Exercise: Using Full Back

Think about your everyday employment of a Full Back orientation. As a driver in a car to those in the backseat, you either have to use the rearview mirror or simply talk without connecting. Standing in line with people behind you usually results in no interaction. Even seated in a theater, you may be communicating to the person next to you, but those behind you are not involved in your communication. These descriptions of Full Back are common and not laden with an interpretation of significant disengagement. It’s just how you would expect it to work. However, Full Back can also be a strategic tool. 

Employing Full Back in a communication to point up is a useful way to emphasize your next point. Live presentations that include slides or demonstrations are natural environments in which we find Full Back orientation toward an audience while favoring a display, an exhibit, or an activity. It’s the pivot back to the audience adopting a Full Front or Quarter Turn orientation that draws the attention back to you in anticipation of what you will communicate next. That being said, in the virtual environment, there is little opportunity for effective Full Back orientation. Consider this: Denying Line Focus in a Full Back orientation can have a dramatic impact on communication. 

Reflect upon your habit of Full Back orientation in the context of connecting or communicating with other people. Full Back is a unique orientation in that it results in a Focus Relationship that is fully disengaged. For a communication partner or an audience, turning your back is an immediate cue that you are disengaging with them. What does that feel like? Reflect upon the consequences of denying all Line and Eye Focus. If you are a person that is deliberate in orienting in Full Back toward people, you may want to begin by employing Eye Focus in a Three-Quarter Turn to connect with others and progress to Profile as you gain confidence and comfort. Employing Full Back in interpersonal interactions requires context or words to mitigate any misinterpretation.