Employability Skills II: Communication cycle and feedback

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. You sent a message to your friend, and she replied okay. Did she really understand you? Today we will learn the communication cycle, its parts, and why feedback completes it. We will also learn how to give and receive feedback well.

First, a simple word. A cycle is a set of steps that comes back to the start and repeats. Communication is a cycle because it is two-way, not one-way. The person who speaks and the person who listens keep swapping roles, just like two friends chatting.

The communication cycle has five main parts. The sender is the person who starts the message, here Riya. The message is the idea being shared, that the cricket match is at four pm. The channel is the medium used, here a WhatsApp message. The receiver is the person who gets the message, Aman. Feedback is the receiver's response, Okay, coming.

Two more terms are important. Encoding means the sender turns an idea into words, signs or pictures. Decoding means the receiver turns those words or signs back into a meaning. Communication fails when the meaning decoded is different from the meaning sent.

Here is the cycle drawn as a flowchart. The sender has an idea. She encodes it into a message. The message travels through a channel, like a call, a letter or an email. The receiver decodes the message and understands it. The receiver then gives feedback. Now the receiver becomes the sender, and the cycle repeats.

Now let us focus on feedback. Feedback is the receiver's response to a message. It tells the sender whether the message was understood correctly. Feedback can be spoken, written, or non-verbal, like a nod or a confused look. Without feedback, the sender cannot be sure, so feedback completes the cycle.

Let us see the kinds of feedback. Positive feedback praises good work, like saying your chart is neat. Negative feedback only points out a fault, like saying this is poor, redo it. Constructive feedback points out a fault and also suggests a fix, like saying add labels to your graph. No feedback, or silence, leaves the sender confused. Constructive feedback is the most useful kind.

Good feedback has four qualities. It is specific, so it says exactly what to change. It is timely, which means it is given soon, not weeks later. It is polite and talks about the work, not about the person. And it is balanced, starting with something good and then saying what to improve.

Receiving feedback is also a skill. Listen fully without interrupting. Do not argue, and do not take it as an insult. Ask questions if something is unclear. Finally, say thank you, and use the feedback to do better next time.

Let us see the cycle at a workplace. In a shop, the manager is the sender. The message is, please stock shelf three by five pm. The channel is face to face talk. The receiver is a new staff member. The feedback is a question back: shelf three, by five pm, right? This simple repeat back avoids a costly mistake.

Pause and predict. A teacher explains a new maths sum on the board. The students stay silent and nobody asks anything. Which part of the cycle is missing? The answer is feedback, so the teacher cannot tell whether the class understood. This is why good teachers ask questions.

Let us revise what we learned today. The cycle has a sender, a message, a channel, a receiver and feedback. The sender encodes an idea into words, and the receiver decodes it into meaning. Feedback shows whether the message was understood, and it completes the cycle. Constructive feedback gives a fault and a way to fix it. Give feedback politely, and receive it calmly with a thank you.