Various Strategies to Avoid Communication Breakdown

Keep Focused

Put in mind the purpose of communication. As a speaker, identify your purpose for speaking and as a listener find the speaker's purpose through his/her verbal and non-verbal cues.

Speak Intelligibly

Using the appropriate speaking volume, pitch rate, proper enunciation, stress, and acceptable pronunciation. We speak in order to be understood.

Listen with your Ears and Eyes

Pay attention to verbal and non-verbal messages. Effective communication depends on what people say and how they say it.

Minimize Distractions

Look for a place where you can minimize distractions or noise like closed areas, empty rooms, or quiet places. Lessening the cause for confusion means giving more room to focus and concentrate.

Be Specific

Use simple and concise words as much as possible in delivering a message. Being specific means being particular and direct to the point.

Do not Jump to Conclusions

Before you give your comments and judgment, be sure that you have listened attentively to the speaker. Conclusions should be drawn after a thorough analysis of points given or information received.

Completeness

It is important to the whole communication process. The speaker should include everything that the receiver needs to hear, respond, react, or evaluate properly.

Conciseness

The message should be direct or straight to the point and should be expressed in the least possible number of words.

Irrelevant information should not be included.

Consideration

In order to be effective, the speaker should give high regard and courtesy to the audience's background information such as his/her culture, education, religion, status, mood, feelings, and needs. This will result in building rapport or connection with the audience.

Concreteness

Effective communication is backed up by facts, figures, and real-life examples or situations. This will make the receiver understand the message better.

Courtesy

The speaker can show respect to his/her receivers through understanding their culture. Showing this helps create a positive vibe with the audience. This implies good choice of words and language on the part of the sender and consideration of the audience's perspectives.

Clearness

It implies the use of simple and specific words to express ideas. When the speaker focuses on specific ideas, it will not confuse the audience.

Correctness

Avoiding mistakes in grammar helps to boost the credibility and effectiveness of the message, and at the same time it eliminates negative impact on the audience.