Communication Models

General technique · See it on the map

Guide only — A conceptual model, not a computable procedure.

Tracing how a message actually moves from one person's mind to another's, to see where it broke down.

When to use it

A message was sent and didn't have the intended effect, and you need to diagnose where it broke down — was it poorly encoded (jargon the receiver didn't share), lost to noise (sent during a reorg nobody was paying attention to), or delivered with no feedback loop to confirm it landed.

When to avoid it

As a substitute for actually sending the message — the model is a diagnostic tool for failures, not a communication method in its own right. Don't reach for it on routine, working communication that doesn't need diagnosing.

Steps

1. When a message failed to land, trace it through the chain: what did the sender mean, how was it encoded (words, format, jargon), what medium carried it, what noise competed with it, how did the receiver decode it, and did any feedback confirm the loop closed.
2. Identify which link broke — often encoding (assuming shared vocabulary that wasn't shared) or the missing feedback loop.
3. Fix that specific link for future messages of the same kind, rather than generically 'communicating more.'

What it produces

• A diagnosis of where a communication broke down, and a specific change to how future messages of that kind are sent.

Common pitfalls

• Treating every miscommunication as a receiver problem ('they didn't read it') when the failure was in encoding or medium.
• Skipping the feedback step entirely and having no way to know a message landed until the resulting confusion shows up downstream.
• Using the model as an excuse rather than a diagnostic — naming 'noise' without identifying what the actual noise was.

Worked example

A subcontractor keeps missing a submittal deadline the PM is sure was communicated clearly. Walking it through the model, she finds the deadline was buried in paragraph four of a long email (encoding failure) sent the same week the sub was mobilizing a new crew (noise), with no reply requested (no feedback loop). She switches to a one-line subject-line deadline with a required acknowledgment.

Source

• PMBOK-6 §10.1.2.4

Where it comes from: this technique is named by the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition.