Anton Savage: It’s time to verbalise the truth about non-verbal communication
Forget everything leadership gurus have told you about communications
Originally published in the Business Post.
You may be familiar with the principle that in communication, 93 per cent of what we say is understood thanks to non-verbal cues (55 per cent body language, 38 per cent tone of voice), and only 7 per cent due to the actual words.
It is one of the most widely held beliefs about human interaction and one of the most widely cited. Rarely do you go to a conference, seminar, or talk about leadership or management in which someone doesn’t reference it. It’s also completely untrue.
When you think about it, its falsity is self-evident. You’re currently doing a pretty good job of understanding what I’m writing and you have no idea if I’m gurning at the screen and keening, or sitting cross-legged in a Zen garden.
Fans of the statistic will say “ah, the principle relates to verbal communication, not writing”. Well, let me cite blind people. For the theory to be true, they would live in a world wherein they understand only 45 per cent of what is said to them, as they’re blocked from viewing body language. No blind person I have ever met operates on impaired comprehension like this.
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