Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace Richard Jorgenson Com200: Interpersonal Communication Aisha Meeks October 27, 2008 Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace George A. Miller, the psychologist, said “Most of our failures in understanding one another have less to do with what is heard than with what is intended and what is inferred.” The conclusions you draw conform exactly to the truth or to the standard set by the norm of others in your culture. Unfortunately this is never the case. The fact is, your perceptions and the conclusions you draw from them represent your reality, your subjective view, or the world as it appears to you (Hybels, Weaver 2007 p.48). In a business setting it is important that communication is clear and open to receive feedback in order to clarify the task. If conclusions are based on perceptions alone, the project could be made incorrectly delaying delivery to the customer. If co-workers are affected by perceptual influences, any experiences will be distorted past the norm. There are ways to help communications and perceptions. Stay healthy and get enough rest and exercise, because perception depends on the senses the better a person will perform. Avoid hasty conclusions, when making a statement that there is not sufficient data for, state it tentatively rather than as a conclusion. Take more time, it allows for more information gathering as well time to think about observations and conclusions. And one must be prepared to change, after gathering information, hearing viewpoints, alternatives and conclusions that were not originally available, adjustments to a work plan can be made then because hasty conclusions were not made and products were not produced incorrectly (Hybels, Weaver 2007 p.49-50) References