{"id":980,"date":"2020-06-29T09:28:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T09:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.twentytwo.digital\/ukbodytalk\/suit-the-action\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:34:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:34:59","slug":"suit-the-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.twentytwo.digital\/ukbodytalk\/resources\/blogs\/suit-the-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Suit The Action To The Word, The Word To The Action: The Power of Gestures in the Virtual World"},"content":{"rendered":"

“People can hear your gestures and will be guided by them”<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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Suit The Action To The Word, The Word To The Action: <\/b>The Power of Gestures in the Virtual World<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

One of the most valuable lessons I\u2019ve learned about being a voice actor was one of the very first.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my final year of drama school we began training for The Carleton Hobbes Bursary Award \u2013 an annual competition held between UK drama students, the winners of which receive a 5 month contract with the BBC Radio Drama Company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Audio drama was something I deeply loved and I\u2019d been looking forward to the training for months.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of our first tasks was to deliver a short monologue. I approached the mic, stood stock still and gave it my best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks Mark,\u201d came the response from the tutor. \u201cJust one thing. Why didn\u2019t you move?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I was a little taken aback by the question. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if I should,\u201d I replied.<\/span><\/p>\n

He asked me to try the monologue again – this time with gestures – and afterwards played the two versions back to me. The difference was palpable. The version with the gestures was much more engaging, my performance much more congruent with the script.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you gesture, the audience will hear it,\u201d the tutor told me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson that\u2019s stayed with me ever since and to date I\u2019ve appeared in well over 150 audio dramas for the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congruency between our words, voices and body language is vital in making our message clear. Gesturing, when it\u2019s used effectively, is a key part of that. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, \u201cSuit the action to the word, the word to the action.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of online platforms such as Zoom and Webex in corporate communication has become the new normal, particularly from a home setting. The clean lines of the corporate meeting room have been replaced by whatever suitable space can be found in the home \u2013 for me it\u2019s my son\u2019s nursery. Meetings are much less formal, camera angles are variable and participants are distractible. It\u2019s a new world where the rules of engagement have been rewritten and holding the audience\u2019s attention can be much more challenging.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another effect of the move online is the demise of the gesture. In a recent webinar one of my clients questioned why it\u2019s necessary to gesture on a web call. After all, when your webcam gives you roughly the same headspace as a passport photo, nobody is going to see you moving your hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

There can be an assumption that gestures are there to support the spoken word and nothing more. Yet research has shown that people are just as likely to use gestures on the phone when they are unable be seen, so this can\u2019t be the whole story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On a recent trip to the supermarket I overheard a woman in a car having an extremely animated phone call, arms whirling about her head as if conducting an invisible orchestra. Clearly her gestures weren\u2019t being utilised as visual aids, but they were having an effect upon her voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In May 2020, Wim Pouw of the University of Connecticut published a study* in which he recorded the effects of different arm gestures on the voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

He found that the muscular tension involved in gesturing travelled through the body, affecting the pressure in the lungs and therefore the pitch and volume of the voice. Not only that, but when the recordings were played to a selection of listeners, they weren\u2019t just able to hear the difference in the voice, but were also able to identify which gestures were being made.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Pouw \u201cWhen you hear a voice, you literally hear aspects of a person\u2019s entire body.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Our bodies and voices are part of the same package. As I learned at drama school, the fact that we\u2019re not visible doesn\u2019t mean gesturing isn\u2019t necessary. On the contrary, when our audience is unable to see us, their focus on how we speak becomes even more acute, so gesturing becomes all the more important.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a virtual meeting there are many reasons you might not be seen clearly: your video feed may be one of many in gallery view; slow internet speed may result in you having to turn off your webcam to free up bandwidth; poor lighting in the room could lead to your video appearing pixelated\u2026 The list goes on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In these situations, it\u2019s important to remember that people can <\/span>hear<\/b> your gestures and will be guided by them. They play a key role in powering your voice, making it more dynamic and engaging for your audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To use an analogy, the body is the engine behind the voice and gestures are the foot on the gas pedal. The extent to which you rev that engine will affect your vocal performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you take your foot off the gas completely, you may find your message never gets out of first gear.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To learn more about how we can help, please contact our team<\/b><\/a> and discover how our virtual communication course<\/a><\/strong><\/span> can help your team online<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why congruency is essential in business communication<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Power Of Gestures In Virtual Communication | Body Talk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the power of gestures and body language in virtual communication and how using them congruently can increase your impact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.twentytwo.digital\/ukbodytalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta 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