Discuss the principles of effective communication.

1. Communication is inescapable

The opportunity to communicate is ubiquitous, that is, it is everywhere. Even before we are born
we respond to movement and sound and with our first cry we begin to announce our presence.
Once we make contact with other humans we communicate and continue to do so until death.
Even though many of our messages are non-verbal, we nonetheless intentionally and sometimes
unintentionally, send them to others. While some scholars question whether or not it is possible
to communicate with someone unintentionally, experts do agree that communication with others
plays an ever present role in our lives. We spend most of our working hours in thought or
interpreting messages from others. For example, when we silently stand in line in a supermarket
check-out line, our lack of eye contact with others waiting in line shows our disinterest in
striking up a conversation.
Our unspoken messages may provide cues to which others respond. Even when we don’t intend
to express a particular idea or feeling, others may try to make sense out of what we are already
doing or not doing. People judge us by our behaviour, not intent.

2. Communication is irreversible

We can never really “take back” a message. In our personal conversations we may try to modify
the meaning of a spoken message by saying something like, “Oh, I really didn’t mean it”. But in
most cases the damage has already been done. Once created, communication has the physical
property of matter; it can’t be uncreated. As the helical model below suggests, once
communication begins, it never loops back on itself. Instead it continues to be shaped by events,
experiences and thoughts of the communication partner i.e. like a loop, it begins at the bottom
and then expands infinitely as the communication patterns contribute their thoughts and
experiences to the exchange.
A Russian proverb says, “Once a word goes out of your mouth, you can never swallow it again”.

3. Communication is complicated

Communicating with others is not simple; otherwise we would know how to reduce dramatically
the number of misunderstandings and conflicts in our world.
Human communication is complicated because of the number of variables and unknown factors
involved when people interact. To illustrate the complexity of the process, communication
scholar Dean Barnland has suggested that whenever we communicate with another person, there
are really at least six people involved:
- Who you think you are
- Who you think the other person is
- Who you think the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks he or she is
- Who the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks you think he or she is
And when we add more people to the conversation it becomes even more complicated.
Messages are not always interpreted as we intend them. Osmo Wiio, a Scandinavian
communication scholar, points out the challenges of communicating with others when he
suggests the following maxims.
- If communication can fail, it will.
- If a message can be understood in different ways it will be understood in just that
way which does the most harm.
- There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your
message
- The more communication there is the more difficult for communication to
succeed.

4. Communication emphasizes content and relationships.

What you say (your words) and how you say it (your tone of voice), amount of eye contact,
facial expression and posture can reveal much about the true nature of your message.
A shouted message may indicate anger and frustration while the same message delivered calmly
suggests the speaker is less frustrated i.e. the two messages have different relationship cues.
The content of communication messages focuses on the new information, ideas or suggested
actions that the speaker wishes to share. The relationship aspect of a communication message is
usually more implied. It offers cues about emotions, attitudes and amount of power and control
the speaker feels towards the other.
Another way of distinguishing between the content and relationship dimensions of
communication is to consider that the content of the messages refers to what is said. The
relationship cues are provided on how it is communicated.

5. Communication is governed by rules.

There are some rules that govern how we communicate with others. Most of these rules are
embedded in our culture or are discussed verbally rather than written down. Communication
researcher Susan Shimanoff defines a rule as a “followable prescription that indicates what
behavior is obligated, preferred or prohibited in certain contexts.” These rules are developed by
those involved in the interaction and by the culture in which the individuals are communicating.
Most people learn communication from experiences by observing and interacting with others.

6) Communication is Dynamic.

Communication is a dynamic process because all its elements constantly interact with and affect
each other. People communicate as long as they live and every interaction people engage in is
part of connected happenings.

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sharon kalunda answered the question on February 27, 2019 at 13:03