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Communication: Final Revision – 2025
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Summary of Chapters 1 , 2 , 5, & 3:
To describe human communication in the 19th^ century, People used the transport and postal imagery: The freight - information metaphor The 20th^ century electronic technologies The modern technology
- Information, like freight, comes in ‘bits’, stored, transferred and retrieved.
- Information “flows” along a ‘channel’. - ‘Telephone lines’ - ‘Television channels’. - Electronic information comes in ‘bits’, and stored in ‘files’. - The words ‘download’ and ‘upload’ use the freight metaphor. - E-mail uses postal imagery. (send - receive – to – from…) Important: Background Information:
- In 1949, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver published a formal version of the transmission model (Shannon, Claude E and Weaver, Warren, A Mathematical Model of Communication, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1949).
- Shannon and Weaver were engineers working for Bell Telephone Labs in the United States. Their goal was to make telephone cables as efficient as possible.
- Their model had five elements: It is based on the transmission metaphor:
- A source produces a message.
- A transmitter encodes the message into signals.
- A channel transmits the signal.
- A receiver decodes the message from the signal.
- Noise: any interference with the message travelling along the channel.
- A final element, feedback, was introduced in the 1950s. For the Telephone In a Conversation
- The channel = the wire
- The signal = the electrical current
- The transmitter & receiver = handsets
- The source = my brain (I have an idea.)
- The receiver = your brain
- The encoder = the language (words) I use to send the idea.
- The channel = The way I choose to send my words (email – letter – mobile call …)
- The decoder = the language you use to understand me.
- Noise = any distraction you might experience as I speak.
- Feedback = your response to what I say: (gestures, facial expressions …)
Parallel processing allows the brain to develop a very dynamic relationship with reality. Think of it as ‘bottom-up’ processing and ‘top-down’ processing. Bottom-up processing Top-down processing
- It recognizes the features, such as shape and colour.
- It occurs in the lower – and more primitive – parts of the brain (stem and the cerebellum.)
- The neural networks in these regions send information upwards, into the higher regions of the brain: the neo-cortex. 1. Meanwhile, the higher-level centers of the brain provide the mental networks. 2. It improves your communication skills as it organizes information into patterns and gives it meaning. 3. As you read, for example, bottom-up processing recognizes the shapes of letters; top-down processing combines the shapes into words. ➢ Top-down and bottom-up processing is a kind of internal conversation within the brain.
Important: Perceptual Completion:
- Top-down processing often completes ambiguous, or incomplete information by using pre- existing patterns.
- It creates a mental model or calculated guesses:
- Visual illusions demonstrate how the brain makes these calculated guesses. In the image in Figure 1.2, for example, we appear to see a white triangle, even though the image contains no triangle.
- The brain’s top-down processing completes the incoming information by imposing a ‘triangle’ pattern – its best guess of what is there. (The triangle is named after Gaetano Kanizsa, an Italian psychologist and artist, founder of the Institute of Psychology of Trieste.)
- We can call this process ‘perceptual completion’, and it’s not limited to visual information. Perceptual completion shows that all understanding is a ‘best guess’.
In this model, we are at the centre of two interlocking sets of contexts, seeking to find common ground. Whatever we understand, we have communicated with each other. Hence, we need a new definition of the word ‘communication’. ‘Communication’ derives from the Latin communis, meaning ‘common’, ‘shared’:
The Difference between the Shannon-Weaver Transmission Model and the New Model of Communication: The Shannon-Weaver Transmission Model The New Communication Model
- Definition:
- Communication is the act of transmitting and receiving information.
- Human beings process information.
- Definition:
- Communication is the process of creating shared understanding.
- Human beings process meanings.
- It is a one-way street process.
- It is a primitive, simple model.
- Communication is like a mechanical process in which information is:
- Objective,
- Quantifiable,
- Intentional,
- Measurable,
- Predictable, and
- Consistent.
- It assumes that everyone will understand the message in exactly the same way. - It is not a one-off event, like a radio transmission, but a process. - It can be intentional, or unintentional. - Understanding is continuously updated, depending on words, gestures, and voice. - We understand more, or less, than what is said because we observe words, body language, and voice tone and try to match meanings. 4. The Freight Metaphor: 5. The definition is based on comparing the process of communication to the movement of goods, railways, and roads. 6. ‘Communication’ derives from the Latin communis, meaning ‘common’, ‘shared’. 7. We are at the centre of two interlocking sets of contexts, seeking to find common ground.
