Practice Notes

Welcome to the July Practice Notes

 

Sign up for the September Leadership Café

Leadership and Communication

Your chance for a two-hour long learning experience looking at different aspects of how effective leaders communicate. http://www.trainingpractice.co.nz/open-to-all-programmes/our-2nd-ever-leadership-cafe/

Date: 7 September 2011 (please note change of date)

Time: 4pm – 6pm

Venue: Write Ltd, Level 9, Baldwins Centre, 342 Lambton Quay

(Enter via lifts opposite AA on level 2)

Email maria@trainingpractice.co.nz if you want to register your interest.

All welcome - $50.00 plus GST per person.

 

What's new in the world?

Using reframing to influence

A great book we’ve come across that’s well worth a read is Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. He’s a linguist and puts forward a powerful case for influencing others using the framing of your argument.

His subject matter is American politics, but his arguments apply to any arena. He’s saying that if you want to influence someone don’t just disagree with them and point out why their argument’s wrong. Instead, present your argument in a different frame – one that will appeal to the other person.

For example, if you are arguing for tax cuts, suggesting tax relief is a powerful frame. After all, we are relieved of burdens, misery and problems.

If you are opposing tax relief, you’re likely to come across as negative. So, put your argument for higher taxes in a different frame. Here’s one: taxation is about paying your dues – your membership fees to be a New Zealander. It’s patriotic – the Kiwi way – to pay your taxes and keep your membership up to date.

Metaphor is a powerful part of most frames, ie painting a picture people can relate to.

 

Gender Language Differences and Language Style Matching

Researchers in the US have studied gender differences in how men and women use language. They argue that pronouns are markers of where people put their attention. For example, when people say “I,” their attention briefly flips to themselves. He continued his research, focusing in on differences in pronouns and other functional words, which he says make up about 55% of the words we hear.

 

Language and Gender Differences

• Women tend to use “I”, ”me”, and “my” more than men.
• Men tend to use "a", "an", and "the" more often than women, indicating more use of concrete nouns.
• Women tend to use cognitive words (eg,“think”) more often than men which is attributed to their higher tendency to discuss relationships, which are much more complex to describe than concrete nouns.
• He found no difference in the use of emotion words.

 

Language Style Matching

This is the study of what percentage of words are the same in a conversation between people. If people match (ie use the same words) they are probably paying attention to each other. When researchers studied speed dating using Language Style Matching, they could predict whether a couple would go on a date better than the couple could themselves.

It’s a great tool to let teams know how cohesive they are on a moment by moment basis.

We’ll be buying Dr. Pennebaker’s new book, The Secret Life of Pronouns, when it’s released in August.