Practice Notes

Tea and Toast learning sessions - reminder

If you haven't been along already, then come along to one of our hour-long sessions. They're free and open to everyone. In October we're concentrating on developing communication skills.

Changing the tone of your writing

How can you make your writing easier to read and change the tone and style? This short sharp session will give you some clear pointers.

Date Tuesday 5 October

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.

Improving your one-on-one communication skills

It's always a favourite topic. Pick up some tips to increase your effectiveness with people at work.

Date Monday 11 October

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.

Springboard stories - what are they and why they work?

Stephen Denning, Program Director, Knowledge Management, World Bank, has written a book The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organisations.

In it he outlines why telling stories, particularly Springboard stories, communicate effectively in the business world. Here's a brief example:

In June 1995, a health worker in Kamana, Zambia, logged on to the CDC web site in Atlanta and got he answer to a question on how to treat malaria.

Stories work because they take the listener into a different reality and are a refreshing change from the usual PowerPoint graphs, charts, facts etc. Often presentations involve vast quantities of information transfer. Audiences are passive and either take the information in or cast it aside. By contrast, stories can make complex issues simple, engage emotions and transport listeners to a different virtual world.

For Denning a Springboard story is one where the listener is left to work out how the message of the story relates to them. In the case of the Zambia story, the listener works out how providing relevant and clear information to colleagues and clients can help solve major problems.

Using humour to reframe

When things go wrong at work or you make mistakes, an emotionally intelligent response is to reframe the situation or restructure the situation into new patterns. And humour is a great way to do this. Why? Because it's a standard creative humour technique. Situations are often more manageable when reframed.

Here's an example:

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States.

Ask any American Indian.

The humour comes from reframing perspectives to see a new reality, i.e. that of the American Indian.