WORKSHOP Social interaction rituals: Improving networking and personal knowledge

1st WORLD MEETING OF CABIN CREWS - WMCC I

Fernando Cardoso de Sousa, PhD Ileana Pardal Monteiro, PhD [email protected]

Estoril , 8 February 2014

WORKSHOP Social interaction rituals: Improving networking and personal knowledge

Rituals are simple combinations of collective behaviours that provide meaning to social interaction symbols, in the participation of the “serious life” • They are not habits

• Require attention to style, aesthetics

and symbols

• Do not have instrumental purposes

• Require physical participation

Types of rituals • Passage (access to a new

condition)

• Separation (ceasing a condition)

• Praise, renewal, conflict reduction, integration

The circulation of gifts creates communities out of expressions of goodwill

The Gift

Through rituals, and little more than visual contact and spatial distance, we present ourselves as possessing a defined and authentic character (integrity, self control, courage)

The face - the value that the person claims (honor, pride, dignity)

To lose face - To enter into a negative relationship of claimed/presented social value To save face or give one’s face - humiliation, respect (to preserve one’s and the other’s face), social tact, savoir faire, diplomacy, insult (to make the other lose face) Etiquette, emotional disturbance (blush, sweat, tremble) and galantry

The social “dance” of synchronizing social behaviors Ferrazy’s (*) advices:

•Don’t go to networking events •Follow a personal contact in the next 24 hours •Respect the “week links” as the major multipliers of Milgram’s “six degrees of separation” •Never forget the person who brought you to the dance •The success of the interaction depends on your ability to be able to speak and learn from anybody in any situation.

(*) Ferrazi, K. (2005). Never eat alone. New York: Doubleday

People need to be physically present to celebrate, otherwise the effects are minimal

The vast majority of communication signs are of an emotional character, impossible to grasp through technological mediation, no matter its sophistication