Monthly Archives: August 2014

Just Say Yes: Happiness in individuals, dyads, and groups

            Where does happiness reside?  Happiness resides in groups, dyads and individuals.  In fact, I believe that we cannot be completely happy if we are unhappy in any one of these relationships.  Someone who has many friends and is the ‘life of the party’ but drinks themselves into a stupor when they go home cannot be truly happy.  Likewise, an introvert who is content to sit alone and read for hours but despises being with other human beings cannot be truly happy.  Why?  We all spend a part of our lives alone and with others.  We must find balance.  Happiness can be found everywhere, if you cultivate it. Get Happy in Groups As Csikszentmihalyi points out, the phrase “being alive” in Latin literally means “to be among men” (1990, p. 165).  Human beings are happier…

Nonverbal communication – Fact or fiction?

93%.  Any corporate communications trainer worth their salt knows (and tells their clients at the beginning of a session) that 93% of what people convey to others are non-verbal.  Participants usually audibly gasp when they learn that only 7% of what they convey is through content, 38% tone of voice, and 55% gestures and body language.  This statistic even appears in a recent article on About.com.  After returning to the original study, Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels (Mehrabian and Ferris, 1967), I found that the reporting of these statistics is inaccurate and broadly over generalized. In the article, the author, Susan Heathfield, wrote:  “One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the…

Does Corporate Training Have a Lasting Impact?

A Look at Well-Being Measures to Evaluate As a corporate communications trainer I work with many people on a short term basis.  Over a two day session I can see an enormous impact on their personal and professional growth.  Invariably I am always asked, “Does this training really work?”  Aside from the pile of positive evaluations I have received I do not have a scientific answer for them.  Implementing well-being measures can bring scientific rigor to my field and can fine tune the work we do to serve the client in the most effective way possible. I. Corporate Training The company we work with has a policy requiring their high performing women, after a selection process, to take part in our training.  It is this training program that I will be evaluating.  We work with high performing women in cohorts…