- Choose the wrong place.
- Bring our assumptions to the conversation. c) Legitimate d) Referent e) Expert f) Convening
- Role: a) Formal b) Informal
- Liking: a) To like very much b) To dislike very much
- Territory a) Shared territory b) Private territory c) Translate it into words, images, models, or diagrams.
- Second-stage thinking Top-down a) Why we have it? How we deal with it? b) Take action. a) Ambiguous. b) Continuous. c) Multi-channel. d) Culturally determined. Adversarial Conversation
- Assumptions that we bring to our conversations.
- We bring mental models to our conversations: ➢ Parents are always right; children and teenagers are wrong ➢ Seniors in organizations are right; juniors are wrong. ➢ We are honest; they are not. ➢ We are not responsible for the problem; the others are.
Chapter five: Persuasion
The key to effective persuasion
**1. “Sell your ideas.” “Ideas are the currency of communication”
- Don’t just give information.
- You need “powerful ideas & a good method of delivery.”
- The old word for this power is rhetoric.** By applying a few simple principles, you can radically improve the quality of your persuasion.
- What did Aristotle, the grandfather of rhetoric, say? We can persuade in two ways: Evidence “Artistic” Persuasion To support our case, such as:
- Documents
- Witnesses
- Results of research
- Focus groups. Three appeals using the skills of the persuader:
- Appealing to their reason;
- Appealing to the audience’s sense
- Appealing to their emotions.
- Spend as much time as you can on this activity before the conversation itself.
- Ask three fundamental questions:
1) ‘What is my objective? What do I want to achieve? (Purpose) What would I like
to see happen? (Result)
2) ‘Who am I talking to?’ (Audience) Why am I talking to this person? What do
they already know? What more do they need to know? What do I want them
to do? (Call-to-Action)
3) What kind of ideas will be most likely to convince them? (Method of delivery)
‘What is the most important thing I have to say to them?’ If I were only allowed
a few minutes with them, what would I say to convince them – or, at least, to
persuade them to keep listening?
- Try to create a single sentence that is:
1) Appropriate both to your objective and to your listener.
2) Expressive.
3) Simple.
How to test your sentence:
- If your message is a clear one, it will provoke one of these three questions:
1. ‘Why?’
2. ‘How?’
3. ‘Which ones?’
- If you can’t imagine your listener asking any of these questions, they’re unlikely
to be interested in your message. So, try another.
- If you can imagine them asking more than one of these questions, try to
simplify your message.
Remember:
Your listener will only be interested in your message because it answers some
need or question that already exists in their mind.
Here is a simple four-point structure that can make your listener accept your
message.
SPQR: SPQR is a classic story-telling framework. It is a method management
consultants use in the introductions to their proposals. The trick is to take your
listener through the four stages quickly. Don’t be tempted to fill out the story with
lots of detail.
1. Situation 2. Problem
• Briefly tell the listener something
they already know.
• Show that you are on their territory.
• State the Situation in such a way
that the listener expects to hear
more.
• Think of this as a kind of ‘Once
upon a time…’. It’s an opener, a
scene-setting statement that
prepares them for what’s to come.
• Now identify a Problem that has
arisen within the Situation.
• The Problem should be their
problem at least as much as yours.
• Problems can be positive as well as
negative.
• You may want to alert your listener
to an opportunity that has arisen
within the Situation.
3. Question 4. Response
• The Problem causes the listener to
ask a Question (or would do so, if
they were aware of it).
• Your Response or answer to the
Question is your message.
As you use SPQR, remember these three key points:
1. Problems come in many shapes and sizes.
2. Identify a Problem that the listener will recognize.
3. It must clearly relate to the Situation that you have set up: it poses a threat
to it or creates a challenge within it.
There are two ways to organize ideas logically:
Deductive organization, in a Sequence Inductive Organization, in a Pyramid
- In the form of a syllogism (Reasoning). (Figure 5.1)
- You infer a conclusion from two statements Steps:
- Make a statement.
