Why you need a photo for your Slack profile
I was reading Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz which is an engaging book on how Chris was a hostage negotiator for the FBI- around his tested processes and it’s projection to business negotiation.
So, whats the big deal with hostage negotiation, and a Slack profile image?
The 7–38–55 Percent Rule
About 1/2 through the book I have a highlight around the 7–38–55 percent rule. It was initially laid out by Albert Mehrabian at the University of California, Los Angeles, in his book Silent Messages (in 1971).
It basically says that (in human interaction, value and intent is derived from):
- 7%: spoken word
- 38%: tone of voice, and
- 55%: body language
You may think “c’mon Ravi, the image doesn’t help THAT much, does it?”
It does!
So, if we take Albert’s 7–38–55 rule, you’ll see that Slack in itself doesn’t allow for any sort of spoken word, tone of voice or body language. It’s actually below all of these communication ‘tiers’. It’s strictly a platform where you type and text (for those of you unfamiliar with the platform).
The best form of communication is really meeting someone in person, but with COVID and social distancing rules, that’s obviously difficult right now. We’re able to meet over video — which definitely allows for spoken word, tone of voice, and some body language, but unfortunately not all.
Which is why working remotely for teams that were used to meeting in person has been so difficult.
The Slack profile image, at the very least, gives an anchor for the person that you’re communicating with to imagine facial expressions, body language, and tone. I’m not suggesting that we need to eliminate Slack or convert all meetings to Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Teams — but the added imagery does put a “face-to-a-name” as you’re conversing on a purely textual platform.
This is day 7 of my #90DayOfProse challenge.
