The Business Communication Series
Importance of Non Verbal Communication
The use or application of non verbal communication is as important as the verbal communication is in different areas of our life. Different non verbal cues are widely used, separately or along with the verbal messages. The importance of non verbal communication can be discussed through its various uses and applications as follow:
Instant Effect: All non verbal methods have almost instant effect as the receivers perceive them quickly. For example, it takes less time to see a color or picture and to hear a horn or bell than to speak out and understand or to read and understand words and sentences. This quality of being speedy in conveyance and response makes non verbal methods extremely useful in many situations.
For traffic control: For traffic sings and signals, non verbal communication is absolutely essential because there must be instant response from the drivers or pedestrians. There is no time or scope to read sentences, it is the red or green signal that tells the drivers and the pedestrians that when they are safe to cross the road and vice versa. None other communication except the non verbal one is effective here.
Aid to verbal communication: Non verbal methods are extremely useful as an aid to verbal communication. Maps, charts and graphs are absolutely necessary for conveying ideas related to geography, locations, data and most of the sciences. Beside these, non verbal methods can present a large amount of complex data in a compact form a single page can contain materials which would several pages to convey in language.
For illiterate people: For the illiterate people the only method of conveying important information is by non verbal symbols. Bottles and containers of poisons are market with skull and crossbones as a warning’ illiterate drivers can manage with the non-verbal traffic signals and signs. Films are used to explain processes to people who may not follow oral explanations easily.
Arousing stronger response: All human beings respond more powerfully to pictures, colors and plain sounds than to language. A cry of agony arouses a much stronger response than a tale of woe, a film showing the actual events or representing a story is more effective than the verbal representation. News on the TV is more interesting, effective and realistic than on the radio. The audiovisual media like the cinema and the television which combine all possible methods of communication are the most powerful media.
Pictorial presentation for mass communication: Pictorial presentation is best for mass communication. In a country like India, with a large number of illiterate and semi-illiterate people, pictorial symbols are more suitable for mass communication. They are universally accepted and more easily understood. Graphs and charts are used as pictorial representations of statistical information. Signs and signals are also used as representation of something.
So, it is found that nonverbal communication is very important for us. We use different non-verbal cues to mean different things on different occasions.
Source Credit: The Business Communication