From the category archives:

Non-verbal communication

Mehrabian Nights – an informative tale about (mis)communication

31.12.2009

A happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all our readers, Twitter followers and clients. We’re ending 2009 with some good news: we’ve just found out that the TrainingZone community have voted my Mehrabian article the best feature of 2009 – and it has been read 20,564 times, so far. This is the article that [...]

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Synaesthesia is the Communicator’s Greatest Ally

11.11.2009

Sometimes it’s possible to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Take, for instance, the discredited theory of learning styles. It may have no basis in science, but its influence on communicators and teachers has surely been a positive one, hasn’t it?
After all, doesn’t the theory ultimately boil down to the very useful and [...]

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The Dangers of Co-opting Scientific Explanation

28.10.2009

As non-scientists plying our trade, I believe we should be wary of justifying our practice on the basis of scientific research.
Don’t get me wrong, science intrigues me as much as it does the next layperson. But the problem for laypeople like us is that all our scientific knowledge necessarily comes predigested – usually second, third [...]

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UK Speechwriters’ Guild inaugural conference video

15.10.2009

Here’s a video of the UK Speechwriters’ Guild inaugural conference. It was filmed last month in Bournemouth by talented film maker and producer Tim Clague – who’s done a superb job in capturing the flavour, and excitement, of the event.

Martha and I were invited to show our ‘Busting the Mehrabian Myth’ video and give a [...]

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Busting the Mehrabian Myth!

20.08.2009

Can words really account for only 7 percent of the meaning of a spoken message? Our video animation puts ‘Mehrabian’s rule’ under the magnifying glass and shows why it can’t be true. And the story behind the video…

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