Comments to: crs@uvm.eduReviewed as of 4/20/98
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NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
The use of your eyes, smiles, frowns, the tone of your voice, how
you hold or position your arms and legs, how close you stand, and
whether you touch or not, all indicate non-verbal messages to the
person to whom you are speaking.
In a situation where your words have one intended meaning and your
non-verbal behavior has another, people will select the non-verbal
behavior. This can be proved very simply. In a meeting, you can
see who is interested, tired, bored, angry, anxious, or agreeable
to the proceedings by becoming aware of non-verbal messages. If
someone in the meeting were to say in a flat tone, "That's a great
idea," while they were looking away or doing something else
(knitting or reading a newspaper), most of the others would
probably think they were being facetious or they really didn't care
about the issue.
The development of individuals as group members can sometimes be
measured by the awareness members have toward others' non-verbal
cues. Usually, the greater the sensitivity to the meaning of
gestures, intonations, postures, body movements, eye contact, and
so on, the more effective group members are in interpreting
problems, feelings, hidden agendas, and even consensus on issues.
Remember when your mate or parent kept asking what was the matter
and you kept saying nothing? They probably know your signals well
enough to recognize your mood swings even before you do. The same
type of thing can happen with group members who have worked with
you for awhile.
One technique you might want to try in your group to increase the
group's sensitivity to non-verbal communication is to have your
meeting videotaped. Videotaping allows people to see not only
others but also themselves--close up. It can serve as a mirror and
can help us see ourselves as others see us (hard as it is to do).
While this may be expensive and difficult to arrange in many cases,
community cable access television stations, which are growing in
number, now have equipment available for a low cost. Many
libraries, colleges, and high schools now have portable equipment
available for community use.
Another way to sharpen the group's ability to observe non-verbal
behavior is to show a film with no sound. It's best to have a
short film or even a cartoon. Watch the film as a group and have
people pick out a character to observe. After the film, allow time
for people to discuss the dynamics of what was happening between
characters in the film. Then play the film back with sound to see
how accurately the non-verbals were interpreted.
A third way this might be done is to have the group, either at home
or together in a meeting, watch part of a television program.
Watching Archie Bunker without sound will many times open up a
whole new perspective for even the most sophisticated group
members.
These techniques of using video and film are also good ways to
experience the process-observation method which will be discussed
later.
Distance and seating also communicate a great deal in groups. A
quick experiment might be tried while doing any of the other
exercises in this manual. Before starting an exercise, divide
members into groups of six or seven and let them each take a chair
to form their own group. During the task, call a stop-action and
ask everyone to observe where they are sitting in relation to other
people in their group. The groups' examples might look like some
of the following figures. The lines represent who talks to whom.
DIAGRAM OF TABLE
All of these seating positions indicate non-verbal elements that
communicate something about how the people in each group feel and
are acting. You or a facilitator could call the groups' attention
to the seating arrangements, but then the participants themselves
should be asked what they understand about where they are sitting.
There will probably be differing interpretations; at least people
will be becoming aware of what's going on interpersonally while
working on the task at hand. These clues, when added to other
observations can usually present a pretty accurate picture of what
kind of feelings exist in the group and what dynamics may be
present.
DIAGRAM OF TABLE
Although this diagram indicates person number 1 as the leader, it
also may suggest an unsureness about roles or the extent to which
persons 2 through 6 wish to participate.
Comments to: crs@uvm.edu
Reviewed as of 4/20/98