Nonverbal Communication - Personal Entry

In high school, I was part of the student council. When it comes to meeting with peers and planning things for an entire student body I found it essential to have a good understanding of nonverbal communication. Every month of the school year we always had general meetings with all class councils. With the great amount of people it was helpful that we did a “temperature check” before making decisions. A temperature check requires every individual to raise their whole hand, a fist, or two fingers. A whole hand means “Go ahead. I’m all for it,” a fist means, “I’m putting a stop to it. It's not the great idea,” and two fingers mean “I don't know" or "it doesn’t matter." This system quickly performed a survey before finalizing decisions without having to go around in circles of debate right away. Instead it identifies the people who disagree with the motion in question and opens the floor of discussion. I saw it as an effective democratic process.

Also, part of being in council was sharing ideas. Of course not everyone may like one idea and a compromise had to be reached. There were times in which I sensed some sarcasm between people as one person would try to degrade another person's suggestion. Sometimes, I would see our advisors shake their heads in disappointment that our council meetings were not always being ran productively. Then, there also times when each council member took turns making proposals and people would nod in agreement or acceptance and acknowledge whether they think a particular activity sounded like fun with a smile or a "ho-hum" type of reaction.

Being part of the student council required strong communication skills and it doesn't only include verbal communication. I took notice of nonverbal communication too and it helped me initiate conversations for any concerns individual people may have with something or help certain members feel more comfortable to throw in their own ideas.