I am an expert on body language and first impressions, a professional
keynote speaker at conventions, and the Author of SNAP Making the Most of First
Impressions body language and Charisma. Here are a few of the articles I have
contributed to about changes in interactions in the Post Covid world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/smarter-living/coronavirus-greetings-handshakes-hugs.html
https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/do-face-coverings-help-or-hinder-defendants
https://www.iaapa.org/news/funworld/how-staff-can-maintain-welcoming-environment-social-distancing
What challenges and new things can be done to ensure a safe
meeting?
- It's
essential to help meeting attendees feel safe and informed before they get
to the meeting. I suggest emails and newsletters websites that give as
much information about the safety precautions. I also offer personal phone calls to
board members and key individuals to ensure that the information they are
getting is clear and accurate. One key member telling potential attendees
negative or incorrect safety information can dramatically affect your
member's attendance. For example, what are the sizes of the rooms? What are
the ceiling heights? What has the meeting facility done to ensure safety, air
circulation in the rooms, and how does that meet new recommendations? Will
people wear badges with sensors so contract tracing can occur if there is a
positive covid case during or after the convention?
- Give
the group fun ways of safely greeting and interacting. Throughout all cultures, people greet one another as a sign
of recognition, affection, friendship, and reverence. Now people may be
scared to greet or not know how others in attendance will greet. I have
some alternatives listed below
- If
you are putting the tables further apart and more sparsely seated, make
sure you make the tables look more appealing with color choices and centerpieces,
so the effect is warmer and more welcoming. Have greeters at the door to
safely and warmly greet people as they enter to make the attendees feel
more welcome and warm them up for the speaker. Spend the money to get great friendly, upbeat
music in the room, perhaps even live performers. Even someone playing guitar
or a quintet playing classical music can warm up the environment.
HANDSHAKE ALTERNATIVES
For in face to face online interaction like your
live stream concerts
By Patti Wood, Body Language, and Human Behavior
Expert
With concerns about Germs, I wanted to give
you and your company handshake alternatives that can make you and your team
comfortable. I want to make sure you feel prepared and know what to do. Because
greetings and goodbye rituals have so many physiological benefits, I encourage
you to create nonverbal greeting and goodbye rituals when interacting online
via Skype or some other format. I want to have ways to acknowledge how unique
each human being on this little blue planet is and what a sacred thing we do
when we interact.
First, know that without an acceptable form of touch, we will be
losing an invaluable bonding mechanism that normally helps us feel safe and
lets us bring down the "stranger barrier" and connect. I share
this with you because I want to emphasize that greeting rituals allow to create
a positive first impression and connect and reduce conflict. If you don't shake
hands or have an alternative ritual, there is a cost, so you need a
replacement. I have done three years of academic research on handshakes
and greeting rituals and have spoken and written about them for over 30 years.
I know their value. You need to do some sort of ritual, even online.
Start the Greeting Earlier. If you are face to face start at about 8 to 6 feet out. If you are shaking
hands, you typically smile when you are four feet apart and again as you get
close. If you start the greeting earlier, you can create a contact in time to
signal that you want to create a different ritual and NOT SHAKE HANDS.
What you want to do is slow down the greeting, so you have the time to change
the greeting graciously.
Wave- hold up your open pam
and wave. Open palm signals directly to the primitive limbic brain that you
come in peace and friendship. It was said to have originated with American
Indians to signal to others that you held no weapon and come in peace.
LEAN IN – Just lean in instead of shaking hand. You can even make
sure no one reaches for you hand by keeping our arms at your sides with a
slight bow lean in -This
shows that first of all are NOT offering your hand but also that you come in
peace and still allows you to acknowledge the person as special, that you honor
them and that the and the interaction as special.
The NAMASTE –
This was originally a Hindu greeting and used in the 2000s by celebrities who
didn't want to shake hands with fans in red carpet greeting. The Namaste is a slight bow and
hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs
close to the chest. In Hinda, you actually say the word NAMASTE but you don't
have to but its a beautiful greeting and the actual ritual its called "Añjali
Mudrā;" In Hinduism, it means "I bow to the
divine in you".
THE PEACE SIGN or Victory V - I wanted to offer another option
that signals a greeting that could catch on as we battel whatever this
cold/flu/virus gives us and come out in peace and victory. This thought of
creating this for our season of germs started with my friend Carl who is a
biker. He is smart, cool and he greets fellow bikers on the road with a peace
sign. Yes, the peace sign! Who knew the hippy, bead wearing right hand up, palm
facing out with two fingers spread in a slight "V" greeting? Remember,
we like people who are like us. The various versions of the peace symbol given
by bikers show other bikers they have something in common. During World War II,
Victor de Laveleye, a Belgian refugee, suggested during a BBC broadcast that
his countrymen use the letter V as a rallying sign. The "V" is the
first letter of victoire (victory) in French and vrijheid (freedom)
in Dutch. Soon you could see "V" in graffiti all over Belgium and
then all of Nazi-occupied Europe and given as a hand sign. It was a message
that said to the occupier that "he is surrounded, encircled by an immense
crowd of citizens that don't want this occupation. British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill popularized the V symbol as a victory. 1958, the artist
Gerald Holton began using the graphic representation of the "V" in an
opposite way from the World War II usage, casting it as a symbol for peace to
create the peace symbol.
It is a greeting that shows others your own
beliefs and desires and asks in return, "Are you part of my tribe? Will
you interact with me in harmony?"
I suggest that if you are meeting face-to-face
or online with business associates, friends, or family, you talk about how you
would like to greeted. Perhaps pick a team or family or friendship tribal
greeting ritual like the fist bump was created to show we are in this together.
Because we also need a ritual to show we are
done and grateful for the interaction will return in peace again, I
suggest you end with one of these rituals or your own special parting as well.
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language
Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP,
Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
einteractions
For you and for your company
