Number of (non-verbal message channels) = #(verbal message channels) =N(N-1)
In practice, however, while a participant looking at the other participants may see all of
them emit non-verbal messages at about the same time, he or she will likely not hear all
participants speak at the same time: most people are not able to listen to more than one
conversation at the same time and, in addition, meetings typically enforce a rule of one person
speaking at a time. The number of verbal message channels available in a group at any one time
thus becomes:
Number of (verbal information channels)= N-1
Accordingly, the ratio of non-verbal to verbal information channels open for communication is not
one but:
Number of (non-verbal message channels) / Number of (verbal message channels) = N
and thus increases as the group becomes larger.i
Emotion and Reason in Meetings
Why might this result be important? Because once one type of communication channel
starts to become much more prolific than another, WHAT gets communicated may also change.
For example, emotion can be communicated both with non-verbal and verbal messages, while
intellectual information is communicated chiefly verbally. Since the non-verbal message channels
increases fastest with group size, emotion can get an easier passage while intellect may be
forced to wait.ii
Of course, the division of our activities into emotion and intellect is not water tight, no
more than the division of communication into verbal and non-verbal. Quantifying communication