Imagine the scene…
It’s 8.30pm on a standard weeknight and the wife is just about to settle down to watch the second part of the twice nightly episode of Corrie and her husband, who it is fair to say couldn’t care less who Norris is currently annoying, or who Tina is dating, is on his laptop, surfing. Or at least so she thinks. She vaguely notices that he is tapping away but doesn’t give it a second thought.
On the other sofa the aforementioned husband has just found a girl on Facebook he used to go to school with and he sends the ‘friends invitation’ without hesitation. And so they start to chat.
By the way, no stereotyping intended…for the record I know some men watch Corrie and not all ladies are fans!
So, back to our evening in front of the telly and there is nothing wrong with this story so far but, and here’s the worrying bit, it is remarkably easy to get yourself into all kind of trouble when the stats show us that…
…a staggering 75% of all our communication is non verbal and a further 18% is all down to tone, so remarkably words only account for a tiny 7%, no wonder its so easy to get it wrong when its so hard to even convey a tone in an email, let alone have the benefit of a warm smile or a hard stare for that matter.
Of course face to face you can still get yourself into trouble, especially in the season of mistletoe and mulled wine, but chances are it will be intentional and not something that sneaks up on you!
Merry Christmas!