Body Language & Banter 85
Learning Swedish with The Two Ronnies
Try this experiment on a friend. Tell them you like their shirt using different tones of voice: sarcastic, sincere, amazed. Then see what they understood. You will find it difficult to appear sincere because I have told you to say you like their shirt — unless of course you really do. When you use sarcasm they will find it hard to process your statement. It is revealing how we use the information.
Interestingly, a piece of research described in Scientific American shows even insincere flattery is effective. If you want a pay rise from your boss, any form of flattery will do. Vanity appears to override skepticism!
Interaction The normal cadence of communication between people includes a great deal of mutual interruption. When a meeting breaks down we often see people begin to say things like, “Please don’t interrupt me” “Do you mind, I was talking,” “Pleeeease, let me finish.’ If the meeting is really getting out of hand, third parties will often step in and tell one to wait for the other. This is where the mechanics of face-to-face interaction fail, as we need to interact in order to communicate effectively.
Because we have a lot more time in a face-to-face meeting people can wander ‘off topic. This is an important part of the process of communicating. After all since most phone calls are 2-3 minutes and
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