Effective Communication Skills for Engineers, Scientists, and Technologists

By Steven Cerri

Our technical world is becoming more complex while our need to communicate effectively with a wider variety of people is increasing.  The ever-shrinking world requires technical professionals who can communicate effectively and skillfully in a variety of situations and with people with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds and abilities.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION EXCELLENCE?

Communication excellence is based on the natural structure of language and how the human brain processes verbal and non-verbal information.  When we have a clear and sound understanding of the human processes of perception, communication, and cognition, then the process of communication becomes a predictable closed system with input, output, and feedback.  When the communication process is understood within the framework of a “system”, the process lends itself to analysis and understanding rather than being a “hit-and-miss” process.

Approximately 20-plus years ago, researchers began which asked the question, “What is effective and excellent communication?  Can this excellence be modeled?  If it can be modeled can its components be determined and taught so that other people can become excellent communicators as well?”  The answer to each of these questions was an emphatic “yes” and the answers gave birth to a discipline that now provides the tools that allow anyone to be an excellent communicator.  These tools have been assembled into the 7-Step Effective Communication Process.

HUMANS AS SATELLITES

Effective communication is the process of understanding that each human being is like a satellite moving through the universe gathering data about that universe---the universe of life.  Just as a satellite uses its instruments to gather data, each person uses their senses to gather data about the world around them.  The data they collect from their senses are then integrated into a meaningful “map” of reality that they then use to make choices and move through the world.  This “map” of reality is a filter that is used to focus attention on and filter information from the world around them.  This “map of reality” is used to filter all other data as it enters through the senses, including communication from other people.  If the filters are fully “operating” then the communication process can be difficult.  The listener will “filter” the incoming messages based on the “biases” of those filters.  If, on the other hand, the filters are not engaged, the messages coming in to the listener will be absorbed without the prejudice of those filters.

Therefore, the definition of effective and excellent communication is the ability to communicate so that the listener’s “filters” are not engaged or at the very least, minimally engaged.  If the listener’s “filters” are not engaged during the communication exchange, the speaker can have a high probability that the listener will actually “hear” the communication in an unbiased fashion.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION?

Some people would say that the sender (speaker) is responsible for effective communication while some would say the listener is responsible.  Yet others might say that both parties are actually responsible.  The author believes the true party responsible for effective communication is the sender, because only the send knows exactly what the communication is meant to convey.

HOW DO ENGINEERS AND MANAGERS COMMUNICATE DIFFERENTLY?

During college, engineering students are taught that the context of a communication is less important than content.  The goal is to arrive at the correct answer; knowing the answer to an engineering problem is what is demanded.

In the business world the answers are multiple and less a function of correctness and more a function of influence, power, and “effectiveness”.  Often a “less right” answer will hold sway over “the absolutely right” answer if the proponent has more power or influence or if the proponent can convey his or her message more persuasively and more effectively.  This does not mean we should condone such a process; it is merely a fact of life.

In the business world, context (i.e., how a message is conveyed) often is as important or even more important than content.  Therefore, the technical professional who wants to be a successful communicator must understand the role of context as well as content.  A guiding principle for effective communication is, “never communicate content without first establishing the appropriate context”.

COMMUNICATION PITFALLS: DELETION, DISTORTION, AND GENERALIZATION

During any communication, speakers and listeners perform mental and verbal processes that either enhance or obstruct the effectiveness of the communication, in others, their ability to actually “hear” what the speaker is attempting to convey.  These mental and verbal processes, in the listener’s brain, are deletion, distortion, and generalization.  Deletion is the elimination of potentially useful or important information.  Distortion is the process of changing the meaning of a communication.  Generalization is the expansion of a communication message to include other, unrelated applications.  These three communication “violations” impede effective communication because they change the resulting communication into something different than originally intended by the sender.  By understanding the roles of deletion, distortion, and generalization, communicators can remove the negative effects of these three processes.

COMMUNICATION “REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS”

People “represent” their experiences in their mind using the five senses.  Each sense allows the human brain to collect data about the world.  On conscious and un-conscious levels, the human brain “represents” data in a way that is tied directly to the representational system through which the information was brought to the brain.  That is, visual information is stored as pictures.  Auditory information is stored as sounds and the sounds of words, while kinesthetic information is stored in the nervous system as feelings and emotions. (Olfactory information is stored as the smell and gustatory information is stored as the taste.) In this way, much of the sensory data that people accumulate over time are actually maintained in the forms in which they were originally acquired.  Although other transformations can take place over time, the key point is to understand that the human mind actually stores information in representational systems correlated to the five senses.

