The other day over dinner, a friend of mine was describing a problem she was having at the office.  It seems that every time someone she worked with did or said something stupid, her left eyebrow would rise like a hockey stick.  It was completely involuntary, and based on some unusual feedback she had received questioning her professionalism in the office, she was worried that her well-coifed little friend was causing her some real problems.  She then posed a reasonable question:

 ”So how do I stop my ****ing eyebrow from moving??”

In his 1991 bestseller Body Language in the Workplace, author Julius Fast describes this problem as subtext:

“In any exchange between two people or within a group, messages are communicated not only through what is said, but also through the underlying dynamics of what is not said: the subtext.  Subtext is the kind of covert language that may add to the spoken text, reinforcing it or strengthening it; or may contradict the text, canceling out any promises or agreements.” (pg. 12)

Most of us know what subtext means and that body language is a critical component to conveying a proper message, but what I liked about Fast’s definition was the bit about “canceling out any promises or agreements”.  This betrayal of the spoken word occurs all around us, when one parting glance quickly dismisses an hour’s worth of seemingly progressive discussions.  It occurs when that positive performance review is tainted by an ill-timed smirk, a glance downward, a dour looking mouth or a meaningless at-a-boy pat on the back.  

I cannot quantify the amount of time that is spent by employees diagnosing and analyzing the intent behind each of the 5,000+ facial expressions conveyed by those around them, but I do know that intensive interpretation occurs among fellow workers during the executive brown bag lunch, the internal product launch, the corporate event and thousands of other interactions that occur every single day.  I can also tell you this - it matters to people.  It matters a great deal and sometimes we wish it didn’t matter at all.  

Back to my friend with the eyebrows.  A colleague quipped that Botox might do the trick, but then we have the problem of the expressionless face, perhaps causing another set of contextual misunderstandings.  Even Google failed me on searching for a proper eyebrow control training system, focusing more on fashion than functional control.  Alas, we may find ourselves in front of the mirror trying to use Pavlovian techniques or age old parlor tricks to stop our bodies from doing any number of things that cause us harm in the workplace, no subtext intended.

Let’s keep the (nonverbal) conversation going.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm and is filed under General Thoughts, Human Capital/Human Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.