WEEK 1 LESSON 1
THE COMMUNICATION MODEL
INTRODUCTION
All interactions are based on communication.
One way or another, you try to get ideas across to the other person, and they do the same. The communication might be verbal, visual, written, or delivered using other methods, but it’s always there.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION
Any job, in any industry, requires communication skills. Whether you’re a chef, a cop, a construction worker, or a chemical engineer, there are
people with whom you’re in regular contact.
The skill that employers value most highly is the ability to work in a group,listening to others, influencing them, and getting along;
these all require communication skills.
Communication is important in any industry, but especially so in hospitality, because of how much of it involves interacting with customers.
Communication is a two-way street—it consists of not only communicating information to others, but also listening to and understanding them. In an industry that’s all about service, the second half of communication is essential to ensuring that the guest’s needs and wants are met.
CONTEXT
In the USA every message, whether verbal or non-verbal, starts with context. What you’re talking about forms part of the context: a “foul” means something different in baseball than in soccer. You also bring certain assumptions to communication, based on your background, which lead you to certain conclusions. In America, a thumbs up means
“good job,” but in parts of the Middle East it means “up yours”—meaning the same gesture can mean two different things depending on the people sending and receiving the communication. Your mood might also change how you interpret things.
THE PROCESS
OF COMMUNICATION
All communication follows a process, with these steps:
■ Context
■ Sender
■ Message
■ Medium/Channel
■ Receiver
■ Feedback
SENDER/ENCODER AND RECEIVER/DECODER
Thesenderis the person who sends out the message. The message starts off as their thoughts and feelings, but isencodedinto some form—words, sounds, symbols, pictures or graphs—so that it can be communicated to the other person. The idea is to put the message in a form the receiver will understand. Thereceiverthendecodes the message, interpreting it based on their own assumptions and understanding of the situation.
MESSAGE AND MEDIUM
The message is the information the sender sends. During the encoding, the sender tries to keep the idea as clear as possible, so that even if it’s not communicated perfectly the receiver can understand what they’re trying to get across.
All messages have a medium—the method they’re delivered by. This could be spoken word, email, hand gestures, telling someone else to tell something to the intended recipient, or anything else that communicates information. Some methods are faster and more personal than others (like speech), while others are slower and more formal (like writing).
FEEDBACK
Feedbackis the receiver’s response to a message. It’s a message sent in direct response to another message, and it completes the loop of communication.
THE COMMUNICATIONS MODEL
All of this comes together into something called the Communications Model. It consists of five basic steps:
Step 1: the sender encodes their message into words, gestures, emoji, etc.
Step 2: the sender transmits the message, which travels through the message channel. The channel determines what the message consists of.
Step 3: the receiver receives the message.
Step 4: the receiver decodes the message, interpreting what they’ve received.
Step 5: the receiver gives feedback in response to the message, whether that’s a verbal response, a nod, or any other indication that they’ve received and interpreted the message. The feedback also has to be encoded, transmitted, received, and
decoded. You’ll notice one component we haven’t talked about yet: noise.
NOISE AND
MISCOMMUNICATION
Misunderstandings are an unfortunately common part of
communication—the same idea can be phrased in multiple ways, and many statements can be interpreted in multiple ways.
Miscommunication can happen at any point in communication, not just when people have to think about what something means.
The termnoiserefers to things that interfere with transmission and reception.
TYPES OF NOISE
There are four types of noise: physical, psychological, physiological, and semantic.
Physical noise is anything outside of the speaker and listener that makes it hard to hear or pay attention. Often, it’s literally just a loud noise.
Physiologicalnoise is within the sender or receiver—hearing disorders, illness, accents, or mumbling.
Psychologicalnoise is mental interference. If someone is
distracted, they won’t be paying full attention to the message, and might miss things. If they have preconceived notions about what the sender is trying to communicate, they might not be open to new perspectives.
Semanticnoise is the result of the sender and receiver seeing the world in different ways. Cultural differences are one example, such
IMAGE SOURCES
Photo of phone courtesy of Pexels and licensed under the Pexels License.
Photo of a chefs chatting licensed through Adobe Stock.
Photo of thumbs up courtesy of Pixabay and licensed under the Pixabay License.
Illustration (infographic) of Communication Model courtesy of Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts™.
Illustration (graphic) of noise courtesy of Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts™.
CONTENT
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