All of us communicate differently in different environments.  Do you speak to your colleagues the same way you would speak to your friends?  How do you talk to strangers compared to someone you know well?  Recognising that your environment might be affecting others you communicate with is a skill that can come in handy for you particularly when you perceive that the environment is having a negative impact on your ability to communicate effectively with someone.  This skill will help you to perceive why someone might be communicating in the way that they are.  It will also give you a factor that you can alter in order to make the person more comfortable or to establish a level of formality that you feel is important to a particular situation.