A Midsummer NovelTalk by Jeff Hicks
Why would it be that even though ‘communication’ is invariably considered as one of the most important and fundamental competencies of business, one of the most often cited reasons for business failure, is ‘poor communication’?
One reason, is that ‘sender-receiver’ - the metaphor underlying most approaches to communication—including those still being taught at many leading business schools today - is long outdated and increasingly ineffective. In this session, we will propose an alternative. We’ll look at communicating not as the sending and receiving of messages, nor even ‘communicating for clarity’, but rather, communicating as the co-creating of shared meaning.
More specifically, we will focus on the non-verbal aspects of communicating, that begin within fractions of a second, according to research from evolutionary psychology, and that predispose your audience toward acceptance or rejection of you and your proposal. This includes ‘presence,’ dress, facial expressions and mannerisms, and other aspects. Then we’ll move on to the verbal aspects of communicating and presenting, including storytelling, story architecture, voice pitch, and more.
Jeff Hicks is Clinical Assistant Professor, Organizations, Strategy and International Management and Academic Director at UT Dallas Naveen Jindal school of Management. He received his PhD at the University of Twente.
This Talk is a cooperation of Novel-T, DesignLab and NIKOS, and is also part of the European PANTHER program
