Vanessa Van Edwards gives a short instructional talk on building instant trust through visible, explanatory hand gestures. She cites researcher Susan Goldwin Meadow to note gestures improve speaker fluency and listener comprehension, recommends keeping hands visible (handshake/hug as nonverbal precursors), and demonstrates using gestures to illustrate size, counts (e.g., hold up three), and phases.
We love good hand gestures. The research actually finds that our gestures are incredibly important for comprehension, not only for the listener, but also for the speaker. Researcher Susan Goldwin Meadow found that as speakers, we become more fluent when we use gestures. It also helps our listeners comprehend us. The best way that you can speak is first having your hands visible. This is a way of telling the brain, I'm not hiding anything. When our brain can't see hands, it thinks, what are they hiding? What are they doing? Our hands show intention in person. The best way to do this is to go in for a handshake. This is literally a precursor, nonverbal, to shaking hands. Or if we go in for for a hug, we often say, oh, it's so good to see you. Visible hands is key and then explanatory. So as you're speaking, is there a way that you can align your gestures with your words? The best TED speakers use their hands to explain their concepts. Your brain is more likely to believe my gestures. So if you're talking about a big concept in conversation, show how big it is. Talking about three things. Hold up three. If it's two phases, talk about phase one and phase two.
