Earlier you met a group of students planning publicity for their upcoming career day seminar. In their meeting they discussed adding a portfolio session to the schedule and planning publicity. Recollect the following dialogue:
Lori: You’re right; we need that. Big oversight. Glad you thought of it.
Tony: One thing we could do is send a memo to all the people who live in the dorms to let them know about the seminar.
Chris: That might be a good idea, but I’m not sure we’re ready to go on to that yet. Were we finished with the portfolio session planning?
Tony: Sorry! I thought we were ready to move on. What do we need to do yet with portfolios?
Chris: Well, for one thing, we need to figure out who would be a good person to handle that session.
The goal of this application is to show you how much the context and nonverbal behavior influence the meaning of what we say. Select four trios. Each trio is to role-play the dialogue but from a different relational context. The first trio is composed of close friends who have worked together on several committees. Members of the second trio have never met before, and one member is not sure he or she even wants to be on this committee. The third trio has a highly aggressive member who believes he or she knows how to run this group. The fourth trio is composed of individuals who really dislike each other but are trying to be civil.
During the role-plays, have audience members take notes. Ask them to observe the nonverbal behavior and how it changes the meaning of the conversation. When the trios are through, discuss the principles and the functions of nonverbal behavior. You can even discuss how the trios used such things as gestures, facial expressions, movements, and spacing to create the relational context.