I was steered to\u00a0a web video the other day by an e-mail from a friend, and found myself in a garden of presentation skills coaches (also on video), many of whom quoted research done by Dr. Albert Mehrabian <\/a>of Stanford University.<\/p>\n

You may be familiar with the data<\/a>, which suggests that voice and body language <\/a>carry much of the message spoken by a presenter, while the actual words used carry much less meaning.<\/p>\n

I have spoken to Dr. Mehrabian, who is now retired and dealing in antique musical instruments.\u00a0 He is powerless to do anything about this misunderstanding of the findings of his research.<\/p>\n

As a professor at Stanford, his research investigated how human beings communicate emotion.\u00a0 His data do not suggest that the fine distinctions needed for strategic plans, legal arguments or scientific presentations are communicated predominately by voice tone and body language.<\/p>\n

His data do suggest that humans communicate emotion<\/em> primarily through tone of voice <\/a>and body language, which confirms intuition and\/or common sense.\u00a0\u00a0 They do not suggest that the entire meaning of your careful and thoroughly prepared presentation is carried by your voice and body.<\/p>\n

How you feel about your content is important, but it\u2019s not the whole story.\u00a0 Of course your delivery is important, but it is in service to ideas made of words that delivery earns its value.<\/p>\n

\n<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was steered to\u00a0a web video the other day by an e-mail from a friend, and found myself in a garden of presentation skills coaches (also on video), many of whom quoted research done by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of Stanford University. You may be familiar with the data, which suggests that voice and body language… Read More »Scientific research on communication<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[24,615],"tags":[301,603,297,291,596,337,905,906],"yoast_head":"\n