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November 24, 2009
50 in 50. #13: Honest Signals
What do speed dating and poker have in common with leader communication?
Why do remote members of a team often have difficulty connecting to each other?
Why is e-mail so much less effective than face-to-face communication?
The answers can be found in this amazing book, Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World by Alex (Sandy) Pentland.
Mr. Pentland, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has extensively studied what he calls the “social signals” that shape how human beings relate to one another. Part body language, part verbal cues, these signals offer insights into how we think and behave. And understanding the signals can help you be a better leader, manager, communicator and influencer.
This book has so much great content that it’s hard to select excerpts to share with you. But here are a few highlights:
- If people at a meeting are sitting quietly in their seats, that’s a bad sign. According to Mr. Pentland’s studies, when people are really interested, their activity levels increase. When people aren’t moving, they’re probably checked out.
- Job satisfaction is strongly dependent on a combination of face-to-face and e-mail communication. When people have to rely on e-mail alone, their satisfaction (and feelings of interaction) declines.
- Managers who spend a lot of time with their teams “reading the signals” are more successful—greater engagement and productivity—than managers who are more removed.
Honest Signals is not a how-to book, but it offers many suggestions on how you can apply behavioral science in your work. I highly recommend it.
Posted by Alison Davis at November 24, 2009 05:53 PM
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