{"id":23185,"date":"2021-01-11T09:24:15","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=23185"},"modified":"2021-01-17T14:12:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T18:12:14","slug":"7-38-55-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7-38-55 Rule: Reading Between the Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the 7-38-55 Rule of communication? What percentage of meaning is contained in words? And how much of communication is really non-verbal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 7-38-55 Rule is a concept of communication. It&nbsp;states that seven percent of meaning is communicated through speech, 38 percent through tone of voice, and 55 percent comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/body-language-crucial-conversations\/\">body language<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read about the 7-38-55 Rule of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The <strong>7-38-55 Rule<\/strong> of Communication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Be on the lookout for non-verbal language cues. The 7-38-55 Rule gives this breakdown for how people communicate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>7 percent of a message comes from words<\/li><li>38 comes from tone<\/li><li>55 comes from body language.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Words alone tell you just a sliver of what your counterpart is really saying. <strong>Watch for inconsistencies between words, tone, and body language.<\/strong> We encounter this all the time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of someone who\u2019s saying pleasant things like \u201cGood morning\u201d or \u201cHow are you?\u201d but with a blank expression or in a tone devoid of any warmth. This is why telemarketers are told to smile, even when they\u2019re speaking to people on the phone: the customer can \u201chear\u201d the friendly expression on the telemarketer\u2019s face. The old maxim is true: <strong>\u201cIt\u2019s not <em>what<\/em> you say, it\u2019s <em>how<\/em> you say it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use labels to discover the incongruence. If they\u2019re saying all the right things but you doubt their commitment, you can say, \u201cI heard \u2018yes,\u2019 but it seems like there was some hesitation there. It\u2019s important that we get this right and that you feel comfortable.\u201d This will make them feel respected, and will make you a trustworthy partner in their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Watch the Pronouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also observe your counterpart\u2019s speech patterns to see how integral they <em>really <\/em>are to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/methods-of-decision-making-crucial-conversations\/\">decision-making<\/a> process. Specifically, be on the lookout for their use of pronouns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The person really in charge seldom says \u201cI\u201d or \u201cme.\u201d Instead, they deflect to third-party pronouns<\/strong>, saying things like, \u201cWe may not be able to commit to that\u201d or \u201cWe have to assess our position before we can give a definitive answer.\u201d This is because they don\u2019t want to be tied down to a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conversely, you\u2019re likely dealing with a low-level player if you hear them dropping a lot of first-person pronouns like \u201cI\u201d or \u201cme.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the 7-38-55 Rule of communication? What percentage of meaning is contained in words? And how much of communication is really non-verbal? The 7-38-55 Rule is a concept of communication. It&nbsp;states that seven percent of meaning is communicated through speech, 38 percent through tone of voice, and 55 percent comes from body language. Read about the 7-38-55 Rule of communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-23185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-never-split-the-difference","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 7-38-55 Rule: Reading Between the Lines - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 7-38-55 rule is a concept of communication. It states that 7% of meaning comes from words, 38% from tone of voice, and 55% is nonverbal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 7-38-55 Rule: Reading Between the Lines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 7-38-55 rule is a concept of communication. It states that 7% of meaning comes from words, 38% from tone of voice, and 55% is nonverbal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-11T13:24:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-17T18:12:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/how-to-listen-crucial-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The 7-38-55 Rule: Reading Between the Lines\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-11T13:24:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-17T18:12:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\"},\"wordCount\":393,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/how-to-listen-crucial-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Never Split the Difference\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/\",\"name\":\"The 7-38-55 Rule: Reading Between the Lines - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/7-38-55-rule\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/how-to-listen-crucial-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-11T13:24:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-17T18:12:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"The 7-38-55 rule is a concept of communication. 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