Congruency: The Simple Lie Detector

Do you watch CSI?  Of course you do.  It’s arguably the best TV drama on crime forensics ever made (sorry, Jack Klugman fans).  The science is mind-boggling and sometimes you wonder if the technology they’re using really exists.

Get out of the laboratory and leave the technology behind, however, and you’ll see another science at work on CSI that’s much more subtle, but just as mind boggling.  It’s the science of congruency.  Let me explain how it works.

Jim Brass from CSI Las Vegas takes a suspect into a small, dark room outfitted with nothing but a table and some chairs.  This is his laboratory.  He starts asking some simple questions and watches for the suspect’s reactions.  Then the questions get tougher and Brass finally comes out and accuses the suspect of the murder or crime in question. Now he observes carefully, because without fail, this is where the suspect will deny. 

When he does, Brass is paying attention to five of the suspect’s communicative signals – word choice, tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact and body posture.  If all five of those signals send the same message at the same time, then Brass knows that the suspect is telling the truth.  The suspect’s signals, in other words, are congruent.  However, if one of those signals is even the slightest bit out of alignment, Brass can detect that.  He’s professionally trained to do so.  When the suspect’s signals are not congruent, Brass leans harder and asks even tougher questions until the suspect finally cracks.

Believability in your business presentations works almost the same way.  Even though your audience might not be professionally trained in congruency, they can still detect if one of your communicative signals is out of alignment with the rest.  Maybe your facial expression and your words are sending different messages.  Perhaps your body posture is betraying a lack of confidence.  Or possibly, just at that critical moment, you broke eye contact.  As insignificant as these incidents may seem, they play a big part in congruency, and therefore in getting your audience to believe you.

To ensure that your signals are in alignment with each other, the most critical step for you is to know your material inside and out and to anticipate any questions that may arise.  This will elevate your confidence levels and will immediately show up in the way you address your audience.
 
Speak with clarity and project your voice throughout the room.  Stand up straight, elevate your chin just slightly and lift your shoulders back.  Then, face your audience directly, make eye contact, and greet them with a smile on your face. 

Now, that would impress Jim Brass.

Say It on Your Face

Paul Ekman is one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.  Through his work on human emotions, he has determined that the meaning of facial expressions is universal across cultures, and therefore, that they are biologically determined and not culturally determined as previously thought.  By showing photographs of different facial expressions to people from different backgrounds, Ekman found that basic emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, sadness and surprise were recognized across cultures.
 
Every facial expression you can imagine has been programmed into Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System, or FACS.  Using the FACS, experts can tell you precisely how certain muscles in the face move to create a recognizable expression.  The smallest movements, or microexpressions, may even be used to determine whether a person is telling the truth.  Through his work, Ekman has demonstrated how facial expressions are the window into human emotions.

You don’t need to be an eminent psychologist like Ekman to know this, however.  Facial expressions tell you how people really feel about what they have to say to you, and you can sense this without expert training.  Knowing this can also help you send messages more effectively when you deliver your business presentations.  If your facial expression matches what you have to say, people in your audience are more likely to believe you.

When you begin your presentation, for example, telling your audience that you are very pleased to have the opportunity is only half the game.  As you say this with words, you must also say this with your face.  If you really are pleased, you need to look pleased.
 
Most of the time, it’s not even necessary to mention the emotion you’re attempting to deliver.  Suppose you’re presenting a drop in your quarterly sales figures to the sales team than you manage.  This is serious business, and the expression on your face needs to tell your sales team that you’re concerned without your having to say so.

When you have exciting news, look excited.  If the trends you’re presenting are worrying, look worried.  Emotions can be infectious.  During your most effective moments in your business presentations, your audience should not only believe what you’re saying, but should also feel what you’re feeling.

When you speak with people in normal face-to-face conversations, your changing facial expressions are natural and spontaneous.  So think of your business presentation as just another conversation.  The more naturally you express yourself, both verbally and facially, the more likely it is that your audience will believe you.

