Avoid Miscommunication

Effective communications are the cornerstone of team-working. While exchanging feedbacks promotes an effective communication, there are many potential factors undermine it. Today we are going to continue focusing on communication by discussing how to avoid miscommunication.

The main cause of miscommunication is the lack of understanding among team members. The purpose of communication is to share opinions. However, when we firmly believe our own opinions are doubtlessly the truth in the first place, we close the door for receiving new perspectives from others. Having an open mindset is the key to an effective communication. This idea is similar to the theory of Denny Dong, a college student who is in the same writing class as me. He discussed four strategies for avoiding miscommunication including being open-minded. He wrote, “Remember that everyone has their own perspectives and sees things differently. Avoid having a ‘tunnel vision’ mindset. One way to practice is by saying, ‘this is how I see the issue, how do you see it?’” (Dong, 2018). In other words, in order to achieve effective communications, we have to actively ask for others’ opinions and embrace different perspectives.

With an open mindset, we are more likely to perceive situations from others’ perspectives and thus be more understanding. In teamwork, actively asking for different opinions is not only beneficial for reaching the common goal but also for keeping learning and improving ourselves.

Reference

Dong, D. (2018, March 1). How to avoid miscommunication. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/effective-communication/how-to-avoid-miscommunication-46dd2c5ba02c