- Make a second statement related to the first.
- State the conclusion of these two statements, provided that the two are true, simultaneously.
- This conclusion is your message. Advantages:
- It is useful for establishing whether or not something is true. Disadvantages:
- Deductive logic brings two major risks with it.
- It demands real patience on the part of the listener.
- When listeners disagree with one of the stages, the whole sequence collapses. Grouping and summarizing. 1) It creates pyramids of ideas (see Figure 5.2). 2) Inductive logic is more powerful in business than deductive logic. Advantages: 1) First, it doesn’t strain the listener’s patience because the main idea – the message – appears at the beginning. 2) Secondly, a pyramid is less likely to collapse than a strung-out sequence of ideas. 3) It’s easier to construct than a deductive sequence because you can see more clearly whether your other ideas support your message. 4) The message has a good chance of surviving even if one of the supporting ideas is removed. 5) It helps show whether something is worth doing.
Figure 5.1 Some examples of deductive reasoning: Top-down
(e.g. all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore, all dogs have four legs.)
Figure 5.2: Inductive Reasoning: Bottom-up
- I’ve looked at the plan and I’ve got some suggestions.
- I know you’re worried about the sales figures.
- I’ve got some clues that might help.
- I’ve called this meeting to make a decision about project X. - Resist the temptation to rush into second- stage thinking. - Give the first stage – the problem stage – as much attention and time as you think appropriate. Objectives roughly divide into two categories:
- Exploring a Problem;
- Finding a Solution. Link the stages of your conversation together to steer the conversation comfortably. Link the following:
- The past and the present;
- The problem and the solution;
- First-stage and second-stage thinking;
- Requests and answers;
- Negative ideas and positive ideas;
- Opinions about what is true, with speculation about the consequences. When you are thinking about your headline, ask ‘problem or solution?’
- Do not work towards a solution without accurately defining or understanding the problem.
- It may be that the other person doesn’t want you to offer a solution, but rather to talk through the problem with them.
There are two four-stage models of conversation types:
1 st:^ The simple form: 4 stages: WASP:
**1. welcome;
- acquire;
- supply;
- part** 2 nd: The more sophisticated model: Four types of conversation 1. Relationship = Welcome 2. Possibility = Acquire 3. Opportunity = Supply 4. Action = Part It is a simple model of conversation: 1. Welcome (first-stage thinking) (State your Objective) 1. A conversation for relationship (‘welcome’) It is meant to develop the relationship you need to achieve your objective. Conversations for relationship are: A. Tentative.
At the start of the conversation, set the scene and establish your relationship: ‘Why are we talking about this matter? Why us?’ B. Awkward. C. Embarrassing. D. Tricky like the conversations you experience with strangers at parties. E. Good examples of conversations for relationship. A conversation for relationship: key questions:
- Who are we?
- How do we relate to the matter in hand?
- What links us?
- What do you see that I can’t see?
- What do I see that you don’t see?
- In what ways do we see things similarly, or differently?
- Where do we stand?
- Can we stand together? 2. Acquire Information (first-stage thinking) (Use questions to acquire knowledge) Find out as much as possible about the matter, from as many angles as you can. For both of you, listening is vital. You are acquiring knowledge from each other. This part of the conversation should be dominated by questions. 2 - A conversation for possibility (‘acquire’) It develops first-stage thinking. It seeks to find new ways of looking at the problem. There are a number of ways of doing this:
- Look at it from a new angle.
- Ask for different interpretations of what’s happening.
- Try to distinguish what you’re looking at from what you think about it.
- Ask how other people might see it.
- Break the problem into parts.
- Connect the problem into a wider network of ideas.
- Ask what the problem is like, or what does it feel like? Conversations for possibility are potentially a source of creativity:
- Brainstorming is a good example.
- But they can also be uncomfortable: exploring different points of view may create conflict. A conversation for possibility: key questions:
- What’s the real problem?
- What are we really trying to do?
- Is this a problem?
- How could we look at this from a different angle or point of view?
- Can we interpret this differently? How?
- Have we ever done anything like this before?
- Can we make this simpler, or look at this in bits?
