Barriers to Conversations

There are lots of reasons people choose not to have conversations. We call these conversation barriers. Barriers close down communication and prevent people from having conversations. Some examples of conversation barriers are:

• fear of strangers and the unknown
• no time or energy
• knowing enough about the topic already
• not wanting to stand out and be criticised
• thinking everyone else is doing it so it must be right/OK
• feeling it won’t do any good
• thinking it doesn’t really matter & it’s not important
• fear of failure
• hoping someone else will sort it out
• getting distracted and focusing on something else
• thinking it’s not my responsibility &/or my job
• not having the skills, experience &/or confidence
• not wanting to offend &/or upset others
• being on a mobile phone
• having a dog growling at you from behind a front door

Let us know the main reason you didn’t want to have a conversation…