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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 3 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 29257 |
| Visitors Out: 1159 |
| Total Visitors Out: 3010 |
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| Mapping the Media |
| 2008-03-18 05:57:00 |
Most consumers of media, naturally, have a perception of the news media that suits their take on the world. They project, as we all do, certain values on to the news media that may or may not be true....and who cares?However, if your intention is to use the media to promote your ideas or ideals, or if you depend on the news media to tell accurately your story to the world, it may pay to step back and take a skeptical view on this seemingly incontrollable monster that we call the media.Click here for a longish essay that is an amalgam of several addresses that I have made on utilising the strengths and weaknesses of the news gathering machine......
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| The Big Questions |
| 2007-02-19 22:03:00 |
Looking back over the thirty thousand or more current affairs interviews I’ve conducted over the course of my career, I mark the beginning of my professional and personal maturity at the point where I began to understand how language can be fashioned to manipulate and distort people’s representations of reality.As a young journalist in the 1970’s fronting sausage-factory current affairs shows, churning out interviews which frequently had the uniformity and substance of a supermarket saveloy, I felt extravagantly inadequate to the task of bringing so-called opinion-makers to task. At times I found their rhetoric bewildering and intimidating. On other occasions, the sheer onslaught of verbiage took me to a point of stupefaction where questions and...
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| Story-Telling: a rapid way to gain Share of Heart |
| 2007-01-24 06:49:00 |
Great storytellers can take a simple set of facts and create a multi-media experience in the minds of their audience with carefully crafted stories.There are many emotions you can share with your audience simply by crafting your story around the right words. Happiness, anger, sadness, nostalgia are just a few. Knowing your purpose for speaking to a group helps you to craft emotional experiences that are fully congruent with your message. When you have a crystal clear purpose, choosing the right words and emotional platform to empower your message is simpler.Here's an example of a set of facts that a speaker might convey:“There have been eleven fatal accidents over holiday weekends in the past four years on the sharp curves of the Brookton highway, between...
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| The Secrets of Personal Power |
| 2006-12-18 04:03:00 |
More than two millennia ago Chinese Philosopher, Lao Tzu, observed that people who perceived themselves to be powerless caused great turmoil in the world because of resentfulness and resistance. Bullies, for example, whether in a work team or on the national stage do not perceive themselves to be powerful, and the lives of people around them suffer as they seek to dominate through force and aggression. Can we explore this notion of perceptions of power a little further? When many people think about power, the types of power they usually envisage are physical power, monetary power, or some other form of coercive power that renders others more compliant or yielding. And so, feelings of powerlessness can often emerge as we lament about our levels of depende...
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| Breaking the Narcissistic Habit: Getting to I - You |
| 2006-11-30 09:22:00 |
Social commentators and communication gurus often lament that people ecology (empathy, interest, curiosity in others and the spirits of equality and fraternity) has been replaced by fragmentation of communities into cliques and clans which have little interest in anyone outside their own physical, ideological or socio-economic territories. They claim we’ve created an increasingly selfish and self-seeking culture, evidenced by everything from bad driving behaviours to the callous disregard for the poor.So, let’s talk about narcissism, or egoism, and how it impacts on your average speaker, public figure or leader. Think of these types of people as ‘self’ made people in love with their makers, if you like. To apply a rather astute system of categorisation espoused by Martin Buber, the...
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| A Lesson for Erring Ummers - Kicking the habit of errs and umms |
| 2006-11-05 04:04:00 |
Humour me for a moment. Please do not think of George Bush the Younger wearing a red tutu and sitting on the Queen of England’s face while lecturing her Foreign Secretary on effective ways in which to torture Donald Rumsfeld’s wife.O.K. so I picked a fairly mundane situation with a high level of probability, but what if I had asked you not to think of something that was much more improbable and highly ridiculous – like the same George the Younger bringing in a balanced budget or working for World Peace? Try not thinking about that one.Were you successful in not thinking of what I asked to not to think of? Of course not! The human brain can’t process effectively negatives of this type. When instructed not to think of something, the first thing you usually do is think of it, don...
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| Coining the Right Words |
| 2006-11-04 23:14:00 |
A major step in learning how to intone the soft music of charismatic communication is to recognise that some words have greater value than others. You may realise that words backed by honest intentions are more valuable than those that are not. Further, some words have the potential to dramatically increase the value of your linguistic cash at hand. They can purchase more attention, more meaning, more understanding and more agreement. If you invest your words wisely and seek to expand people’s choices with the persuasive words you use, people will begin to view you as a true leader. After all, if people associate you with benefit and choice, will they not be drawn to you for further guidance? One of the most powerful words in the universe is the name ...
