D1. Communicating a Problem
1. What is the specific problem with communication?
I
am the liaison between two offices that coordinate travel for
people. The team consists of six people, and everyone is new.
My team of three is on the 7th floor (Team 1) and the other on
the 1st floor of our building (Team 2). All team members have
access to email and a chat room for coordination, but the 1st
floor members prefer in-person coordination. Often, I do not
receive responses in a timely manner, so I go downstairs to
engage the others. This creates additional steps and time to
plan events and is causing frustration and mild dissention
among both teams.
2. Does the problem represent an example of one of
the barriers that the articles that Dr. Rani and Lumen
Learning identify? If so, which one(s)?
There are
environmental barriers that prevent both teams from having
effective communication. Environmental barriers can include a
physical setting or situation where the communication takes
place (Rani, 2016, para 8). Ensuring the room temperature is
right, there are no distractions, and the room is secure are just
a few ways to manage environmental barriers. An additional
barrier is Lack of Source Familiarity and Credibility since the
team is still in the norming stages (LumenLearning, n.d., para
11). Since the team members are not familiar with everyone,
there is a trust issue and the sender/receiver relationship is
still developing.
