Communication

Good communication skills are essential in any role, but especially in a workplace where complex design problems and solutions are part of the nature of the work. Designers frequently work in teams and the ability to explain complex issues are essential in order to ensure everyone in the team understands the problems and proposed solutions.

This step looks at a few elements of good communication for engineering design – can you think of more?

Effective communication

For communication to be effective it has to be clear, complete, correct and as short as possible. It should also provide a positive impression about the writer or speaker and their organisation.

When composing a piece of written or oral communication, you should ask yourself six questions (Braun et al. 2016):

1. What is the purpose of writing or speaking? There is no point in any message if it does not have a clear purpose to be achieved. The purpose could be to clarify something, pass information to the audience, or maybe to educate them.
2. Who is my audience (who will read or listen to my message)? You must know who will be reading or listening so that the message can be adapted to them. For example, addressing experts in a field of knowledge is clearly quite different from addressing people who know very little about the topic. In the first case, you should not, for example, elaborate on things which are obvious to the audience.
3. What information should be included? By having answers to the above two questions, you can decide what information to include in the message. You should include any information that is not useful or beneficial to the audience.
4. What benefits will the readers or listeners get from my message? Readers and listeners always expect to get some benefits from reading or listening. After all, they will spend some of their time and energy listening to you or reading your message and they expect to get something in return.
5. What objections do I expect from readers or listeners? You must try to anticipate the questions or objections readers or listeners will have when they get your message.
6. How will the general context affect the reader’s response? In many cases the context, i.e. the situation in which the message was delivered, can greatly affect people’s understanding of the message. For example, when there is a negative atmosphere within a group of people, they are more likely to misunderstand a message.

The above questions can be easily remembered if you abbreviate them to PAIBOC for purpose, audience, information, benefits, objections and context (Braun et al. 2016).

References

Braun, K. et al. 2016. Business Communication: Building Critical Skills, McGraw-Hill Education.