In most workplaces, you will encounter a variety of channels that you can use to communicate with coworkers, customers, and suppliers. As you explore the advantages and drawbacks of the most common kinds of channels, think back to what you’ve learned about purpose, audience, structure and tone.
Before we get started, it’s important to talk about richness. Richness refers to the amount of information that can be conveyed through a specific channel; this includes nonverbal information, which makes up most of the message we interpret. Because face-to-face communication includes both verbal and nonverbal messages, it is the richest channel (meaning it can pass along the most information) we can choose.
