Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

Do we communicate what we intend?
The transmission model assumes that communication is 
always intentional: that the sender always communicates for a 
purpose, and always knows what that purpose is. In fact, most 
human communication mixes the intentional and the 
unintentional. We all know that we communicate a great deal 
without meaning to, through body language, eye movement and 
tone of voice.
The transmission model also assumes that the intention and 
the communication are separate. First we have a thought; then 
we decide how to encode it. In reality, we may not know what we 
are thinking until we have said it; the act of encoding is the 
process of thinking. Many writers, for example, say that they 
write 
in order to 
work out what their ideas are.
What’s the context?
A message delivered by post will have a very different effect 
to a message delivered vocally, face-to-face. Our response to the 
message will differ if it’s delivered by a senior manager or by a 
colleague. Our state of mind when we hear or read the message 
will affect how we understand it. And so on.
A one-way street
The transmission model is a linear. The source actively sends 
a message; the destination passively receives it. The model 
ignores the active participation of the ‘receiver’ in generating the 
meaning of the communication.
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6 Improve your Communication Skills
What does it all mean?
The transmission model ignores the way humans 
understand. Human beings don’t process information; they 
process meanings.
For example, the words ‘I’m fine’ could mean:
• ‘I am feeling well’;
• ‘I am happy’;
• ‘I was feeling unwell but am now feeling better’;