The ability to communicate is paramount to a business management team’s efficiency, productivity, and success. Good communication within an organization breeds clarity. This, in turn, gives teams the confidence to make decisions, attack problems, and achieve positive outcomes.
A breakdown in internal communication within the workplace leads to duplicate actions, skipped activities, and chaos. These waste time and cost your business money.
Tools such as PBRS (Power Business Intelligence Reports Scheduler) eliminate communication barriers altogether. It gets the right amount of business intelligence to the right people at the right time in the best format for their needs.
Barriers to Communication in Business
Several things can slow down or prevent communication within a business.
1. Noise
Inside an organization, noise reduces the efficacy of communication. Noise can be:
- Physical. Physical noise refers to noise in the literal sense. People talking at once or environmental sounds from around the office like business machines or the hum of an air conditioner can cause communication interference. Visual noise such as pop-up ads also distract from the clarity of messages.
- Semantic. Semantic noise comes from a misunderstanding of terms. Industry jargon and language barriers are causes.
- Physiological. Physiological noise is due to physical impairments such as blindness or deafness that affect the ability to send or receive communication. Exhaustion, pain, and medication side effects are additional culprits.
- Psychological. Emotions, attitudes, and preconceived notions affect how we listen to and interpret communication. Extreme excitement or frustration can interfere with how information is processed.
Noise can be on the sender’s end, affecting how communication is transmitted. It can also be on the receiver’s end, affecting how a message is interpreted.
2. Information Overload
Pools of information bombard management systems. Left uncontrolled, this flow of information is likely to be misinterpreted, ignored, or forgotten. Communication is therefore less effective than it might be otherwise.
3. Time Barriers
In many businesses, targets must be achieved within a specific time period. The haste to meet deadlines shortens formal channels of communication. As a result, messages may be only partially given or omitted completely.
4. Organizational Complexity
The larger the power structure of an organization, the more likely the chances of communication being lost or mishandled. When only the top level is privy to the overall picture, employees at lower levels are left with little knowledge of the company and even of their own departments.
These barriers contribute to a company’s failure to reach its full potential.
What Can Businesses do to Overcome Communication Barriers?
Understanding the origins of communication barriers can help you reduce misinformation and misunderstandings in the workplace. A power BI scheduler can then work beyond the barriers to get employees the intelligence they need to do their jobs.
To overcome barriers, business communication should be:
Purposeful and well-focused
Good communication has a purpose and is aimed at the individual. The receiver should not be left feeling that the communication was meaningless or unclear.
Coordinated between superiors and subordinates
For communication to be effective, superiors and subordinates must be able to think on the same level. If communication is not coordinated accordingly, someone will be left not knowing what’s going on.
Accurate
Messaging between departments must be correct in the first place for it to be effective. A focus on the accuracy of communication makes it more likely to be quickly understood so that actions can promptly follow.
Clear
Clarity goes hand-in-hand with accuracy. The most effective communication is not filled with difficult-to-decipher terms or instructions and is evident to the target audience.
Segmented according to labor divisions
In order to reduce information overload, communication should be properly divided based on the division of labor. This helps prevent delays in information transfer.
Driven by organizational policies
Organizations should devise policies that give full communication advantages to all members. These should be flexible and easy to implement, clearly stating the goals of the organization. Each member must be familiar with his or her position in the communication process.
Distributed via the proper communication channels
Information is produced and shared more rapidly when the right communication channels are utilized. For example, computer graphics may explain a concept better and more clearly than a lengthy discussion report.
Feedback friendly
For a higher quality of reception and acceptance, communication must go two ways. In complex situations, when both the sender and the receiver can measure their understanding and offer feedback, the commitment to communication is improved.
Using a power BI scheduler helps you check off all the boxes for effective communication across all departments.
PBRS Removes Communication Barriers
To improve communication within an organization, barriers must be overcome. Once those are out of the way, the skills to improve existing communication abilities can be developed.
A power BI scheduler can take communication within your company to a new level. PBRS is a set-and-forget solution that allows your organization to use one license to deliver communication to as many people as required. Intelligence is shared when associates need it in whatever format they need it to be, including PDF, MS Word, HTML, Excel, Excel Data Only, CSV, and many more.
With PBRS, you can automate the filtering, distribution, and delivery of SSRS and Power BI Reports and Dashboards either through the cloud or on the premises. Send reports to the printer, fax machine, or folders with the touch of a key. Share them via email, SMS, FTP, Sharepoint, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Sheets, or Slack.
PBRS empowers your entire organization giving them access to data automatically. Because different groups or individuals have unique needs where data is concerned, the process is easily tailored and streamlined for faster delivery. Employees can remain focused on their work rather than digging through mountains of data or waiting for information.
