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.

Be Social -- Call a Meeting

My four-year-old daughter is a Disney Pixar fan, and one of her recent favorites to watch again and again is Wall•E, a futuristic story of a hard-working little robot who saves a spaceship full of humans from an evil computer, kind of like Stanley Kubrick for pre-schoolers.  The humans spend their days communicating with each other via touch screens that float in front of their faces.  Even when seated side-by-side, they have no personal contact.  Golf games, conversations and social activities all take place in a virtual world.

Now, if you take a look around your office, you’ll probably notice that we’re not far from that today.  How much of your communication at work is electronic compared to face-to-face?  Do you have MSN running?  Do you have Facebook up?  Are your friends helping you farm?  If you want to join a colleague for lunch, are you more likely to send a text message, or to walk over to her desk and ask face to face? 

Yes, it’s true that electronic media and social networking enable you to keep in contact with all of your friends, but the face-to-face element, especially on your job, is minimized.
 
This is why I think face-to-face business meetings during your work day deserve a better reputation than they have.  Meetings are your opportunity to reestablish human contact with your colleagues and experience human interaction face to face.  Subtle nonverbal communicative signals that are lost in cyberspace can be enjoyed face-to-face.  Emotions absent from text and difficult to express in written words can be interpreted immediately simply by reading a facial expression.
  

The reason why business people view meetings as tolerably useful at best and agonizingly wasteful at worst is because we’re losing the idea that a face-to-face business meeting is an opportunity for social interaction.  Instead, we’re thinking that meetings take us away from our ‘real work’, which takes place on the screen back at our desks.
 
Perpetuating these ideas may lead to social disaster.  Decades of psychological research confirms that interpersonal contact is essential for normal human existence.  Social isolation is harmful, and business meetings offer the opportunity for us to be social with each other during our workday, even though the topic of discussion may be business.

Dr Richard Arvey of the National University of Singapore points out that Facebook’s popularity suggests how people may be hungrier for social friends than can be satisfied in their present day-to-day work and personal lives.
 
And I’d like to suggest that realigning your attitude towards business meetings will not only make you grateful for social interaction with your colleagues, but will also make your meetings more productive.

Is Teleconferencing Cheaper than Business Travel?

How much of your time at work is spent in business meetings?  Statistics show that your average employees attend meetings between 25 to 40% of their workday.  Figures for upper management are even higher.  Because of the investment of time, money and human resources, business meetings are becoming an expensive way to get business done.

As a result, many companies are cutting back on the amount of time that they spend in face-to-face meetings and are turning to other communications channels instead.  Cost considerations have resulted in more teleconferences, videoconferences, and even simple e-mail messages.  This is particularly true at the upper management level, where face-to-face meetings often involve air travel and hotel accommodations.  Many companies believe that a videoconference can be just as effective as a face-to-face meeting and the cost saving is considerable.

But is this really true?  No one disagrees that a videoconference is cheaper than an air ticket in the short run, but when it comes to effectiveness, can a videoconference really replace a face-to-face meeting and will it save money in the long run? 

Whether to invest in a long-distance face-to-face meeting or to simply rely on other forms of electronic communications can be a tough choice to make.  However, carefully considering both the process and the outcomes expected from the meeting will provide you the criteria you need to make the choice easier.

Long-distance meetings that are mostly informational can probably be conducted electronically.  For example, for technical updates, Intel in Penang conducts teleconferences with all participants viewing the same PowerPoint presentation on their networked laptops.  Your company probably does something similar.  Meetings of this sort require little collaboration, and the participants’ role is to listen passively to the presenter unless they have questions at the end.

On the other hand, videoconferences allow participants to check their e-mail, send text messages, and carry on with their work.  They may not pay attention.  That’s why meetings that require coordination, collaboration, group processes and consensus must be conducted face-to-face. 

Studies on business communications have shown that the communication channel used for a meeting is likely to affect the outcome.  Face-to-face meetings encourage participants to collaborate and engage each other.  Persuasion and consensus are more easily achieved as a result. 

Videoconferences and teleconferences may save you a little money in the short run.  However, when it comes to the quality of your meeting outcomes, think twice.  Spending on travel expenses now could save you more in the long run.