Is there such a thing as telephone reluctance? I can tell you that when I was in the newspaper business, I would get in the car and drive across town to talk with someone face-to-face rather than take care of it in a five-minute telephone call. I communicate well in writing, and I communicate well face-to-face. The telephone (and its analogs like audio-only Skype calls) are my least favorite communication method. (more…)
If you have studied communication much at all, I’ll bet you’ve been exposed to a common set of figures: only 7 percent of the meaning that comes from an interaction comes from the words exchanged. 38 percent comes from the voice, and 55 percent from the body language. You should have a source for information like that, of course, and there has always been a good one: Dr. Albert Mehrabian.
I even cited those figures in a textbook I co-authored, since the figures appeared in the textbook I used as a student way back when Aristotle was in knee pants. They’re great figures that help speakers make a point about delivery.
Except they’re wrong.