We all know that business leaders face many challenges. Communication plays an essential role in addressing many of these challenges. Issues such as securing and maintaining the trust of internal and external constituents, effectively supporting, and influencing your team, and ultimately succeeding in meeting the needs of your client base all rely on effective communication. The modern business landscape has added unprecedented dimensions to workplace communication, challenging seasoned professionals and new leaders as they seek to be effective communicators.

Because efficacy starts with understanding, we’re going back to basics. In this two-part guide, we’ll review the who, what, when, where, why, and how of effective communication for novices and established leaders.

What Is the Communication Process?

Let’s begin by defining the “communication process.” The communication process describes a system of sending and receiving information via verbal, non-verbal, or visual means. This encompasses speeches, writings, graphics (infographics, maps, charts), signs, signals, and behaviors (such as facial expressions, body language, and hand gestures).

In short, communication is any type of message that involves a sender, a message, a receiver, and feedback.

The sender is the entity – a person, group, or even a machine – that is creating and distributing the message. The sender chooses the appropriate channel to ensure delivery to the receiver, then gathers, organizes, and reports data so the receiver can interpret and act accordingly.

The message contains information, or data, that has been sorted and arranged for the receiver. The data may include individual facts, statistics, and ideas, meant to inform, persuade, or entertain.

The receiver gets the message from the sender via various channels, interprets the information, and responds accordingly. These channels include letters, telephone, face-to-face, or electronic means such as email or social media.

The feedback is the receiver’s response to the message, which can include acknowledgment, observation, or acting on a call to action. For example, a school PTA might send a message to parents requesting they attend an upcoming meeting. Their attendance or absence is the feedback to the message. If most parents attend, the message was interpreted as intended. If no parents or few attend, a breakdown occurred in the communication process, and the message was not received as intended.

On the surface, messaging seems simple, but effective messaging is more complex. It entails understanding that messages are influenced by timing, sequencing, usefulness, completeness, value to the receiver, and perhaps most importantly, the recipient’s ability to obtain the message. For a savvy business leader, understanding what occurs when communication takes place is crucial to ensuring that your message is received, understood, and acted upon as you intended.

What Are the Channels of Communication?

Understanding delivery methods, types, modes, and mediums allows the sender to choose the best method of communication based on factors such as intended use, location, number of receivers, or costs.

It almost goes without saying that modern technologies are changing so rapidly that what is modern today will almost certainly be traditional tomorrow. Modern channels may include wearable technologies, smartphones/tablets, smart speakers, social media platforms, assistive listening/interactive devices, and chatbots. Rising technologies involving artificial intelligence, virtual reality, mirror environments, robotics, and increased reliance on the Internet of Things (IoT) are not only coming, they are here already.

Let’s review the modes, types, and mediums of communication.

Modes of communication

• Noninteractive: one-way text (no-reply emails, white papers, written broadcast messages); one-way audio (radio, recorded music, podcasts, vocal broadcast messages, voicemail); one-way audio/visual (streaming tv/video, film, CCTV)
• Interactive: two-way text (text messages, chats); two-way audio (phone, CB radio, walkie-talkies); two-way audio/visual (video conferencing, live social media feeds)

Types of communication

• Person-to-Person (P2P) – a person provides data, information, or ideas directly to another person. This is the most common type of communication. P2P communication may be digital or physical and includes video conferences, in-person conferences or town halls, and press conferences in addition to other modes.
• Person-to-Machine – a person provides information and data to control a machine or system. For example, setting a thermostat, entering information for a broadcast message, or issuing an emergency alert are all person-to-machine communications.
• Machine-to-Person – providing information and data to a person through mechanical means, including signals like railroad crossings, traffic lights, and security alerts.
• Machine-to-Machine – device or system providing information or data to another device or system, including computer-controlled operations, often based on the Internet of Things (IoT). An example is a printer that can automatically alert an ordering system about low ink levels.

Additional Mediums of Communication

As much as we all try to anticipate the new, we have also seen a return to traditional methods and means across several industries. We cannot entirely discount the power of traditional mediums to serve modern communication needs. The communications juggernauts of yore (landline phones, postal mail, amateur/HAM radio, satellite and print outlets such as newspapers, billboards, magazines, flyers, and newsletters may once again become the preferred medium of communication for a certain subset of the digital native generation. Indeed, we already see that Generation Z values face-to-face communication more highly than previous generations.

What Are the Constraints?

Effective messaging is more than just composing and sending a message. It takes understanding the modes, types, and mediums used. However, there are limitations; part of effective messaging is understanding such limitations. A constraint imposes a limit or restriction or prevents something from occurring.

Three primary constraints affect message delivery:

1. Geography – technology does not reach the location; the terrain is unsuitable for delivery. For example, we know there are still “dead zones” that do not receive cell phone or internet service.
2. Economics – budget constraints on the sender or receiver. The fridge that automatically reorders milk may be too expensive for every family.
3. Adaptability – sender and/or receiver unable to adapt to changing technologies, often due to policy/law. If your organization can only receive sensitive materials via fax, and your sender lacks access to a fax machine, then what?

Maximizing Communication Effectiveness

So how do you exploit the modes, types, and mediums of communication at your disposal to compose and deliver an effective message? At Momentum, we rely on the 5W1H method to help guide our clients’ communications decisions. Unfamiliar with 5W1H? In part two of this guide, we explain the method and reveal how useful it is to today’s enterprise leaders.

This post was adapted from a Momentum presentation. Contact us to learn more about working with a consultant to ask and answer the right questions about your communication process.