1). Return to the eight principles of nonverbal communication. Pick two principles, and provide new examples of how they operate in a group or team.
One principle of nonverbal communication is explained as “the things we notice, or our perceptions of nonverbal cues, leading to meaning.”(Harris, 115) To further explain this concept, this concept shows that nonverbal cues and perceptions can be read without words being spoken. A good example of this is students in a classroom. When a teacher is lecturing a class the teacher can tell the interest levels of the students nonverbal cues. Such as a student may be giving full eye contact, nodding, and occasionally looking down to take notes. The teacher reads these nonverbal cues, as the student is intrigued and interested in the lecture. Where as another student could be looking down, texting, sleeping, or sloughing could show boredom. The teacher could read the students nonverbal cues as the student not being interested, bored, tired, or apathetic about the lecture. We are able to read nonverbal cues of others facial expressions, body language, posture, distance, and touch. And by observing all of these nonverbal cues we are able to get a general idea of how an individual is feeling, the mood they are in, or how they may perceive a given situation. Nonverbal cues are simply reading a person without using words.
A second principle of nonverbal communication is “when what we do and what we say are inconsistent, nonverbal communication is more likely to be believed.” (Harris, 114) This principle is the idea that “actions speak louder than words.” An example of this situation is a group of student’s working together on a project for class. Everyone in this group communicates what their role is and the tasks that they need to complete. Unfortunately, one student decides that they want to slack off and not choose to their part of the project, but continues to tell the group that the work will get done and his portion with meet the group expectations. In this situation the one group member reiterates to his peers that his portion will be completed, but his actions show otherwise. Even though verbally the group was told about the completion of this students’ portion, he chose to not follow his words and his actions showed he was not committed. In other words when your actions and words do not match up, people are more likely to believe your actions rather than your words.
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I enjoyed reading your post. Certainly, “When what we do and what we say are inconsistent, nonverbal communication is more likely to be believed.” In one of my business classes, I am going through with the same example you presented on your post. I have a semester long group project, where we turn in a portion of the project (in a form of modules) every two weeks. I am working with a group of five people who are dedicated to the project, but we have one of our group member who is not “walking the talk” in other word he is not doing what he says he would; therefore we are believing more of his actions than his talk.
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