I had great fun developing the infographic below with Gengo. While it can’t cover the nuances, and so should be used with care, most of the information in this graphic is clear and helpful. Enjoy!
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Excellent work, thanks for sharing. Now it is my turn to share for you…
Thanks, Jeff!
Nick, Great stuff, Love to connect with you on a teen project
This is great! Thanks Nick!
Thanks, as always, for the kind comment, Cheryl!
This is a great infographic! thanks for creating it. I have an important meeting today and this is just the boost I need to keep my body language in check. How about an infographic on the 5 story lines of a speech?
Thanks, Keri –this was fun to do, but took months! Not sure I would live through the process again on stories!
This a fabulous work that advances the ball for all of us. Well Done, Nick and cohorts!
Thanks, Charlotte — the Gengo folks were great to work with….
Great info graphic!! I lead many remote meetings where body language can not be a part. Any suggestions for a successful on-line meetings?
Hi, Maxine — I did a couple of blog posts not too long ago on just that topic:
https://publicwords.com/testing/whats-wrong-with-virtual-meetings/
https://publicwords.com/testing/how-to-fix-whats-wrong-with-virtual-meetings/
Hi Nick,
Fun and interesting! Thank you for posting, I’m curious how/why you used Gengo – would love to know more. (I went to their site but a quick review provided no useful info for my brain.) Also, should we stop using Mehrabian? It’s what – 4 or 5 decades old – and was unique to certain F2F conversations. Your thoughts about its validity today would be great!
Thanks so much.
Sue
Hi, Sue —
I worked with Gengo because they came to me — I think they wanted to do a little public service marketing, and I thought the end product would be helpful, so it was a good fit. And yes, Mehrabian’s one little study gets endlessly misquoted and misunderstood — but it’s still debated because it gets at an important truth: when your content and body language are in conflict, people always believe the body language. The details of how they decode that body language are less important (to most people) than the essential insight that your body language is how you embody your true attitudes, feelings, and intents.
This is great with one exception. The 55% body language, 38% tone, 7% words statistics I believe comes from an old study that is really misleading when it comes to teaching people how to communicate effectively. The original experiment wasn’t a true communication situation, but a research experiment involving the repetition of single words or phrases.
The fact is that effective communication is achieved when there is congruence between what a person is saying and how they are saying it. If body language and tone are terrific, but the words do not ring true or are irrelevant, then listeners may love you personally, but will not buy from you. Conversely, if your content is terrific, but your body language and tone are low energy, monotone, etc,. listeners will be bored and likely not buy either. The truth is it is easier to have good delivery when your content is on track. A good presenter needs both content and delivery. Please, let’s lose that 55, 38, 7 research. It makes students of presentation think more about their hands and stance that it does about their content and gives presentation training a bad rap.
Thanks, Ann, for your comment. You’re absolutely right. I didn’t have editorial control over that part of the graphic. And I’ve argued and posted many times about the inaccurate application of the Mehrabian study you refer to. I was sorry to see it slipped in there, even vaguely worded as it was.
Great summary.
Thank you Nick, I shared on my blog in French.
Merci, M. Hubert!
Hi Nick,
This is an excellent inforgraphic. I do have one comment though: it’s a bit long. Usually people like infograhics because they can read the whole thing in a couple of minutes, and benefit from an abundance of information. It takes a good 5 minutes to read yours.
Quick thing: I wouldn’t trust Wikipedia as a reference. It is now mostly edited by kids and spammers, and the information there is mostly unreliable.
Thanks, PM, for your comment. I was an expert advisor on the project, so ultimately I didn’t have control over the length, and I certainly wouldn’t use Wikipedia as a reference. But both points are well taken.
Hi Nick,
great infographic. I really enjoyed to read it. That’s why i shared it. :)
Just want to say, the twitter share button don’t show the URL. That’s why the share count don’t show up.
Thanks
Artur
Fantastic initiative! I’ve just shared it via my blog ;-)
Thanks, Conor — great to hear from you!
Thanks for the share.. I really learn lots of new things.. Its my daily work useful things.. I am working as a manager and dealing with different people in different condition.
Thanks a lot…
Janak Parekh