THE THREE WAYS WE COMMUNICATE ALMOST 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME

For people in the business world, most communication takes place using the following three representational systems: visual (sight, pictures); auditory (sound and words); and kinesthetic (feelings, sensations).  Olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) systems do not enter into the business communication process very often.  Although the five representational systems obviously make up 100 percent of our communication environment, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic data usually make up the majority of our daily professional communication.

BUILDING RAPPORT – HOW FRIENDS COMMUNICATE

Just as two transmitters transmitting at the same frequency can increase their combined amplitude, two people communicating in the same representational system can communicate very well.  Conversely, two transmitters transmitting 90 degrees out of phase will subtract from each other’s amplitude.  In the same way, two people communicating in different representational systems will find communication to be very difficult.  Friends are actually friends, to a large degree, because they communicate in the same representational systems most of the time.

THE “7-STEP COMMUNICATION PROCESS”

The “7-Step Communication Process” defines a strategy for effective communication that can be used in any situation.  The steps are presented here.

1.         The first step in effective communication is to understand which representational system the listener is operating within.  By understanding the real-time representational system, the speaker can “match” that system, thereby ensuring that the communication will be in an acceptable mode to the listener.  This specific technique of using verbal and non-verbal communication can effectively remove most if not all the filters from the listener’s side of the conversation.  This allows the communicator to be much more effective.

2.         The second step in effective communication utilizes the techniques of mirroring, matching, pacing and leading of verbal and non-verbal communication cues. These tools allow the speaker to build unconscious rapport with the listener, thus placing the listener in a more receptive mode.  This process reduces the effects of the listener’s “filters” and allows the speakers messages to be received more openly.

3.         The third step in effective communication is to uncover the listener’s complex maps or paradigms of reality.  This questioning process can be quick and elegant and ensures that the speaker understands the paradigms that must be matched in order to initiate and continue effective communication.

4.         The fourth step in effective communication is for the speaker to send the message. At this point, rapport has been established and the communication process can proceed in such a way that the sender can present ideas and issues and the listener will be receptive to them.  This does not necessarily mean that the listener will agree with the sender’s position, but at the very least, that the listener will hear the sender’s message in an unbiased way. The sender sends his or her message in “alignment” with the listener’s map of the world.

5.         The fifth step in effective communication is for the sender to “check” to determine if the message was received by the listener as intended.  In fact, it is important to point out again that the responsibility for effective communication rests with the sender; only the sender knows what the intended message is.  Depending upon the filters engaged by the listener, the message could be interpreted in a wide variety of ways.  Therefore, the fifth step is for the speaker to ask questions and watch for non-verbal cues to determine whether the message was received by the listener as intended.

6.         The sixth step in effective communication is to go back to steps 1, 2, or 3 to set the stage to send the message again if it was not received as intended.

7.         The seventh step in effective communication is to send the next message using steps 1, 2, or 3 if the message was received as intended.

The seven steps form a closed, feedback-loop system with input, output, and feedback.  With these fundamental tools for effective communication, the sender can communicate ideas and concepts more effectively and can influence people more elegantly. Within engineering, scientific, and technical environment, (and even in the non-technical environment) the typical technical professional will be capable of speaking and communicating more effectively with other technical professionals as well as with managers, accountants, lawyers, contract personnel, and customers. 

SUMMARY

Excellent communication is a process and an ability that can be learned.  Steps and tools exist for communicating more effectively with a wide variety of people.  These tools are applied using the 7-Step Effective Communication Process.  Each step in this process leads the speaker along a path that increases the ability to convey information to the listener.

The “7 –Step Effective Communication Process” is summarized as follows:  

1. Determine the representation system strategy of the listener.
2. Build rapport with the listener.
3. Step into the listener’s representational framework and ask questions to determine the listener’s structure of reality.
4. Send your message in conformance with the listener’s map of reality and representational system.
5. Check to determine whether the listener received the message in the way in which it was intended.
6. If “NO” …. the message was not received as intended. Go back to Steps 1, 2, or 3 and send the message again (Step 4).
7. If “YES” … the message was received as intended. Go on and send the next message.

By using these seven steps and the processes embedded in them, technical professionals can communicate much more effectively with anyone in any situation.