| Responses | Date | Author |
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A very simple way you could demonstrate the visual / body language part is by asking the group to perform a task in silence and without mouthing any words. e.g. organise themselves in line according to their birth date (month and day). |
| 20/04/2015 | Previous |
Chris, Tim, Slavica, Thank you all for the information, Tim I will go get your module, thanks.
Slavica, I will be amending my piece about the professor to reflect the truth of his research
Chris. Starting more research on google and suggested info from here
Thank you all
John |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
Thank you all for your responses, Im absolutely delighted with the information, Crispian (no need to apologise, things like this get me going also), please send me the article ([email protected]), an interesting read im sure. Personally I love to work with current information and as has been referenced here in the responses.
I will be amending my bit about the Professor accordingly to reflect his meaning in context, to the stats and to general communication.
Nigel and Shirley, thank you for your suggestions.
Could I ask a follow on question , What points do you make about the importance of Verbal and Non Verbal communication do you present in your courses, to an audience of business startups or unemployed people going for interview.
Thanks all again, Im really happy with your input and it will make my course (and me) better in the short and long term.
John
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| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
Hi John,
Just picked up your e-mail and wanted to give you a few tips. I frequently use Albert Mehrabian's (note it is not Mahrabian)research work on verbal communication and behaviour in my Business Communication Module, but you need to be very careful how you use it. We need to promote the truth about his work not keep taking it out of context and teach/train others about the myths! Please refer to Mehrabian work on Google.scholar and also visit the website below to read the Mitchell's article on debunking the myths about Mehrabian's work, it might help clarify a few things; http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/presentation-myths/mehrabian-nonverbal-communication-research/
Kind regards, Slavica Talbot |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
Hi John,
I suspect I will not be the only person who urges you not to promulgate the myth that Mehrabian (note the spelling) actually came up with what is usually quoted. The prof's research was on a very specific and limited area of communication but many trainers have continued to apply it to the whole range of communication, which makes no sense. On his own website, Mehrabian expresses the results of his research in the form of an equation: ?Total Liking = 7% Verbal Liking + 38% Vocal Liking + 55% Facial Liking? He goes on to explain that ?this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.? If you tell someone a joke and they listen to it with a stony face and then grunt, "Ha ha, very funny" you are liable to believe their visual and vocal communication much more than what they actually say, and that's what Mehrabian's research was about. My friend Martin Shovel produced a very good video cartoon about it, called Busting the Mehrabian Myth - you can find it on his website http://www.creativityworks.net/. However, all is not lost. There's a very good module in Trainers' Library called "Powerful Communication - what listeners pay attention to" (well, I think it's good, but then I wrote it!). It takes longer than a few minutes but I guarantee that if you run it, you will find that the list that your delegates produce as a result will have lots of things about gesture and animation and enthusiasm and tone and pauses and pacing and so on, and much less about the actual words - and that is, I suspect, what you are trying to achieve. I hope that's helpful.
Tim |
| 17/04/2015 | Tim |
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My advice would be - don't! Google "mehrabian myth" for a barrage of critique about how this work has been misrepresented, misinterpretated and misued! |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
John, apologies for the reaction but it always worries me seeing these numbers quoted. I can forward an article called "Blasting away an old nlp myth". I even resorted to e-mailing Albert Mehrabian around this mis-quote; he confirmed that the numbers refer to communication in a very limited context; the study was first reported in the Journal of consulting psychology 1967 (all fully referenced in the article).
