Ever wonder what it would be like to remain quiet for an entire week? Not just less talking. I mean no talking. Total silence.
It’s a bit scary, no?
Well, I just completed such a week. I recently had throat surgery, and a week of total silence is what the doctor prescribed for convalescence. Problem is, besides being a big talker, I also do a lot of talking for a living, so this was doubly challenging.
But far from the week of self-imposed hell that I was expecting, I ended up learning a lot and, when it was all said and done, there were some clear takeaways that I would like to share.
The most striking observation I had is that when you can’t speak, people relate to you differently. Rather than the usual half-conscious attention that you usually get (or that I usually get), I found that people consistently paid full attention. You see, "speaking" entailed writing on a small whiteboard that I carried around. To hear the message, people had to read the message on the whiteboard. This took a lot more effort than conversation. It was actually refreshing to get people’s full attention for a change.
Meetings take on a completely different dynamic. Rather than the usual cacophony of everyone talking at once, if I had something to say, there would be a pause while I wrote out my message on the board, which would typically be read out loud by a colleague for everyone else who couldn’t read my handwriting. (I think the first grade teacher who gave me a penmanship award would have lost her teaching license if she were to see my script today...). The transmission of the information took more time, but was much more effective.
What I also noticed was that because conveying a message involved a concerted effort, I would think twice (or three times) before writing out an idea. I found myself saying a lot less, so everything took on more importance. Less sometimes really is more.
Conference calls proceeded with a new cadence. Conference bridge technology that supports chat capabi...
[Source: Fast Company]
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