The Four Objectives of Communication

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Communication is important in our lives.

In a way, communications is something like breathing. You can't live very long without breathing and you cannot

survive very long without communicating. Communication is the thread by which you tie yourself to the world and the

world to you.

Let us first consider the role of communication in your job for example.

As an employee, you never work in a vacuum. You always work with and around

people. Day to day actions such as passing information and making reports all involve communication in some way or

another.

So... how well you communicate willaffect how well you succeed.

So, now that we've established that communication affects success (the importance of communication), let us now

examine the four objectives of communication.

1. To Be Understood

2. To Be Accepted

3. To Get Something Done

4. To Understand Others

Firstly, let us start by considering the fundamental objective of communication. To be understood.

We communicate so as to let other people know about something.

The primary purpose in communication is to communicate something across to someone else so that he or she knows

exactly what you mean. This could be facts, intentions or even feelings.

However, even this simple act may have its problems.

Let us consider a typical situation that occurs in many households. A husband

and his wife have agreed to go for a holiday. However, the same word, "Holiday," may mean different things to

different people.

For example, in our example between the husband and the wife, the wife may think of a holiday as a stay in a

luxurious holiday resort while the husband may think of a holiday as a golfing or camping trip.

Words and ideas which seem so clear by themselves... can be understood in many different ways by different people.

Hence, it is important to be mindful about this fact, and take that extra effort to consider your audience and clarify

your position if necessary.

In the next post, i will be discussing about the next 2 intentions of communications which are "To Be Accepted," as

well as "To Get Something Done.

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In my last post, i introduced The Fundamental Purpose of Communication. In this post, we will be

discussing upon the next two intentions of communication.

To recap, the four objectives of communication are:

1. To Be Understood
2. To Be Accepted
3. To Get Something Done
4. To Understand Others

Now, let us start by considering the second objective of communication.To Be Accepted.

 What does it mean by "To be accepted?"
It means to get people to agree with you, or at least to listen to you seriously.

This might surprise some of you, but actually getting your message accepted does not happen as often as
you might think. Many things block acceptance.
These things may include distrust, lack of empathy or even an upset state of mind.
The third objective of communication is To Get Something Done.

Let us consider a common example.

You have something that must be done quickly, and you need to ask someone whom you can trust to do it
for you. You think John is the one.
You are under a lot of pressure and cannot possibly do it. So, you ask John for his help.
You are surprised when he shows that he does not want to help you out.
What happened? A situation like this might have taken place.
What you said...

"John, I'm using my machine to finish this job that i'm a little late with.
Mysupervisor gave me this other job to finish today! I will never finish. I already have to work late just
to finish the first job. Can you help me out by doing it on your machine for me?"
What John might have 'heard'

"John, here is a dirty job that my boss gave me. I don't want to be bothered by it. Your machine can do
it. Your plans for the day don't count to me. Just help me out by doing my work for me."

Your tone may have made John feel that he was being used by you. Perhaps something that you asked him
to do in the past had left him feeling resentful, or he may have personal problems which weigh heavily on
his mind

In any case, he didn't "hear" so much with his brain as with his feelings. And
since he didn't "hear" you correctly, he didn't accept you.
Getting action involves more than simply "asking" or "telling". When we use a machine, all we have to do
is to push a button. With people, you will generally need to explain, to convince and tofollow up.
In my next post, we will be looking at the last communication objective, which is "To Understand Others,"
and also look at how we can overcome these communication roadblocks which are present in each and
every one of our lives.

The objectives of communication are as follows:

1)INFORMATION
2)ADVICE
3)ORDER
4)SUGGESTION
5)PERSUASION
6)EDUCATION
7)WARNING
8)MOTIVATION
9)RAISING MORALE
10)INITIATING ACTION
11)PROMOTING IMAGE OF ENTERPRISE
12)INFLUENCING A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER
13)INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY OR ESTABLISHING BETTER RELATIONS