July 29, 2014

July 29, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader,

A great opportunity has arisen for this writer to present Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) for TEDxChico. The committee remembered last year’s application when they read this year’s attempt of this writer to be admitted for the audition. They advised this writer to keep it simple and sweet and are interested in listening to him for six minutes. This writer still hopes for some kind of breakthrough. 

The suggestions made by the TED people immediately annoyed this writer. Who are they to say something like that? They are listening to many others and must decide whether a speaker is good enough to enter into the competition. Time constraints matter a lot to them, but not to this writer. He will say as much as he can and be as brief and meaningful as possible, but he already realizes that this is exactly what sets the stage for Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).

The reason that we have no SVB is because we don’t take time to communicate. We are almost perpetually in a rush. Our positive emotions slow down the high paced communication process, because they relax us and make us feel safe and at ease. Since we seldom experience that during our spoken communication, we never get into it enough to realize that positive emotions actually make us more efficient and therefore make us much more capable than negative emotions. 

There are many possibilities of spoken communication of which we have no clue because we are conditioned by NVB.  SVB is based on a deliberately chosen set of circumstances, which will guarantee its continuation. Only a few moments of SVB are not enough and end up being problematic because they make us aware how imprisoned we are by NVB. Moments are necessary, but are not sufficient to establish SVB. Only when know how to stop NVB can we continue with our SVB.

This writer is planning and predicting an interaction which is possible because of the arrangements he makes and explains. Although he will be doing most of the talking, the audience will feel that they are part of the conversation because he expresses many common thoughts and feelings. We all know when someone is really listening and we all know what it is like to be understood.