When we talk about communication, we are basically looking at ways to bring information from one host to a peer or a group of peers, in order to convey an instruction, or an idea. The medium used could be through air (verbal), communication electronics such as computers and mobile phones, by written formats, or simply, a short note.
However, as the host and the peers could come from different background, differences in understanding messages from the former could occur due to culture, slangs or language mismatch. In Asian context, this is especially evident in Bahasa Indonesian and Bahasa Melayu. Both are technically, malay. But some of the words used in Bahasa Indonesian have different meaning as with Bahasa Melayu even though both have the same spelling and pronounciation.
The error in decoding the message sent by the host often result in what we termed as “misunderstanding”, which, when happened between two individuals, would create unnecessary conflict, confusion and undesired embarrassment. The potential damage that this could bring about could be drastic, a minute misunderstanding could bring about a small quarrel, while an acute one would result in aggression.
Hence, effective and concise communication is important to ensure that such incidents do not occur.
Teamwork will look at the fundamentals of a group of people working together, towards a common goal or idea.
It forms a very important part of life as we learn to help each other, complement each other to create good pieces of work and achieve better innovations through exchanging of ideas and delegation of work.
However, good teamwork is difficult to achieve as different people have different concepts of what they want to do or achieve.
Hence, effective communication have to be ensured between the team to make sure that the team be able to understand each others’ goals as well as to come up with positive means towards the target.
9 comments:
I believe no one would like to make a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes, misunderstanding can occur. The ability to handle conflicts is very important. Conflicts cannot be avoided as long as relationships exist. What can be done is to handle it as carefully as possible. I believe not all conflicts are bad. Think of it in another way: Conflicts also give rise to new ideas, new suggestions. Healthy competition motivates people to do better.
If the conflict arrive via misunderstand, then technically the ideas produce are not through the conflict, but rather, by accidental discovery...
I think good teamwork also means that we have to criticise constructively too, instead of just complementing and helping each other.
But it can also get irritating when people only keep giving criticism , especially so when they can't think of a solution themselves.
I think language barrier can be quite a hurdle to effective communication. The medium of language used has to be one that everyone knows and is comfortable with. Especially if you are going to work in a team. We wouldn't want someone speaking in a different language and needing an interpreter to translate it. Thankfully , we are all competent in English. Of course, there are then other things like accent, slang and pronunciation.
Hi Byron,
I totally agree with you that sometimes a word may mean differently to different people which might lead to great confusion.I think that a team can produce best results only if it takes into consideration every member's views and then finally chooses the most feasible idea.Team work demands understanding and cooperation among the members.Good job!!!
Nitika
Hi Byron,
I agree with you that misunderstandings could occur when the two parties are from different backgrounds or countries, even if they speak the same language. Another example may be the word 'football'. It can mean different sports for the Americans and the British. Therefore, there is a need to learn the cultures of others to be able to communicate effectively.
For your entry, I think that there seems to be too much theory. Perhaps you could write about your own experiences and include some video clips or cartoons to make your blog post more interesting. Nevertheless, I feel that your ideas are easy to follow. Good job!
-Rayner
Agreed. However, there must be a substantial amount of problems in order for the world to be forced to think out of the box for some solution. After which, we might see more solutions to other problems, even those that we had not found!
-Jing Mei
The fact is, i actually find it for a blog post to look professional, yet entertaining.Okay, i will keep that in view.
Hi Byron,
I agree with you that both communication and teamwork are necessary for achieving any success as a team. However, there are more than just team projects. As stated in my blog, they are important to our other aspect of life as well, and I think you should note this down :).
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