Overcoming communication barriers
There are four main types of barriers in communication. Any of these barriers can ruin the chances of success in any given project or task that we are trying to achieve here at XYZ Company. I was asked by our Vice President to give some suggestions and guidelines to help you avoid these barriers, which will allow your team to run more productively, with less need to take corrective actions, and decrease frustration within the team.

Let us start with process barrier. There are specific steps needed for a successful communication. The process barrier includes your ability to create a message, presentation, project plan, etc. The next steps are assuring that the message is transmitted to the receiver (subordinate, peer, direct manager, executive). They in turn must receive, absorb and internally process the information and correctly understand the meaning and intention of your message. On the surface, this sounds straightforward and easy. This is not always the case. I have established some methods that I use to give my messages a high probability of success without a lot of back and forth communications. Keep in mind that the length and level of technical information can necessitate more communications to reach a successful end.
• Start with some straightforward background, and then explain what is expected from the receiver, and the timeframe for any actions to be complete.
• Do NOT use acronyms. Not all people in this company or our supplier community will know their meaning.
• Use appropriate amount of details, based on your audience. o For executives give fewer details, what they need to due (such as approve proposal), and costs, return on investment expected. o For peers – what help you need from them, or their team, why, how much effort, timeline, what is in it for them. o For subordinates – high level of detail,