Work911 Ezine - 15 Anniversary Discount, Getting Published, and Communication Myth - Mehrabian
Robert Bacal
Special Offers
In This Issue:
1) Fifteenth Anniversary For Bacal & Associates
2) Do You Write? A Venue To Publish Your Work
3) Article 1 - Biggest Myth About Communication
4) Article 2 - What is Responsiveness?
5) Our Sites - Free Articles, Resources, and More
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1) Celebrating Our Fifteenth Anniversay - 20% Discount Until May 15,
2007
The year 2007 marks the fifteen anniversary of Bacal and Associates.
Time flies. We've been offering training, writing books and helpcards,
and doing consulting for 15 years. And in case you're wondering we
started this newsletter as a printed/faxed publication in 1992. While
we've obviously migrated to an email format, it's also been fifteen
years for that, and almost seven years publishing online.
To celebrate, and to thank our loyal newsletter readers, we're
offering a 20% discount on ALL our products (books and helpcards)
regardless of whether you order the printed or downloadable versions.
But act now because this offer expires on May 15, 2007.
What's Available: In addtion to our flagship books on dealing with
difficult customers, why performance appraisal fails and conflict
prevention in the workplace, there's about 25 helpcards on various
topics, including communication, management, performance management,
preparing for layoffs and other career oriented materials (i.e.
resumes), teams, and a lot more.Best of all (besides the discount) you
can preview all our products FREE of charge before purchasing.
Instructions: You can browse all our products at http://store.eSellerate.net/work911/main
which will bring you to the product store catalog. Add the products
you would like to purchase to the shopping cart, taking care to select
the version you want -- printed via the mail or downloadable
immediately. When you are finished, select CHECKOUT, and you will be
asked to type in your information (name, shipping address).
To get your 20% discount (which applies to your ENTIRE order), type
the following in the space labelled COUPON:- BIRTH2007 . To repeat,
type in the coupon code of BIRTH2007 where there is space that is
labelled Coupon. Click NEXT and you will be asked for your payment
information. Complete that, and continue, and that's about it. Your
discount will be applied automatically.
Once again, here's the link: http://store.eSellerate.net/work911/main
2) Do You Write? Want To Be Read by Hundreds? Want To Earn?
There are a lot of budding writers who create for business reasons, or
just for fun. Writing is a lot more fun if people have the opportunity
to read what you have written, and comment. Recently we've come across
a new website/community that is looking for contributors and authors,
and may allow you to earn some cash from your articles and thoughts
through a revenue sharing process. I've been impressed by the site,
and my research on the company indicates they are a reputable and
serious new player in the online content field. It's a great
opportunity for exposure and public relations, and one of the more
interesting aspects is that there's provision for your articles to be
"picked up" by print publicatoins on a paid basis.
There's no charge, obligation, or anything like that. All you need to
do is register, and you're good to go. There's a huge range of
categories to which you can contribute. We're planning to join
ourselves and contribute.
Interested: Participating is simple. Here's the link:
http://www.kqzyfj.com/email-386745-10469054
3) Feature Short Article - The Biggest Communication Myth of All Time
by Robert Bacal
Poor old Albert Mehrabian. His research on the contributions of verbal
and nonverbal components of communication are the most misunderstood,
misattributed, and confused amongst all the communications discussions
around the world. And what's worse, they can't even get his name
right. It's Mahrabian, not Meharabian.
Here's what is commonly said:
55% of the meaning of communication is body language, 38% is in
tonality, and 7% rests in the words themselves.
In fact, Mehrabian's research said NOTHING at all about the relative
contributions in general speech. Nothing. Anyone who took the time to
actually look at the research would know that, but, well, most
communications trainers and instructors don't -- call it laziness or
ignorance, and the misconception continues, passed on person to
person.
In fact, Mehrabian's results have to do with what happens when the
words themselves are ambiguous, OR there is a conflict (incongruity)
between the words a person uses and the non-verbals (actually and
paraverbals like tone). When there is ambiguity or conflilct between
the channels people tend to rely more on the non-verbals to evaluate
the emotional state of the person speaking.
Clearly though, even without reading the research, a little common
sense here would tell us that the old saw about percentages of meaning
makes absolutely no sense at all. If it was true, does it mean the
when you read a book 93% of the meaning is lost? Because there's no
non-verbals? Of course not.
People who cite these statistics mark themselves as ignorant, and
their ability to teach communication should be immediately suspect.
And, yes, I hate to say this, but even Toastmasters (certainly a
reputable but somewhat over praised group) is known to throw these
numbers about.
---
4) Quick Communication Hint: What is "responsiveness" and why is it so
important in communication?
Being responsive in communication has a very specific, but obvious
meaning once you know what it is, and responsiveness is absolutely
critical for creating better relationships, trust, and rapport with
people at home and at work. And the neat part is you already know what
it's NOT.
Responsiveness, in communication, refers to the degree that what YOU
say, responds clearly and directly, to what the other person just
said. If you are being responsive, the other person knows you are
paying attention, and care enough about what he or she is talking
about to "stay on that topic".
The opposite, or non-responsiveness, is exceedingly common in regular
speech. More often than not one person will change the subject
(sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes in a crude way) to themselves,
or to a topic they want to discuss. The result is that conversation is
disjointed and disconnected, with both parties walking away feeling
the whole thing was rather pointless, or feeling unhappy with the
other person.
Responsiveness is an approach you can intentionally cultivate, by
paying attention to what the other person says, and responding
directly to it BEFORE shifting the focus of the conversation to
yourself. Give up some control and let the other person play. You'll
find that the results can be rather astounding. There is so little
responsiveness going on in most communication that when you are
responsive, you separate yourself as being somewhat special and
interpersonally valuable.
---
5) Our Sites:
Just a quick summary of our sites that have information on the
following topics:
Leadership Resource Center: http://work911.com/leadership-development/index.html
Communication Resource Center: http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm
Conflict (both workplace and family) http://conflict911.com
Business, Strategic and Personal Planning: http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/index.html
Performance Management & Appraisal: http://performance-appraisals.org
Customer Service: http://customerservicezone.com
Our Main Site: http://www.work911.com
Multi-Purpose Articles Database: http://www.articles911.com
To new subscribers: The work911 newsletter is published no more than
once a week and contains articles on all things work related, and
contains other work related resources, and updates about our sites,
and their contents. Past history indicates we publish about every ten
days.
Don't forget that you can access free, useable previews of over twenty
of our books and helpcards at:
and that we continue to offer special freebie offers and discounts to
our newsletter subscribers!