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Conflict
Mangement Monday
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Paraverbal Communication Much of what is written about communication has to do with choosing the right words and avoiding words that are not effective. While I believe this is important, I was reminded recently that only 7 percent of what is actually communicated comes from the words. The other 93 percent comes from our body language (nonverbal messages) and how we say the words (paraverbal messages). How we say things actually accounts for approximately 38 percent of
what is communicated. As an example of this, think of the sentence,
“I didn’t say you were stupid.” This sentence can
have six different meanings depending on the word that is emphasized.
Because our tone tends to change with our moods, it can be helpful to pay attention to our paraverbal messages. If we are depressed our speech can often be abrupt. If we are excited it can become more rapid and higher pitched. All of this effects what is received by the listener. When the listener hears a message with conflicting verbal, paraverbal and non verbal messages, they tend to believe the paraverbal or nonverbal. Striving to be as consistent as possible in the three types of communication will increase people’s trust in you and make you a more effective communicator. (c) 2004 Cheshire Mediation. All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the Conflict Management Monday eZine in whole or part as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link and e-mail link. Please notify Cheshire Mediation when and where the material will appear. __________________________________________ Please feel free to pass Conflict Management Monday along to any associate you feel may benefit form this information. To subscribe to our other publication, Great Meetings Monday, click here To unsubscribe to this publication click the link in the right column |
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