Barriers & Solutions P3 to effective communication M1

General: 

• Cultural differences

People with different cultural backgrounds look at some things in a different way. It is vital that in the game industry, everyone can work together. For example, normally the team that is working on a video game consists of a couple of hundred people if not more. Within these teams, there are people from different countries, with different beliefs etc. It is very important that everyone gets along as these people work in these teams for a couple of years and it creates a good working environment.

This barrier came be overcome by simply respecting those differences. That's why people working in the game industry tent to be very open minded.

• Terminology

 Terminology can be a barrier in communication as well. For example, if you are giving a presentation or talking to someone you don't necessarily know, that person doesn't have to exactly know what you are talking about. For example, when a game company representative is talking to potential investors, those people don't have to necessarily know the specific terminology used in the industry.

In order to make your presentation professional, you still have to use the terminology, but to diminish the barrier, you can break down the terms you are using and go more into detail, this would ensure that your audience is following you.

Interpersonal: 

• Background noise 

 Background noise is another barrier which you have to consider. If you are doing a presentation or talking to a group of people, it is very distracting for both you and the audience if there is noise outside etc. In the IT sector, the presentations are a vital part of the organization, it keeps the employees (mostly managers/directors etc.) informed about what is going on within the company.
There is not much you can do about the background noise, although you could try to pick a quieter place where there is usually less noise.

• Lack of concentraction

 Lack of concentration is quite a big one as well. This can be both a barrier to you as well as the audience. If you are giving a presentation and you are not concentrating, this can lead the audience to think that you don't know what you're talking about or, in effect, can make the audience lose their interest and eventually not concentrating.

This would be a big problem in the gaming industry as everything tends to be very organized. If you lose your concentration, you lose track of everything else, especially when such organizations work with deadlines.

This can be solved by preparing for your presentation, know what you have to say and keep your eyes on your audience to stop any distractions.

Communicative in writing: 

• Structure

 When putting together a document or a leaflet of some sorts, the audience reading it needs to know what exactly you are trying to put across.
In large gaming companies, people use ''design documents''. These inform every person what their job is and what the game requires. It needs to be strictly organized so that the person looking through it can find quickly what they are looking for. This is important as such design documents have a ridiculous number of pages.

This 'barrier' can be overcome by structurising your paragraphs, sub headings etc. so that it is consistant and in-place. It is surprisingly easy to make small mistakes, but these mistakes make all the difference to the person reading what is written.

• Alternative viewpoints

 If you meet people on a daily basis, you will realise that a lot of these people have different view points on certain aspects. If you are trying to communicate your view on something to a group of people, you should take their own views into consideration. Not everybody will agree with what you have to say, but the real skill is in the acknowledgement of other people's opinions.

A very good example is the game industry, where large companies work with a variety of different people. For example, before a video game idea is put forward, the important people respnsible for the whole project sit down and discuss the different options, and although these people have different views and reasons for them, they share their viewpoints and choose what they think is best.

To overcome this barrier of alternative viewpoints, it is best to let everyone share their views and let everyone engaged choose what is best for the given situation. This prevents any misunderstandings and lets everyone express how they feel and why they feel that way.

Other examples:

Potential barriers in effective communication:
Using technical terminology,
Talking about taboo subjects or simply some may find difficult to express their emotions,
Differences in opinions/view points,
Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties,
Cultural differences
and many more...

The impact of such barriers can be reduced by (not in order):

• Being open and friendly, willing to openly talk about own problems too
• Talk clearly and with confidence
• Taking the receiver more seriously
• Ensuring appropriate feedback
• Being aware of own state of mind, emotions, attitude
• Being open minded and willing to hear other people's view points/opinions
• Finding a variety of ways to communicate