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| Building a High Eye-Q |
| 2006-10-19 00:06:00 |
During the Renaissance it was a common belief that the eyes were the entry-point (or window) to the human soul. But this notion of eyes, souls and points of entry had a much longer history - a history that can be traced back to the early Greeks and Plato. Today, of course, science tells us that the eye is the only part of the human brain visible to others.We do indeed reveal our soul (temperament or emotional state) through our eyes and we know that other human beings have cottoned on to it since the times of the early Greeks. It is through the eyes that we truly reveal who we are.Eye contact helps to regulate the flow of communication. It signals interest in others and increases the speaker's credibility. Speakers who make eye contact open the flow of communication and convey interest, c...
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| Innoculation |
| 2006-10-08 06:35:00 |
The term, "Inoculation Theory," is drawn from the public health practice of giving injections to prevent a serious disease from taking hold. How does this process work? The theory is that injecting a very mild dose of a virus activates the body's defences, giving the immune system the forewarning needed to build up defences against it. The immune system defends itself against the weak attack and it actually becomes stronger. If the virus attacks again, the immune system can ward off the larger raid against the body. The first injection must be weak. If the injection contained too strong a dose, it would overpower the immune system, leaving it defenceless against the viral invader. It would cause the person to become ill and may even result in death. The dose must have enough of the virus t...
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| Media Interviews: More Tips |
| 2006-10-08 06:03:00 |
Only comment within the range of your knowledge and expertise. If a question takes you beyond your knowledge or specialist area, say so:“I can only talk about what I know. A salinity expert is the person you want to speak to about that.”“I have no knowledge about that specific case. It would be unfair to comment without examining the facts, wouldn’t it?”If you don’t know, say you don’t know and promise to find out:“I don’t know the answer to that question. But I can find out and get back to you.”If you don’t have a figure or detail at hand, say you will have to get back to the reporter on that.Assume that your own facts and figures are the only reliable ones. Facts and figures mention by a reporter or interviewer may be incorrect or incorrectly interpreted. Only comme...
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| Media Interviews: Tips Series |
| 2006-10-01 20:57:00 |
Media exposure is a double-edged sword. It can allow you to cut through the layers of distance and make a direct connection with your target public. But, in media interviews if you dont pay careful attention to what you say and how you say it that sword may become the thing upon which you fall.REMEMBER YOUR STAKEHOLDERSWhile you may be talking with a reporter or interviewer, you are ultimately speaking to a readership or audience. frame your answers from the perspective of your main stake-holders:“If this legislation goes ahead, you wont be able to drive on our country roads without the very real hazard of road trains anywhere in the state. Your personal safety will be at risk”“This new process will mean that you ...
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| How to Present Persuasively to a Board |
| 2006-09-21 08:13:00 |
Board presentations in many ways are no different to presentations to other audiences and groups. In board presentations you still need to: have completed a thorough stakeholders exercise and know as much as you can about the members of the board and their attitudes;know your subject; know what you want the board to say ‘Yes!’ to;find some key ‘values’ or ‘emotions’ on which to hang your presentation;structure your content to make it easily digestible;deliver your content confidently;wear the right uniform and talk the talk of your stakeholders. There are however a number of other considerations you can address and tactics you can choose to employ to ensure your message is heard and embraced, the first of which is to decide if a presentation is ...
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| Ten Tips to Enhance Retention of Your Speech |
| 2006-09-07 09:26:00 |
“Memory is a crazy woman that hoards coloured rags and throws away food”… Austin O’MalleyExperimental psychologist A.D.Baddeley demonstrated in his research that people generally recall a series of short words better than they recall a series of long words. As early as 1965 it was demonstrated that retention of spoken information in the short term, or working, memory peaks at about fifteen seconds. Waugh and Norman, writing in the Psychological Review, established that retention falls off dramatically after the fifteen second barrier. Short words rather than long words included in short sentences rather than sentences longer than fifteen seconds assist your listeners to work within the confines of their working memories, and long sentences crammed with multi-syllable and unfamili...
