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7 + 38 + 55 = 100 Communication: The Two Minute Tip Week 10

Are you communicating well?

For years people in all walks of life have discussed UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian’s discovery that face to face communication can be broken into three components. 7% of what is believed when we speak comes from our words, what we say. 38% is accounted for in the way we say what we say, some call it tonality. And what others see (body language) accounts for 55%. So as Alex Hitchens observed in the movie Hitch: over 90% of what you’re saying isn’t coming from your mouth. Peter Drucker in fact, said, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”

Howard Hendricks, a professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary said that in order to communicate, each of us must include:
Thought: something we know
Emotion: something we feel
Action: something we do

The most effective communication includes all three. This weeks tip encourages everyone to give it their all: 100%.