The I-D-E-A Behind Gestures

Recently, I attended a training program in the UK where, among fifty participants, I was the only American.  During one session, I demonstrated a training technique I use dividing the class into four small groups and counting them off.  For Group One, I raised my index finger; for Group Two, I additionally raised my middle finger and flipped them both into the faces of my British classmates; then I went on to number off Groups Three and Four.

The class listened politely, but oddly enough, I seemed to be getting a frosty response from Group Two.  It wasn’t until a few hours after the session that one of them pulled me aside and explained the offensive meaning behind the two-fingered gesture I’d innocently tossed their way.

The meaning of the words you say will be influenced by what you do as you say them.  This is particularly important for you to remember when delivering a business presentation to an audience.

Careless or meaningless gestures add nothing to your spoken message.  In fact, some unintentional gestures can actually prevent your intended message from getting through effectively.  That’s why gestures during your presentations need to be coordinated with your words so that what you say and what you do both mean the same thing at the same time.

To augment your message, you have four good reasons to gesture.  The first reason is to indicate.  This simply means pointing to a slide, a flip chart, an object or even a member of the audience that you want everyone to look at.  If you point, they will look.  Indications help you create associations between what you want your  audience to see and what you have to say.

The second reason to gesture is to demonstrate.  This involves showing your audience with your hands how something looks, moves or works.  If, for example, you use the words “…a small amount…” in your presentation, can you see the gesture that might accompany that?  Demonstration gestures like this make your words visually real.

The third reason is to enumerate, or to count on your fingers.  If you have three ideas to discuss in your presentation, for example, show three fingers during your introduction and then count the ideas off – one, two, three.  For obvious reasons, limit your counting to 10 items (and be careful with the number 2 in the UK).

The final reason to gesture is to accentuate, or emphasize.  Snapping your fingers, clapping your hands, rapping on the podium or raising a fist all make what you say seem more important at that moment and can be used effectively when reaching your main point.  Emphasis with an accompanying gesture wakes your audience up and tells them to pay attention.

Indicate.  Demonstrate.  Enumerate.  Accentuate.  Using gestures appropriately will help your audience get a better I-D-E-A about the message you want to send.

Visual Signals Send Messages

When you communicate face-to-face with an audience, such as when you’re delivering business presentations, you’re sending three different types of signals from which your audience interprets your meaning. 

The first of these are your verbal signals.  These are the actual words you choose.  You can clarify your meaning by choosing words that are familiar to the audiences you’re addressing.  If you’re an engineer, for example, certain technical terms you’re familiar with may be understood by other engineers, but maybe not by everyone else.
 
The second type of signals you send are vocal signals.  These are not the words you say, but rather, the way you say them.  Your audience will add additional meaning to your words depending on the tone, speed and volume of your speech.  You may notice that by modulating these speech characteristics, you can say the same words many different ways and, as a result, send many different messages.

The third type of signals you send are visual signals.  Visual signals, or your body language, are what your audience sees as you speak.  Hand gestures are the most obvious forms of body language, but your audience can read meaning from even more subtle types of body language than this.  Posture, or the way you stand, for example, sends a powerful message to your audience about your confidence level.  Even slight expressions that flash across your face in just a glance can add extra meaning to the words you say for your audience.

Business presentations are largely made up of spoken and written words, so obviously, the words you choose to deliver your presentation will be important for your audience’s comprehension.  However, research suggests that your visual signals also send meaningful messages to your audience that influence how they feel about what you have to say.  In fact, your visual signals may account for about half of the overall communicative impact that your presentation has on your audience.

This being true, your business presentations can be more effective if visual signals become a part of your planning.  In addition to planning what the audience will hear, also plan what they will see.  Attractive slides can make your presentation visually memorable, but what you do with your body language will influence how your audience interprets your message as you deliver it.

In other words, it’s not just what you say nor how you say it, but what you do as you say it that makes a difference.