Practice Notes

Reminder about Tea and Toast learning sessions - December 2004

If you haven't been along already, then come along to one of our hour-long sessions. They're free and open to everyone. These are our last two of the year!

Workstyle, teamwork, and communication - learn more about your preferences with FutureSelves

For this Tea and Toast we've teamed up with Geoff Plimmer of FutureSelves. They've developed a unique NZ measurement tool that lets you know your barriers to influencing clients and colleagues, to developing your career and working with your team. We think it's a real asset. Come along and learn about it and do a basic FutureSelves exercise.

Date Monday 6 December

Time 8am - 9am

Venue The Training Practice Boardroom, Level 5, Newspaper House, 93 Boulcott Street.

All welcome - email katherine@trainingpractice.co.nz if you want to come.

A look back at Bush's and Kerry's speeches

A chance to learn some speechwriting lessons from the campaign speeches of these two presidential candidates. Both had an army of speechwriters so there are plenty of techniques to see in action.

Date Wednesday 15 December

Time 8am - 9am

Venue The Training Practice Boardroom, Level 5, Newspaper House, 93 Boulcott Street.

All welcome - email katherine@trainingpractice.co.nz if you want to come.

Is 93% of communication non-verbal?

A must read for anyone who wants to improve their presentations or speechwriting is Lend Me Your Ears, by Max Atkinson, Random House, 2004.  Atkinson is a former academic, who wrote Our Masters Voices in the late 1980s. Both are excellent. He studied political speeches in detail and analysed what devices got audience attention and applause.

One issue he tackles Lend Me your Ears is Mehrabian's often quoted research that only 7% of a message is communicated verbally, 38% is communicated via vocal tones and 55% via facial expressions.

Atkinson quotes correspondence with Mehrabian, where the latter makes clear that his research refers to liking not communication. In other words, the 7/38/55 ratio may be valid if you are deciding whether you like or dislike someone. It is not valid as a measure of how messages are communicated between people overall.

www.trainingpractice.co.nz now up and running - Christmas Competition!

Thanks to Jean Ellis at Jeaneus, (jeaneus@jeaneus.co.nz) our website is up and running. As it's Christmas we've decided to hold a simple competition.

The two lucky winners receive a toaster for the office or home. (It fits in with the Tea and Toast theme.) The winners will be the first two correct entries emailed to katherine@trainingpractice.co.nz We'll publish the names of winners in the February Practice Notes.

You need to answer these three questions and develop a Yeah Right statement about training. You need to look at www.trainingpractice.co.nz to answer the questions.

1.  How many people are members of The Training Practice Team?

2.  When was the first Practice Notes published (month and year)?

3.  Name two areas in which we offer communications training?

And to finish off, you'll need to develop a Yeah Right statement about training. (We don't have to take ourselves too seriously all the time.) An example would be:

I really enjoyed the strong emotional connections I made on the training course. Yeah Right