Nonverbal communication issues

Body language can play a tremendous role in negotiations. I've seen first hand how off putting a persons body language can be when one organization is dealing with another. As a result communication between organizations can become strained. In particular I am reminded of an incident where a leadership reorganization caused an organization top question their relationship with a Non-profit whom they were working with to establish a grant program. As a result communication between leadership of both organizations broke down and created mistrust amongst the two parties. this all could have been avoided if the new leadership had acted more accessible and friendly. body language communicates a lot of this, sitting in a chair instead of standing to greet an individual or having a quiet demeanor conveyed a hesitancy to work with one another.

In this scenario the two people were in fact from different cultures and this may have led to the miscommunication. Because my background was similar to the individuals from the other organization they became more comfortable communicating with me and establishing a relationship with myself instead of the leadership. Had the two parties been from even more disparate cultures it may have not posed the same issue as the parties may have gone in expecting the culture gap.