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| Metaphors that Entrap |
| 2006-08-27 09:16:00 |
A large body of research has been conducted into what is termed by cognitive scientists as metaphor. So as not to muddy the waters, think of metaphor as a template or lens through which you view the world. Cognitive scientists have been systematically unpacking the significance of conceptual metaphor in our daily lives since the sixties. Those scholars propose that metaphors are not simply playthings of the mind, but are a “natural outgrowth of the manner in which our minds are constituted”. What that means is that conceptual metaphors are product of your neurophysiology, that you have a genetic predisposition to attribute meaning to things by way of metaphor. George Lakoff is professor of cognitive sciences at the University of California at Berk...
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| More Words that Lose Hearts |
| 2006-08-22 10:08:00 |
INCREDULITY CREEPRecall those conversations or speeches you’ve heard where your initial feelings about the speakers were positive but the longer they went on, the less believable you found them. Give your unconscious mind a pat on the back, because it was well and truly on the case. It was most likely picking up a host of linguistic cues that denote lack of commitment, the possibility of deception, and other credulity stretching devices. Below are some of the more common examples that induce what is called incredulity creep, the gradual wearing away of credibility through unintentional admissions of dishonesty or, in some cases, habitual use of verbal crutches:Honestly, truly, really, certainly, no kidding! Think about it for a moment, why would anyone preface or end a statement of trut...
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| The Thoughts Feelings Dyad: How Balance Increases Persuasive Appeal |
| 2006-08-20 20:20:00 |
Media research reinforces how emotions drive viewing and listening choices in selected audiences in radio and television. Even ‘Hate Radio’, as we know it, gains its audiences by pressing the emotional Hot Buttons of targeted audiences: outrage buttons, disgust buttons, anger buttons, despair buttons, particularly in the upper demographics. This form of stimulation reinforces a hate radio audience’s pre-existing emotions and may even give them pleasure. Feelings drive actions: the action media operators are most concerned about is encouraging listeners to commit the act of choice in favour of their products and services - in other words, tune in, and stay tuned in. The same thing applies in presentations to groups – you need your listeners to tune in and stay tuned in if yo...
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| Words That Lose Hearts: What I'm Saying Is..... |
| 2006-08-15 07:52:00 |
Words have caused wars, racial hatred, international incidents, civil conflict and the division of our communities. Words, and our structure and interpretation of them have also awakened the entire index of honourable human emotions and actions. Powerful things, are they not? Depending upon whose minds and mouths structure and deliver them and whose ears and brains hear and process them, words can make us soar with the eagles and hunt with wild dogs.An evolutionary prank seems to have been played on the human race during its development of language. As you are about to discover, you can’t help but communicate deception even when intending to deceive, you can’t usually resist communicating hypocrisy when it’s present and you can’t help communicatin...
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| Words: The Latent Power of 'Not' |
| 2006-08-13 09:00:00 |
Imagine the immense delight you would feel to have an audience break into spontaneous applause after you’d made a significant point. You can appreciate, can’t you, that a reaction like that signals an audience ‘going for’ you and your ideas in a very big and tangible way. Consider, too, speaking in front of a group of people and triggering silent “ahuh” or “yes” responses all the way through your presentation. The air would be electric with positive energy, wouldn’t it? Now, what if you could create tactical sentences that excite those responses at will? You may say to yourself now, “that can be something really worth learning, can’t it?”Review your experience of reading the paragraph above. Can you remember the number of times that you felt physically in alignme...
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| Mega-Frame or Perish! |
| 2006-08-06 07:29:00 |
A Mega-Frame is like ornate framing that surrounds a picture or painting. It encloses and defines information. Amateur and professional artists deeply appreciate the value of framing: the right frames will enhance their pictures - the wrong frames will devalue them. Many an artist has created works that have not become truly expressive or beautiful until they have been enclosed in the right frame. Framing has a long and rich history. The Sophists of ancient Greece were masterful framers and re-framers. Aristotle coined the word “atechnoi” to describe it. One of ancient Rome’s greatest orators, Cicero, elevated frames (“statis”) to an art form. His speeches are still studied by students of influence and rhetoric. Mega-framing describes Strategic o...
