What We Do Not Say: Nonverbal Communication and Emotions

In the previous chapter we described a meeting between two teams from the same company, both of which had the aim to achieve the commercial objectives of their companies (turnover, margin, profit growth of a product line). At the end of the meeting, the teams politely exchanged remarks about how wonderful it was to have such good cooperation and how valuable the meeting had been for the continuation of their partnership. The rhetoric was impressive, and if you had only listened to the words, you would have genuinely thought that these two teams were selling each other the world. The reality was different, however, and a rather confrontational intervention was required to ensure that the participants could be frank with each other. Had they been honest, they would have told one another that they found this “ritual” completely useless and a waste of time. There was no trust and everyone doubted the other team’s intentions.