Virtual Training

16Body Language

Decoding and Encoding Nonverbal Communication

When you observe other people's body language and interpret it for meaning, it's called decoding or deep listening (we'll discuss this in Chapter 22). When you are sending cues to other people—like your learners—it is called encoding.

A distinguished list of researchers have done extensive work on the impact of nonverbal cues on human communication. More than half of human communication is nonverbal.

For example, a study by Dr. Albert Mehrabian found that, depending on the situation, our actual words account for 7 percent of what people are decoding. The other 93 percent of what we communicate comes from our tone of voice (38 percent) and body language (55 percent).¹ According to Mehrabian, body language and tone of voice are especially important when they don't seem to reflect the speaker's words (noncongruence).

What this tells us is that our nonverbal signals have a massive impact on our ability to connect with and influence other people. This is why encoding is a meta-skill in the virtual classroom. When you're training virtually, your nonverbal communication is being put under a microscope and scrutinized by learners for meaning, so you must be disciplined with managing what learners see in your video frame.

The Three Elements of Body Language

Learners are listening to the words you say and comparing them to your body language for alignment. To be an effective, approachable, trustworthy communicator in the ...