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| Charismatic Communication – The Seven Keys to a Charismatic Voice |
| 2006-07-25 01:27:00 |
There are widely shared prototypes on the qualities that constitute leadership and leaders. Individuals who ‘fit’ universal categories, who look and sound the part in a particular culture, will be more readily embraced by audiences than those who don’t. In practical terms what this means is that if you want people to take notice of what you say, you have to project a visual and vocal image that meets as closely as possible the expectations of your target audience. Research has shown that when people encounter you as a leader, speaker, or media spokesperson for the first time, they will scrutinise rapidly your looks and appearance and form an impression in seconds. They will scan your face and eyes first, make a judgement and move on to your body. This quick appraisal is usually follo...
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| Creating Shared Space - Discovery, Groundwork & Dialogue |
| 2006-07-24 19:53:00 |
Charismatic communication demands a transaction between speaker and listeners, and, as with most forms of fair-trading, customer satisfaction is predicated on exchanging things of equal value. For example, in exchange for a piece of electronic equipment at your local electrical store, you hand over its alleged value in dollars. In effect, the salesman buys your money with the piece of equipment. Similar dynamics apply when you seek to buy people's commitment to your proposals or ideas. So, what currency do you need to use to purchase attention and a fair hearing from your audience? The currency comes in three denominations:1. Discovery 2. Groundwork 3. DialogueYou can choose to sp...
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| How to Annihilate Your Credibility |
| 2006-07-22 07:42:00 |
Presentations and addresses, ideally, should be inspiring and informational. For people to take notice of what you say and act on it, it is imperative you pay attention to the minute-to-minute management of your credibility and trust quotients.If you wish to become a virtuoso in getting an audience’s back up, the following credibility and trust annihilators may help you create the perfect recipe for suspicion and doubt. With a little practice, who knows, you could become a world authority on the subject?1. TRY TO BROWBEAT YOUR AUDIENCE: Tell your audience that they’re here to change their minds to your way of thinking – read your map on to their territory."It’s essential that you change the way you think about and do things. I think that unle...
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| A Short Essay on Form and Emotion |
| 2006-07-22 05:03:00 |
Recent research has shown that in respect to emotion charismatic communicators:1. have reached a level of psychological maturity whereas they feel emotions themselves quite strongly; 2. have a well-developed capacity to induce emotions in others Assuming that you have achieved a reasonable level of emotional and ethical maturity, let us look at some of the tools and skills you will need to improve your ability to evoke particular emotional states in others.Delivery style (Form) and structure of messages (Form) have been shown to outweigh content in numerous studies. In the nineties, studies of leader rhetoric by Professor Jay Conger of the University of Southern California and others strongly suggested that word structure, ...
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| Charismatic Communication – Ten Tips for Building and Maintaining Credibility |
| 2006-07-22 00:32:00 |
Some people imagine they carry credibility somewhere on their person. If that were the case you’d have most of the politicians and half of the CEO’s around the world lining up for credibility implants! Credibility isn’t something you have. It’s an honorific title bestowed on you by others. It is the end result of people placing their trust in you, and this is an important point to acknowledge and embrace. Credibility is earned when you adequately satisfy criteria for expertise and engender trust through building meaningful relationships with those you seek to persuade. Credibility management essentially describes the relationship you establish and maintain with your audience. It is the result of the minute-...
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| All Behaviour is Communication |
| 2006-07-20 10:41:00 |
Your body movements, the way you use your eyes and face, your changing skin tone, your physical posture, your voice tonality, pace, and pitch, and even your level and positioning of breath, give clues to other people about who and what you are. In our distant evolutionary past, the accurate sending and receiving of those clues could mean the difference between grunts of approval and acceptance or assault and battery with a crude weapon. Today, we invest a large part of our early lives learning how not to show what we’re thinking, perfecting how not to reveal our feelings and practising how not to be read or understood by others. We learn to manage the impressions others have of us during an uncompromising indoctrination into polite society in our formative years. We create public and oft...
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| Charisma is DONE Not Had |
| 2006-07-20 10:08:00 |
Bill Clinton did it to the max, Winston Churchill just about invented it, Michael Jordan does it and manages it with supreme elegance, Tiger Woods gains more of it with every post-tournament media conference, and it comes out of Oprah Winfrey’s pores. Loren Becall still does it, Marilyn Monroe had bucket loads of it and continues to enthral new generations of movie-goers, Richard Branston and Jack Welch do it on good days, but George W Bush and Vladimir Putin never do it and never will. A fair number of CEO’s, men of the cloth, sports men and women, the odd politician and many other highly visible and not so visible people do IT, so why not you? Of course, off-the-scale charisma quotients may not be what you require to gain the visibility, status and...
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