Let me know if you want me to forward to you |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
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I think it's important to understand that Mehrabian did not say what everyone thinks he said. There's a neat little article here which explains what he did say. http://publicwords.com/debunking-the-debunkers-the-mehrabian-myth-explained-correctly/ When interviewed on Radio 4 a few years ago, Mehrabian was asked Professor Mehrabian was interviewed on BBC radio a few weeks after the following video was released, and he was asked, ?whether 93% of communication is nonverbal?? He answered, ?Absolutely not. And whenever I hear that misquote of my findings I cringe because it should be obvious to anybody who would use any amount of common sense that that?s not a correct statement!? So, you need to be careful when using his 'pie'. A simple exercise the demonstrate the importance of congruency of tone is to have people stand back to back. One reads out the same message using different tones (angry, sad,scared, jocular and so on). Other person has to work out the meaning. |
| 17/04/2015 | Clare |
Hi John
I'd suggest if using Mehrabian's research that you give a bit of context to it. It's often overstated, particularly by us trainers! The original study related only to the communication of emotions and was not intended to apply to communication in general. Mehrabian himself has said he cringes at some of the misinterpretation of his research. It can still be useful if we use it to illustrate the power of non-verbal communication, but I'd avoid the bold statements such as 93% of communication is non-verbal. You may well be fully aware of that in which case, my apologies, but can find more just by googling mehrabian myth or debunked. Maybe not what you're after, but a simple illustration of the importance of intonation is the classic sentence - "I Didn't say he stole the money". Depending on which word the emphasis is put on it has 7 different meanings and can illustrate how misunderstandings can arise, particularly in written communication: 1. *I didn't say he stole the money. (someone else said it.) 2. I *didn't say he stole the money.( that's not true at all. ) 3. I didn't *say he stole the money. (might have suggested it) 4. I didn't say *he stole the money. (someone else took it.) 5. I didnt say he *stole the money (but he does have it.) 6. I didnt say he stole *the money. (but maybe some other money. ) 7. I didnt say he stole the *money. (but he may have stolen something.) |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
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Here's a simple exercise to demonstrate the importance of visual contact in communication. 1. Set up a flip chart and get one volunteer to draw. Tell him/her that he/she has to draw exactly according to the instructions that another person. 2. Give another volunteer a shape - not too complex or too simple . The second volunteer has to tell the "artist" what to draw, but is not allowed to name the shape. The second volunteer must stand on the other side of the flip chart so that he/she can't see what is being drawn. 3. Allow 5 to 10 minutes for the exercise. The rest of the group observes the process. You can give the group a copy of the drawing if you wish At the end of the process compare what has been drawn with the original shape. Ask the participants how they felt about the process. Ask the group what they observed. Ask all what lessons can be drawn from the exercise about communication. You can vary the exercise depending on resources. If you have a smallish group and enough flip charts you could have everyone try the exercise at the same time. I've used this exercise loads of times. It's great fun and is a great into to Marhabian. Should take about 30 minutes depdning on group size. |
| 17/04/2015 | Previous |
Hi John
There's two exercises I run around communication; one being 'pass the message' activity and the second around rapport.
Pass the Message
I ask for a volunteer from the group or I often choose someone whom I believe will be very detailed. I provide them with a picture, away and unbeknown to the rest of the group, which has loads going on in it and give them a couple of minutes to really study the picture (happy to take a photo of this and share it with you). Then one by one I ask the rest of the delegates to come in and that "Joe Bloggs has something to share with you..." Joe describes what he has just seen...and so on until the last member of the group. It's basically Chinese Whispers! More often than not the delegates add, delete and distort the information and when shown the picture at the end it's very different to what the last person has described and what the first person has seen and recited! I've used this activity many a time and it's a really fun exercise which shows how communication breaks down. When debriefing the exercise the delegates realise that they could have asked the person to clarify the message again, they could have taken notes, listened better etc etc
With the Rapport exercise I firstly split the group into two and inform one half (away from the other half) that they are going to talk about a subject of their choice (it could be anything, their hobby, kids etc)and explain to them about mirror, pacing and leading and give them 5 mins with a partner to develop 'rapport'...I don't tell the other group what's happening other than they're going to have a chat. When this is complete, the other group expect to do the same thing, which they do...but then I ask them at some point in the conversation to 'break' the rapport; perhaps yawn (not overtly), stop copying body language, glance out the window, look at their watch etc When we debrief both exercises they really aren't comfortable with the second conversation, understandably.
Hope this helps.
Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to know more.
Best of luck!
Shirley |
| 17/04/2015 | Shirley |