The Sender-Receiver Model in Communication

Jakob Hysek
13 hours ago
2 min read

You always need two to communicate: a sender & a receiver.

4 columns. Highest on the left says mean, second one say, third one hear and smalles on the right understand. The differenct in size from mean to understand is enormous. A Sender means something and a receiver understands part of it. — Sender vs. receiver: We mean to say something, say something a little different. The receiver hears something and interprets it differently.

In communication, the sender is technically transmitting a message that the receiver receives.

So far so good.

The sender-receiver Model in practical communication

Practically, the sender has an idea of what he wants to communicate. He says something close to that, but never exactly what it is.

The receiver hears part of what the sender is saying and understands an even smaller part of it.

What this basically means is:

“What I am trying to say is not what you are hearing and most probably not, what you are understanding. ”

This has multiple reasons. One of them is that communication is way more than the words we are saying.

Communication consists of:

Verbal: Words we are saying, approximately 7%.
Paraverbal: How we are saying it: tonality, pitch of your voice, speed, etc., which is around 38% of communication.
Non-Verbal: Means our body language, which represents more than half, around 55%.

Consider this: more than 90% of communication has nothing to do with the words you are saying. This should motivate you to pay closer attention to how you are communicating.

Because in the end:

Not what we intended to say counts, but what was understood.

Today I want to focus on the sender. The image on top is supposed to underline the difference between what we intend to say and what our communication partner understands.

A lot depends on the receiver as well, of course, but I want to talk about listening in a different post.

When did you have your last misunderstanding?

Do you have an idea what could have caused it?

Has it led to a larger challenge than you would wish for? Let me know, especially if you need support in overcoming it.

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