, called the Lost Islands, which are quite close together. Historically, life has been wonderful on the Lost Islands. The inhabitants of Islands A, B & C were very peaceful and lived together in harmony. They shared food and intermarried and generally got along together extremely well. As the islands are rather small, they even established a common farm on Food Island which provided enough food for all of the islanders. People from each of the islands used to work together on the farm.

Island C is a paradise. You are proud of your traditions and way of life. You are particularly proud of your canon shooting accuracy and ability. You also can light magnificent fires by using some of the petrol in a tank which was left to your people by some lost day-trippers from Fiji.

Food Island is in the middle of a triangle formed by Islands A, B and C. Each of the islands have canons which can land shells on Food Island. The canons do not reach to the other islands. Communication between islands is done by carrier pigeons.

Five years ago the inhabitants of Island A started to drink too much of a narcotic-based tree sap, which made them terribly lazy and they didn’t turn up as often to work on the farm. The people of Island C thought that they knew best how to wake them up by blasting their canon at all hours of the day, indiscriminately killing seagulls. Island C’s expert canon accuracy would have been much better utilised and to prove the point your expert marksmen illustrated how easy it was to kill a pig with a single canon shot. The stupid leader of Island B got in the way of your exhibition of marksmanship and ended up getting herself killed.

This conflict has turned into war over the past two years. No one can get to the food on Food Island without being shot by one of the other Islands. There is no longer any exchange between islands. All of your canoes have been destroyed in the war and the sharks make it impossible to swim to Food Island.

Your food supply, however, is running out. Many people are starving and have died because of the war. Your situation is now critical. There are only three islanders who are still fit enough to do something