In day-to-day interpersonal communication we frequently feel uncomfortable with someone’s message. Something does not ‘feel right’. This is because, without consciously realizing it, there is a mismatch between the speaker’s words and mainly instinctive body language.
Our ability to read and understand the body’s silent signals, or non-verbal communication, is all about paying attention to ‘actions’ that we see but generally do not consciously process.
When managing employees or dealing with customers it is vitally important to understand body language to know what people are really thinking and feeling; whether they are speaking or not.
TorsoTalk™ briefly traces the biological and sociological development of non-verbal communication and highlights the substantial contribution it makes to our spoken words.
Body language comprises many silent gestures. These gestures can be thought of as the ‘words’ of non-verbal communication. This workshop focuses on the most common and important gestures, which are relevant to most interpersonal communication situations.
Most gestures are the same globally, irrespective of cultural background. However, where there are local cultural differences these will be highlighted whenever relevant.
When read in isolation, individual gestures could prove to be very misleading. It is therefore important to interpret the groups or ‘clusters’ of these gestures, which occur concurrently. These gestures comprise the ‘sentences’ of body language. Participants learn how to interpret these clustered gestures.
Having understood the real meaning of gestures and clusters, participants are shown how they can consciously match their body language with their spoken words. This helps to significantly improve personnel and customer acceptance of the message being imparted. People accept the messages more readily because, unconsciously, they find the correct match between the speaker’s spoken words and silent bodily signals.
In the final phase of the program TorsoTalk™ teaches participants how to manage the body language of the people they are communicating with. This provides participants with the ability to exercise much control over most situations in a way that few people will ever realize.
Digitized sketches, photographs and video clips are used extensively throughout the workshop to assist participants’ learning. Their understanding of the material covered is tested at several stages with the aid of both individual and group exercises.
On completion of the workshop participants will be provided with extensive reference material from the course in CD or other electronic format.
Course objectives
The course objectives are to:
- understand the major role that non-verbal communication (‘body language’) plays in day-to-day business situations
- learn the most frequently used gestures in body language
- interpret the real meaning of clusters of these gestures
- learn how to match your body language with your spoken words
- learn how to manage the body language of other people
Who should attend?
Body language represents the single most important aspect of every inter-personal communication session. Everyone who is involved in people-facing situations (Management, HR, Sales, etc.) should therefore attend.
Course duration
- Learning only (Seminar): 1/2 day.
- Learning plus practical exercises (Workshop): 1 1/2 days.
