Lie To Me

“Shall we just jump on Teams?”

“Let’s do a Zoom!”

It’s become so normalised now that it’s even a verb. Either way, meetings taking place online are helpful and have fundamentally changed the way we communicate.

For me, it still doesn’t beat a face to face. Call me old school but I think you get so much more from a physical interaction, especially if you are discussing something important or meeting someone for the first time.

Why?

I read a book some years ago (pre COVID) called ‘What Every Body Is Saying’ by Joe Navarro. Mr Navarro was an ex-FBI Agent who was an expert in body language and was known for being the human lie detector. If you have ever seen the series ‘Lie To Me’ with Tim Roth, the character was supposedly based on Mr Navarro.

The book has some gems but overall it is helpful to learn about the unspoken conversation going on when you are meeting. It’s the non-verbal cues you get from being in person. It’s the eye contact and knowledge you are present (although one of my pet hates is people picking up their mobile and checking it during a meeting).

Navarro emphasises that non-verbal behaviour comes from the limbic brain, which reacts instinctively to stimuli, therefore making it hard to fake and therefore gives honest signals.

I know its difficult now because its so easy to use the alternative but given the choice, I’d always vote in-person.

What do you think?