Have you ever stopped to think about how we create meaning? How we share ideas, relay a feeling, or give directions? All of us are constantly engaging in making meaning through the process of encoding and decoding. It’s a process that every presenter needs to understand.
So let’s uncover the secrets of encoding and decoding to see how they help us make meaning and avoid miscommunication.
Encoding
When you hear the words encoding and decoding, you might think about technology. And that makes sense. Techopedia says, “Encoding involves the use of a code to change original data into a form that can be used by an external process.” But did you know that humans (not computers) are the original encoders and decoders?
Encoding is the process of trying to express your thoughts or feelings. It’s getting what is inside you, out. And in order for you to share what you are thinking or feeling with someone, you have to use symbols. There’s no way around it, unless you are telepathic. The symbols most people use come in the form of words.
Say you pull up to a Chick-fil-A drive through. You know that you want a grilled chicken sandwich; you’ve been craving one since you woke up. But if you just sit at the drive through, you won’t get what you want. You have to give the employee your order. You’ve just encoded your desires using words and will be rewarded by a delicious lunch.
On the other hand, you can use nonverbal symbols to express yourself. Many of us have spent more than our fair share of time on video conferencing platforms during the past year. We’ve developed habits to help us navigate this media. For example, when you start talking, it’s not uncommon to ask, “Can you all hear me okay?” In response, people usually nod or give a thumbs up. That, too, is encoding. They turned the “Yes, I can” in their brains into a symbol you recognized.
Decoding
On the other end of the meaning making process is decoding. And it’s just what it sounds like. It is breaking the code. It means examining the symbols coming your way and using them to reinterpret meaning.
So when you order a grilled chicken sandwich, the employee reconstructs that meaning (hears it and processes it) and then repeats it back to you to make sure he decoded correctly. Or if you ask if others can hear you during a video call and you get a thumbs up from everyone, you decode that as license to proceed.
The book Communication for Business Professionals reminds us that decoding is always an interpretive process. And interpretations aren’t exact. They are personal and varied which is one of the reasons miscommunication can happen as we try to create and share meaning.
Miscommunication
The process of encoding and decoding sounds simple enough, right? But we know that miscommunication happens all the time. That’s where knowing about encoding and decoding can help us.
First, miscommunication might happen because the sender uses abstract or confusing symbols. If you tell the Chick-fil-A employee that you want a chicken sandwich, you can’t be upset when you get a fried chicken sandwich. Your words weren’t clear enough. So think carefully about the words and symbols you use to convey your thoughts and feelings. The more concrete and detailed they are, the better chance the person on the receiving end has of decoding them accurately.
Second, miscommunication might happen if the receiver decodes the sender’s symbols incorrectly or with bias. We all filter messages that we hear through our own experiences and opinions and preferences. So when trying to interpret a message, we have to remember to ask, “what do I think the speaker means by this?” rather than “what do I think this means?” It’s a small distinction but a very important one.
As you prepare your presentations, keep in mind the secrets of encoding and decoding. Choose symbols (words, pictures, gestures) that communicate clearly. And then keep in mind that your audience will be decoding your words according to their own biases. The more you know about your audience members, the more likely you are to know how they might reconstruct or respond to the meaning you are trying to create with them.
Great presentations are one of the ways we create and share meaning. How can we help you with presentation development, design, or delivery?
