Observation is a critical skill learned in the discipline of clinical psychology. Its relevance transcends our discipline. Why is such an emphasis placed on observation? Observation provides an opportunity to monitor, analyze, and form hypotheses about human behavior. There are many books written about studying body language, microexpressions, and so on. Group observation is even more fascinating. Who pays attention? Who does not? Who speaks first? Who is engaged? Who is disengaged? Who leans in? Who leans back? All of this observational data, after five minutes of intense concentration, reveals innumerable details about someone’s human behavior. Why does this matter? We’ve all heard the expression “reading the room,” and from the standpoint of behavioral science it can be interpreted to mean understanding people’s thinking, behavior (gestures), and emotional state. When you observe over time, you gather detailed information about patterns. Record all of this data to form your hypotheses. The real world application of this skill can be applied in hiring interviews, team meetings, sales relationships, pairing individuals for mentoring, and leadership coaching and professional development. Observations are a significant part of 360 degree assessments. For an online example, I was consulting for a large multi-site organization and one the division directors started every zoom meeting with a lengthy, self-serving soliloquy that I timed. It always went over 10 minutes, and this was consistent with complaints from everyone underneath about the lengthy narcissistic and tangential digressions leading every “all hands on deck” video meeting. People felt ignored and like they had no voice even though, ironically, that was the culture that was supposedly being constructed intentionally. Obviously it was not. Observational data (with evidence from metrics like time, and now with AI a myriad of emotional and verbal data) is no longer deniable. People who are good at self-observation are generally better at observation of others in a less biased manner.

 

The Exercise:

In your next professional 1:1 or group interaction, answer these observational questions afterwards about the person or people you observe to start finetuning your skills.

 

Use one word to describe the prevailing mood.

 

Who spoke the most?

On a scale of 1-5 (1 is minimal, 5 is full), what degree of engagement was present?

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Describe the body language. What was the level of distraction with a phone?