By: Kyle Ravsten
The world has plummeted into lockdown. Businesses and societies have withdrawn to the safety of social distancing. By doing so the effects of an existing social epidemic have expanded.
Replacing face-to-face communication with digital forms effect the efficiency and clarity of communications. Business tactics from decades proceeding the advent of digital communication hold a psychological, and biological, secret for success.
These seemingly outdated interactions are powerful and, if reembraced, can improve business and personal relationships.
Old School and Refreshing
Mark Candelaria is a nationally recognized architect renowned for his designs. Within construction and architectural industries many people know his name and work, yet do not know Mark’s source of success.
Mr. Candelaria has a very personal approach to business relationships which some would consider old school or outdated. Mark travels with, cooks with, and hosts his clients and employees in purely social interactions. During said interactions business related topics are not allowed.
Candelaria spends time learning about each person’s life, interests, and aspirations. He then selects who he works with based on their social cohesion, vision, and communication skills.
In his interview on the AFT Construction Podcast, Mark discussed how his personal interactions led to success in his career. “It’s amazing how on a two-to-three-day trip you build these relationships…I think it’s important for any company to get out there and meet new people.”[i]
He went on to explain how his career, staff, and spouse came from personal relationships with coworkers, mentors, and professors. Later in the interview the host admitted he mirrors Mark’s personal approach to business, and it produces most of the contracts his company acquires.
Success is a desire for all, and it is a common mentality that new is best. Mark Candelaria is proof success can come from slowing down and doing things the ‘old’ way.
Face-to-face communication can give an edge to meetings and interpersonal interactions, but why is this method so effective for Mark and others? What is the science behind communication?
Mr. Candelaria’s selection process accesses a neurological data system referred to as neuroception.
Old Tactics with New Science
Physical interaction has a measurable impact on our psychology, physiology, and communication. In “The two-brain approach: How Can Mutually Interacting Brains Teach Us Something About Social Interaction?”[ii] a discussion comparing one and two-participant neurological studies dives into the science of socialization.
Results indicate humans synchronize with each other when both are acting in predictable and responsive manners. If one individual becomes unresponsive or hyper-reactive it negatively effects the other’s communication and synchronicity.
Neuroception is reference to the ability humans possess to perceive seemingly insignificant expressions and mannerisms within ourselves and others. These include body language, micro-expressions, tones, and even respiration patterns.
Subconsciously, these and other physical data points paint an image in our mind either depicting friend or foe. Neurological translation of physical sense comprises the roots through which trust and doubt are nourished.
The opportunity for misinterpretation and miscommunication increases as we cut out physical cues via digital communication. Although information is conveyed through this format, we sell ourselves short of experiencing all facets of communication.
“Communication is more effective when body language and facial expressions are a part of the conversation.”[iii] The seemingly old ways provide a clear message; people are meant to be face to face, yet businesses strive to limit personal interaction in the name of efficiency.
The New Should Be Old
Interacting with clients physically gives them immediate, raw feedback rather than information alone. This allows for any miscommunication or intention to be clarified promptly and trust to be established.
Information alone is not sufficient to fully convey a message. “When we shoot someone a text, we wrongly assume that the other person understands our frame of mind, as he would if we were speaking in person.” (Smith, Vern. 2020).
Communicating digitally can be unresponsive, lacking, and contaminated. In a business setting misunderstanding equates loss.
Miscommunication born in the confines of the digital realm effects multiple key divisions of business including relationships, efficiency, and even finances.
“David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Poor Communications” that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.”[iv]
Face-to-face interactions within companies of this magnitude can prove to be difficult, but not impossible. Physical meetings between mid/upper level management and chief executives allow for direct communication of company objectives, concerns, and data. This setting does not convey information alone, but the intent, significance, and urgency behind it.
“No matter how sophisticated our algorithms, they’ll never match the intricately fine-tuned communication system in our bodies and brains.”[v] Preventing loss can be as simple as taking an extra five minutes to physically voice a concern or misunderstanding.
Learning how to efficiently communicate would point us to the way things used to be. Fast paced and technological dependent communication can, and should, be replaced with means of clear, biological communication.
The New ‘Old’ Normal
Reviving full communication, like Mark Candelaria, will elevate business and personal relationships to a level heretofore unknown.
There are many interesting scientific supports to what Mark is doing and many more are to come.
Allowing our biological information systems to work by meeting face-to-face and spending time together opens us to pure communication and its positive side effects.
It is time we reach out from the screen and come together as we did in times of old. Instead of only social networking online, begin networking offline by being social.
The next time you have an open afternoon consider inviting that client or old friend to lunch. You will be surprised what can come of it. Looking to the past and doing things the ‘old’ way may not be a bad thing.
By reaching out, we can lead the business world, and the whole of society, to a new ‘old’ normal.
[i] “Featuring Mark Candelaria W: Candelaria Design – A Finer Touch Construction Podcast.” n.d. Spotify.Com. Accessed March 7, 2021. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0S5G1pRFSALO4yYyRUm7J4?si=Q1HRgzjGRuKFblRQbuC-cw.
[ii] Konvalinka, Ivana, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2012. “The Two-Brain Approach: How Can Mutually Interacting Brains Teach Us Something about Social Interaction?” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6: 215.
[iii] Smith, Vern. 2020. “How to Foster Meaningful Relationships in the Digital Age.” Consulting – Specifying Engineer 57 (6) (07): 5. http://erl.lib.byu.edu/login/?url=https://www-proquest-com.erl.lib.byu.edu/trade-journals/how-foster-meaningful-relationships-digital-age/docview/2424656881/se-2?accountid=4488.
[iv] SHRM. 2020. “The Cost of Poor Communications.” SHRM. July 30, 2020. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/communication/pages/the-cost-of-poor-communications.aspx.
[v] Eckel, Sara. 2020. “Face Value…” Psychology Today, May, 46-55. http://erl.lib.byu.edu/login/?url=https://www-proquest-com.erl.lib.byu.edu/magazines/face-value/docview/2445581365/se-2?accountid=4488.