Trabajos Uni

So I'm watching this year's Best Picture (again) and it strikes me that this film may also deserve an award for "Best Example of Effective Non-verbal Communication." Now this may seem like a bit of a"duh" moment to most of you, since The Artist was, after all, a silent film, but bear with me.

One of the many things the film does beautifully is to highlight what acting in a silent film meantfor performers of the era: that they had to communicate-even over-communicate--a whole range of emotions and messages to their audience without the use of words. They couldn't simply rely on thewritten captions that would occasionally pop up during the scene. The audience had to "feel" what they were "saying" even without the captions.

The great Spencer Tracy once famously said that good actingreally was simply about knowing your lines and not bumping into the furniture. Even if we overlook the gross oversimplification that statement represents for contemporary actors, it certainlywouldn't have been good advice for actors in the silent era.

Learning their lines would have been only a small part of the job. Silent film actors had to rely almost exclusively on facial expressions,posture, gestures and other non-verbal cues to get their points across. I mean, who knew so many emotions could be communicated through an eyebrow?

In fact, I would argue that if there were an AcademyAward for Best Performance by an Eyebrow, Jean Dujardin would have had to do yet another acceptance speech…or maybe he could let his eyebrow do the talking? Just think of the endorsementpossibilities: "Have a Coke and a Raised Brow." Perhaps a duet of some sort with the Nike "swoosh"? Personally, I'm waiting for the workout video: "Rock-hard Eyebrows."

All kidding aside, as leaders we have asimilar challenge to Mr. Dujardin's, since depending upon which study is cited, nonverbal communication constitutes anywhere from 50 to 90% of any face-to-face message, even those with words…lending...