Communication- What stops people speaking up?

- english cognitive biases communication jenny lord psychological safety Jul 17, 2024

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”

George Bernard Shaw

Communication shouldn’t be difficult. We transmit and receive information all the time, so we should be well practised at it. Unfortunately, many disagreements, incidents and accidents happen as a result of poor communication. Until we develop the ability to mind read and really understand exactly what the person we’re communicating with really means, with all the context of their experiences, we will continue to have these problems. Luckily for us, we can develop our communication skills and hopefully reduce the number of difficulties we have.

Many things get in the way of good communication. The main methods used are speaking, listening, reading and writing. Underwater of course we have to rely on hand signs or writing. On top of all of these we also have body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. With so many ways to pass information over, it’s no wonder bits of it can get missed or misunderstood.

Barriers to communication

The most obvious one is language. Even amongst people who speak the same language words can be mistaken. When you reduce the number of words someone can speak, such as when using a foreign language, it becomes even more difficult.  If someone starts using highly technical language, it may become difficult to understand, even for a native speaker. When someone learns to dive they start to learn lots of new terms such as regulator, buoyancy control device or surface pressure gauge. Then just to confuse things, we start using acronyms like BCD and SPG. Easy enough for someone who uses those terms all the time, hard for a beginner who’s also trying to take in lots of other new information. I encounter a lot of people who learn diving from an English speaking instructor, or with English materials. Interestingly, they then sometimes struggle to use the words from their native languages, as when they were learning the English words were ingrained and they had to consciously search for the word to use in another language.

Stress really affects how people communicate. Think about a time when you’ve been shouted at, or have snapped at someone else. Often the person who is reacting in an angry way doesn’t act like that normally. But when we are under pressure we don’t have the cognitive capacity to modulate our speech. In that case a small comment can add to the stress, causing someone to lash out. Other people freeze when they’re under stress. This can reduce their ability to speak; probably the best example of this is public speaking. Known as one of the most stressful things that we do, it can reduce a competent, eloquent person to someone who stutters and struggles to get their words out. Underwater, if someone is put into a stressful position they may forget to communicate completely, instead focusing completely on the problem.

As I mentioned above, underwater we mainly rely on hand signs. Luckily we can usually at least see each other but what about when we can’t? On the surface we often use phones to talk. While this is a great solution, we are now lacking the ability to see someone’s facial expressions or read their body language. We have to rely instead on their tone of voice; one of the reasons call centre employees are often told to smile is because it is possible to hear it in a voice and it makes them appear friendlier.

Individuals have personal reasons for not speaking up too. Last week I wrote about the Dunning Kruger effect, where the lowest skilled people rate themselves as higher in ability than they are, and the highest skilled rate themselves lower. If we look at the top end of that, the most highly skilled, it was suggested in the paper that the reason they scored themselves lower was because of the false consensus effect, in other words that because they performed so well, their peers must have performed just as well. There is a similar cognitive bias that occurs; The Imposter Phenomenon. This is when people who are competent in one area, for example academia, industry or sports, feel like they are not as good as they appear to everyone else. It is especially prevalent when people move to a new environment, such as a new subject, office or discipline. Someone with it is normally fairly insecure about their abilities and puts them down to things like luck, charm or a mistake having been made. It can mean that people with this (who are often those that are experts in their field) don’t always speak up. Because they believe that they are a fraud and don’t have as much knowledge as people think they do, they are less likely to offer that knowledge up as it might make people aware of their “deception”. Let's say you have a group of divers together, on a dive boat. One may be a very experienced and knowledgeable diver and hear another saying something totally incorrect. If the experienced diver has imposter syndrome, they may well not speak up as they fear saying the wrong thing and looking stupid, or being “caught out” and having their knowledge proved wrong.

People can also be scared of annoying the person they need to talk to. If it is an environment with low psychological safety, it can be difficult for someone to speak up. After all, if you know you’re always going to be shouted at, sarcastically replied to or disagreed with, why would you?

FInally, apathy can be a huge barrier. I used to have a colleague who would challenge almost everything I’d say, no matter how inconsequential. I got fed up with having to constantly defend myself, so resorted to only talking to him when it was absolutely necessary. After all, what was the point? If he wasn’t going to help me, or worse, he was going to make things even more difficult for me then why bother talking to him?

Summary

We all communicate in different ways with different people. If we think someone isn’t speaking up, we need to encourage them to by looking at the reasons that may be stopping them. Underwater this might be because they’re stressed or task loaded, in that case can we help them? On land, they may not feel comfortable, perhaps not knowledgeable enough or concerned about asking a “stupid question”. If we’re the barrier that’s stopping someone communicating effectively, we need to change, whether that’s by increasing psychological safety, finding another method of communication or changing the language we’re using. Whatever the reason, communication is two ways. If the transmitter of the information hasn’t made sure the receiver understands, communication hasn’t taken place.

For more about how to build a safe psychological environment read this series:

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-1

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-2

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-3

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-4


Jenny is a full-time technical diving instructor and safety diver. Prior to diving, she worked in outdoor education for 10 years teaching rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing, sailing, skiing, caving and cycling, among other sports. Her interest in team development started with outdoor education, using it as a tool to help people learn more about communication, planning and teamwork.

Since 2009 she has lived in Dahab, Egypt teaching SCUBA diving. She is now a technical instructor trainer for TDI, advanced trimix instructor, advanced mixed gas CCR diver and helitrox CCR instructor.

Jenny has supported a number of deep dives as part of H2O divers dive team and works as a dive supervisor and safety diver in the media industry.

If you'd like to deepen your diving experience, consider taking the online introduction course which will change your attitude towards diving because safety is your perception, visit the website.