Mehrabian’s Myth, the notion that the way we communicate relies forever on 7% of the words we speak, 38% the way we say them and 55% our body language, reminds me of the book on bullshit by the Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurter.
He identified three types of people; those who told the truth; those who told occasional lies; and bullshitters. The truth teller and the liar both recognise something called truth - this, surely, is something we aspire to rather than possess. Presentation is concerned with how we express this aspiration, not how we look or any gimmicky style we employ. We accept that both 'types' use and spend the truth as a currency according to their purpose while it is possible for the bullshitter to be telling or hearing the truth most of the time without knowing it. It is the knowing that is important.
This is the issue for all ‘presentation skills’ teachers. We should not be parroting this parody of Mehrabian’s research. I don’t mean he didn’t discover something useful, only that ever since, the world seems to have stopped thinking critically about it and said ‘Yeh, that sounds smart, let’s use it to impress audiences.’ I confess I did it myself in the early days but the more I investigated it, the less happy I became.
When I’m teaching ‘presentation’ I ask the group to get busy using plain English and relying on planning, preparation and practice. Specifically, good presenting relies not on Mehrabian’s Myth but on (1) putting yourself in the audience’s place, asking what they need to know; (2) making sure what you say is clear, concise & interesting; (3) being direct, not waffling; (4) showing how your ideas relate by linking your material in obvious ways; and (5) using relevant examples to illustrate and enlighten. Presenting is about content and structure, not bullshit.
By the way, for a good discussion of Mehrabian's Myth, read Olivia Mitchell, Mehrabian’s studies in nonverbal communication.