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'In a Nutshell' - new ideas to keep you aware and informed
Honest Signals - Sandy Pentland
On the face of it, this relatively slender book, 'Honest Signals - How They Shape Our World' by Sandy Pentland and his research team at the MIT Technology Media Lab is just another look at the now familiar arena of non-verbal communication. We all know about body language and other extra-linguistic cues and recognise their influence. But on closer investigation, this research proves to be extraordinarily potent, using powerful innovative technology to measure very detailed behavioural information and dramatically extend our understanding of the unconscious processing of social communication.
Social Network Intelligence
Using a specially designed sensor, the 'sociometer', the researchers measure subtle patterns of unconscious social signals that form a coherent and discrete channel of communication, evolved from ancient primate systems and operating quite independently from our conscious awareness. Pentland suggests that this methodology enables 'social intelligence' as a powerful way of understanding and reading social networks - interpersonal, organisational and even across whole geographic populations.
What are Honest Human Signals?
Distinguishing between signals that are relatively easy to replicate consciously, and what he calls 'honest signals', Pentland's criteria for the latter are that they are out of our conscious control. They have their roots in our deep brain structure and biology. Honest signals shape human life through their huge influence on things like decision making, negotiation, dating, hiring, pitching ideas etc.
Four Key Honest Signals
1. Influence: measured by the extent that one person's pattern of speaking changes another's speaking pattern to match it.
2. Mimicry: the unconscious synchronisation between people of signals such as smiles, gesture, angle and movement of the head, nods, etc.
3. Activity: increased activity levels normally indicate interest and excitement.
4. Consistency: regularity and fluidity of emphasis and timing are experienced as signs of mental focus and expertise.
Honest Signal Software
A practical application of this technology is demonstrated in the software called 'Meeting Mediator' used to enhance group collaboration. It operates via mobile phones and is used to provide real time technical feedback to individuals involved in a meeting. By constantly monitoring and showing the micro and macro patterns of signalling within the group, members are stimulated to co-ordinate and organise themselves more evenly. So for instance, using this device removes the distorting effect of a dominant person.
Pentland has some fascinating data as to when and where such technology can be useful. For example, he identifies that while the unmediated presence of a dominant person in a group will influence it to faster decision making, it will also reduce the creativity of a brainstorming group. So there needs to be great sensitivity and appropriateness in the application of this new methodology.
Another piece of Pentland's technology is called the Jerk-o-Meter! This application gives feedback via phone screen to someone whose interest in a phone call is perceived, by the system, to be waning and is intended to stimulate them back into more appropriate engagement.
Implications for the Future
This technology is able to monitor team dynamics through time, identifying patterns of stress or stagnation, and intervening to keep people working together productively. Pentland believes it will uncover social patterns that today we cannot even recognise or talk about, and will explain, more coherently than ever before, the reasons for the success of one company and the dismal failure of another.
Pentland explicitly recognises the potential dangers of this technology to individual privacy and freedom. Like all powerful tools, it must be used responsibly and with full awareness. But his vision is to use these developments to create 'a nervous system for humanity', evolving into a structure that gives us the means consciously to engineer organisations, cultures and societies in the future.
"In pitching business ideas, for example, consistency of tone and pace
is key to getting your plan rated highly."
Alex (Sandy) Pentland
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