The Importance of Face-to-Face Communication

Recently, all of us at Brightwing collaboratively worked on our new Cultural Standards that we recently unveiled – with one of those standards being ‘Build Relationships for Life’. And part of the ‘Build Relationships for Life’ standard is to communicate face-to-face when possible.

With the increasing presence of electronic gadgets and social media, which are useful and necessary aspects of doing business in today’s tech savvy and global climate, sometimes what gets lost is the good old-fashion face-to-face conversation. There is no amount of technological advancements that can ever substitute that.

Kathleen Begley, author of “Face-to-Face Communication, Making Human Connections in a Technology-Driven World” correctly states, “face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human interaction” and “as wonderful as electronic devices are they can never fully replace the intimacy and immediacy of people conversing in the same room and it has worked for millions of years.”

There are many advantages to having face-to-face conversations and at the head of that list is simply – trust. Eye contact, body language, voice inflection and tone help create a real connection. Research states that up to 70% of what we say comes from unspoken signals, facial expressions and tone. There is a personal commitment and of course the interaction factor when having face-to-face conversations that certainly make it more authentic. These conversations are not only useful for relationship building and productive outcomes, but they’re more efficient than one might think.

The value of a face-to-face conversation should never be taken for granted and pushed aside. What we learn about ourselves and others is priceless and part of the human experience which truly links us together.

Author: Jason Hochstein