Communication is so much more than the words we say

Perhaps some of you have ever heard of a research conducted by Mehrebian and Ferris on communication. The research shows that in a presentation before a group of people :
• 55% of the impact of communication is determined by our body language. This includes body posture, gestures, stance, eye contact, and facial expressions.
• 38% is influenced by our tone of voice (voice tonality), tempo, and volume.
• Only 7% is affected by our words.

Body language and tone of voice are called the communication context, whereas our actual words are the communication content.

The impact of this research on communication is that our body language and voice (which are the communication context) make an enormous difference to the meaning of what we say. It is not just what we say, but how we say it that makes the difference. How many times that we ever sense that the other person who is talking to us does not seem to speak honestly? How do we know if he/she is not telling the truth?

The communication context is so important, that any actors need to learn at least a dozen different ways to say the word “No”. Maybe not many know that Margaret Thatcher used to spend a great deal of her time to learn to say “Hello”.

In order to become an effective and competent communicator, we have to be aware of this and make sure that the other person understands the meaning we are trying to communicate. In other words, we need to go further by not only paying attention to the words that we say (which is the content of what we say), but also, the way we say it to get the message across.

Pay attention more to our body language and tone of voice. Make sure that they are in congruence with the words we are saying. That will determine our success in delivering our message as the way we want it.