“The Non-verbal Work Environment”

Today in class, we talked about verbal and non-verbal communication. We learned that the world is more non-verbal than verbal. Body language and facial expressions are often used to express things.  Some companies do not even allow employees to speak. Knowing how to communicate even non-verbally is essential in business.

To prove how difficult communication can be we played the non-verbal game in class. Teams were divided into threes. Everyone had a different title and job. Every team was given Lego pieces to assemble. The CEO could only answer yes or no questions and had the directions for what the team was building. The CEO also had to stay in the hall away from the others. The worker was actually building the item, but could not speak and only follow directions on how to build from the foreman. The foreman was the go between from the CEO to the worker. He or she could ask the CEO any yes or no question and had to direct the worker on how to build.

I was the foreman and it proved to be a difficult task. I think the foreman would equal an executive or manager in the business world. I was basically, the middle layer of a company ladder. I had to figure out what it was and how to instruct someone to build it. I think my job is for someone who can stay cool and problem solve. Someone who takes what is given and figures out how to work with it. Not being able to have a conversation with either person was stressful. I learned that I need to be able to communicate in many ways to be successful in business.