 |
      |
Portfolio : Miscellaneous :: Personal Memo |
TO: Dr. Joel Whalen Ph.D. Associate Professor
The education you have provided in the past quarter at DePaul University has been both beneficial and entertaining to the students attending. Based on the techniques I learned; please accept my evaluation of the teachings. Forget "you" Being the human beings that we are, we are left no choice but to constantly use ourselves as primary comparisons of norms. We base opinions of things on how we feel about them personally. In effective speaking, this option is out. As a speaker, you are forced to turn in your "I'm #1" pin and adapt to the appeals of others. In other words, you must make your presentation/ speeches' focus about your audience. During our class, we were faced with this reality repeatedly. No matter what communication facets one uses, this technique must be incorporated. When networking, the conversation flow should not consist of a biography containing your goals and accomplishments, all while you're glancing around the room or checking your watch. The person to whom you are speaking should be made to feel that they are the only person there. As though the whole reason you came to whatever event you are attending is to talk to that person. You have to show your interest in them. Presentations are another important moment to leave your narcissism at home. Your topic, though being presented by you, should not consist of making you look like the utmost expert on your topic. What it should do is show that you know, and like, what you are talking about; and that you want the audience to know/ like it as well. This application should be used in emailing as well. What the class showed us was that the emails we write are consumed with ourselves. That though we may feel the message we are communicating is addressing the receiver; it is in actuality a collaboration of our wants and needs. It ain't what you say, it's what they hear An important factor this course prepared us for is what we verbally say only relays about 7% of our message. Chapter 7, of I See What you Mean, entitled Oral Communication explains this concept very clearly. Oral communication is about building a rapport with the audience and that rapport has only 7% to do with what you're verbally saying to them. The chapter, and class, teaches techniques as to how to use the remaining 93% of your influential ability to better persuade your audience. The book suggests five techniques:
The class allowed us to practice these techniques in various ways. One that I found most useful is the team presentations. It helped me not only focus on my techniques, but also allowed me the opportunity to work with three other people who used very different approaches. I may have even learned more from watching them go through their developmental process than experiencing my own. In our presentations, we were forced to use other techniques to communicate, other than talking, because we had a strict time limit (though we overlooked that limit during our first presentation). We had to capture our audience in creative ways, which forced us to try the techniques mentioned above. Whom you meet Networking was probably one of the most important things I learned in the class. Being an undergraduate student, I have not been exposed to many situations where I would be in contact with many professional executives at once. The experience was for lack of a better word, excellent. Prior to the networking event that the Sales and Leadership Program put together for us, the attending students were given a brief lecture on what exactly to say to these people. A great technique that was given to us was the 20 Second Pitch©. This technique showed us how to introduce ourselves in an interesting manner within 20 seconds. It was a perfect approach because, as our notes stated, in social settings, people only have about 20 seconds of attention to give you before they get bored. Coming from an acting background, I felt that this was going to be an easy event for me, but I could not have been more wrong. Coming from an acting background only helped me "bullshit," however; there is no room for that when you have 20 seconds to impress someone. The reason for that is, as the assumption goes, if they like you after the 20 seconds, you may actually have to prove what you sold during your pitch and all that bullshit only contributes to your odor. I am unable to answer the phone right now... A life saving technique for any business professional is how to properly leave voicemail. As Module 2 of our class notes explained, there are advantages and disadvantages to voicemail: Advantages
Disadvantage
What I learned is the fact that any sort of phone call interrupts whatever the receiving person is doing. For the most part, if someone is not expecting your call, you're cold calling. The key to leaving messages is to practice mentally before doing it. This way you can avoid the "umms" and "uhhs." In addition, depending what you are saying, you should use the facial expression that associates with it, it more clearly bring out the point. Trying to picture the other person as you're leaving your message will also provide you with a more comfortable, or uncomfortable, approach to presenting your information. Phone numbers, or for that matter, any sort of important information should be repeated because for the most part, your phone call is not expected; and no one is sitting with a pen waiting to take notes. Finally, the most important step, after all other parts have been learned about leaving voicemails, the key aspects of all this is to make it quick and to the point! 5 minutes to an hour The last and favorite technique I learned in this course is, Nichols Two Things©. In my personal opinion, I feel this is by far the most useful technique we will ever use. When first introduced to it, I thought to myself, "How could this possibly work? What if the topic you have to speak on is on you have absolutely no knowledge of. This man is nuts!" In return, I got a smack in the face answer almost immediately. The point is to brainstorm. It is to think of what you know about the topic. Find a way to relate the topic to something you can comprehend. Beyond that, you can take the topic anywhere, talk all day if you had to; thus the beauty of the technique. As stated in I See What You Mean, chapter 9 entitled, Strategies for Formatting Presentations, Dr. Nichols's secret was: (1) exhaustive preparation of facts- his teams were more knowledgeable and better prepared, and (2) his secret weapon: The Nichols' Two Things© Presentation.... Don Nichols showed his debaters how to take a piece of paper and make a classic outline structure..." The idea behind this technique is to take two big messages and find two sub points for those messages. Beyond that, you need to focus on the main sub points and how they relate to the main points and you're golden. |