How can we increase accuracy in communications?

It is a well-known fact that 80 percent of a manager's time is spent communicating. It is a somewhat less-known fact that the normal efficiency of communicating is pretty low: right after the information is heard by a person, he can remember only 50 percent of it, and after a month the retention falls to 25 percent. Thus, it seems reasonable for a project manager, for whom communication skills make up one of the major tools for managing project results and stakeholders' expectations, to be able to increase the accuracy of communications and thus the efficiency of information transfer to the people involved with the project.

Tell me more …

There are a number of important considerations in increasing the accuracy of information transfer between two people. Some of these are listed briefly below:

• Avoid negative evaluation. In order to increase understanding, you have to avoid expressions that belittle the personality of a partner. If such evaluations are being used by your partner, it is reasonable to balance them with social etiquette and politeness.

• Avoid ignoring what your partner is saying. The efficiency of a dialogue is strongly decreased by statements resulting from your own thoughts or feelings that have little to do with the thoughts or feelings expressed by your partner.

• Avoid inquiring too much. Asking one question after another, clearly trying to find something out without explaining your goals, inhibits communication. It is also important to make a difference between open and closed questions. A very narrow targeted or closed question can strongly interfere with the thinking process of the person talking and is therefore a mistake on the part of the listener.

• Try to minimize inserting observations in the course of a conversation. Various types of observations like "let's get closer to the theme" can inhibit the speaker and therefore decrease the efficiency of communications.

• Practice active listening. It is good to accompany your partner's words by signs of understanding and perceiving information, such as "I see", "Indeed?" etc. When choosing the types of words to be said, it is important to consider the personality type and the mood of your partner so that you don't give the impression you are doubting what is being said.

• Ask for clarification. Asking a person who is speaking to repeat or clarify something that was not understood or that seems arguable might help increase your understanding of what was said.

• Paraphrase. It is useful to repeat what was said by your partner in a shorter form using your own words at certain times during the conversation.

• Develop thoughts further. A technique that can increase the efficiency of communications includes further developing what was said by your partner. Be careful to do this only within the logical framework set up by the person who is talking; otherwise it might be regarded as ignoring what is being said. In order to develop a thought of a partner, you can do several things:

  • Add to what the partner is going to say but has not yet said without interrupting.

  • Add the logical consequence of the words being said.

  • Add your assumption of what your partner meant or what is underlying his words.

• Describe your emotional state. It is useful to tell a person about your emotional reaction to what had been said; this is especially efficient if combined with paraphrasing.

• Periodically summarize what has been said.

Summing up all the principles described above, we can understand that the major rules of listening to a person include the following:

• Pay respect to the person talking, valuing his wish to tell you something.

• Try to establish your sincerity at the beginning of the conversation.

• Look at the person who is talking.

• Try not to interrupt your communications partner.

• Don't draw conclusions in advance.

A significant factor in increasing efficiency of communications involves getting rid of aggressiveness toward your partner. For that, it is important to remember to:

• Try not to dominate during a conversation.

• Not give way to emotions.

• Not object to what is being said right away.

• Not put yourself into a defensive pose.

• Find a place for a pause in your conversation.

It is also important to get rid of passiveness. You can achieve this by:

• Not keeping complete silence.

• Holding in your thoughts and emotions only to a reasonable level.

• Not showing yourself to be "the most clever one".

• Not allowing your relaxation to transform into frivolity.

• Apologizing when you are tired.