Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

4 Improve your Communication Skills
information is objective and quantifiable: something that you 
and I will always understand in exactly the same way. It makes 
communication seem measurable, predictable and consistent: 
sending an e-mail seems to be evidence that I have 
communicated to you. Above all, the model is simple: we can 
draw a diagram to illustrate it.
But is the transmission model accurate? Does it reflect what 
actually happens when people communicate with each other? 
And, if it’s so easy to understand, why does communication – 
especially in organisations – so often go wrong?
Wiio’s Laws
We all know that communication in organisations is 
notoriously unreliable. Otto Wiio (born 1928) is a Finnish 
Professor of Human Communication. He is best known for a 
set of humorous maxims about how communication in 
organisations goes wrong. They illustrate some of the 
problems of using the transmission model.
Communication usually fails, except by accident.
If communication can fail, it will fail.
If communication cannot fail, it still usually fails.
If communication seems to succeed in the way you 
intend – someone’s misunderstood.
If you are content with your message, communication is 
certainly failing.
If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will 
be interpreted in a manner that maximises the damage.
There is always someone who knows better than you 
what your message means.
The more we communicate, the more communication 
fails.
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.

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5 What is Communication?
Problems with the transmission model
What’s wrong with the transmission model? Well, to begin with, a 
message differs from a parcel in a very obvious way. When I send 
the parcel, I no longer have it; when I send a message, I still have 
it. But the metaphor throws up some other interesting, rather 
more subtle problems.