noise

There are some types of communication that lead to the receiver closing off the message. Even if s/he still seems to listen, his/her system battens down the hatches internally. In their book “Conversation Transformation” Ben E. Benjamin, Amy Yeager and Anita Simon name this types as noise in the communication channel and focus on the following 3 categories:

• Ambiguity
• vagueness
• redundancies contradictory messages (double binds, such as “Yes, but …” or a contradiction between words and tone of voice or facial expressions).

When do you batten down the hatches? Can you add a 4th and 5th type for yourself? Which type do you use yourself? In which upcoming situation do you want to make sure that you don´t bring in any noise? What could you do in order to communicate in a way, so the recipient opens his/her hatchs as far as possible?