How to talk to anyone
Can you talk to anyone? I am currently reading a book called "How to Talk to Anyone" by Leil Lowndes. The book gives tips on how to talk to absolutely anyone and mistakes that you should avoid.
Today I attended two workshops presented by the American German Business Club of Munich. The event was sponsored by KPMG and there were three sets of workshop offered free of charge.
The first lecture I attended was about giving speaches and they offered the following template:
Opening
I would like to begin by.....
Ordering
Firstly, I would like to.....
Adding
In addition.....
Giving Examples
For example......
Balancing
On the one hand... but on the other hand
Generalizing
In General.......
Preference
Personally, I'd prefer
Conclusion
Let me conclude by....
The facilitator then asked us to go up and give presentations using this information. My friend Mark Stevens went up and did a presentation about how healthy beer was for you... my presentation was about the Glass Ceiling. We did not get to pick our topics but had to work with topics chosen by the audience. I found the above template very useful and will carry the little business card with me to share with people.
The second presenation was by Dr. Roger Voight, PMP. He talked about the different peoples styles of understanding. He classifed everyone into four different groups. Accommodating, diverging, converging and assimilating. He than asked us to create a presentation for our opposite style.. My group was the accommodating style and we needed to create a presentation for assimilating. What happened was that I made a presentation for accomodating instead of assimilating. It was an eye opener. I never considered that my audience would not like the way that I present my material... I also enjoyed learning how to address this in my presentation style.
I noticed though that Dr. Voight used a technique that the book "How to talk to anyone" discourages and that is showing yourself to have weaknesses. In Dr. Voight's introduction he told us about how he didn't really follow directions to build a shed and then ended up having to screw pieces of wood back together. The book I am reading discourages you from sharing little flubs about yourself... It says to accentuate the positive and save the skeletons for later. By showing your flubs you are elevating the other person and that is not a position of strength. By sharing flubs immediately, the person will worry that you will flub with other things that are more important.. you are creating an avenue of doubt that does not need to exist.
Today I attended two workshops presented by the American German Business Club of Munich. The event was sponsored by KPMG and there were three sets of workshop offered free of charge.
The first lecture I attended was about giving speaches and they offered the following template:
Opening
I would like to begin by.....
Ordering
Firstly, I would like to.....
Adding
In addition.....
Giving Examples
For example......
Balancing
On the one hand... but on the other hand
Generalizing
In General.......
Preference
Personally, I'd prefer
Conclusion
Let me conclude by....
The facilitator then asked us to go up and give presentations using this information. My friend Mark Stevens went up and did a presentation about how healthy beer was for you... my presentation was about the Glass Ceiling. We did not get to pick our topics but had to work with topics chosen by the audience. I found the above template very useful and will carry the little business card with me to share with people.
The second presenation was by Dr. Roger Voight, PMP. He talked about the different peoples styles of understanding. He classifed everyone into four different groups. Accommodating, diverging, converging and assimilating. He than asked us to create a presentation for our opposite style.. My group was the accommodating style and we needed to create a presentation for assimilating. What happened was that I made a presentation for accomodating instead of assimilating. It was an eye opener. I never considered that my audience would not like the way that I present my material... I also enjoyed learning how to address this in my presentation style.
I noticed though that Dr. Voight used a technique that the book "How to talk to anyone" discourages and that is showing yourself to have weaknesses. In Dr. Voight's introduction he told us about how he didn't really follow directions to build a shed and then ended up having to screw pieces of wood back together. The book I am reading discourages you from sharing little flubs about yourself... It says to accentuate the positive and save the skeletons for later. By showing your flubs you are elevating the other person and that is not a position of strength. By sharing flubs immediately, the person will worry that you will flub with other things that are more important.. you are creating an avenue of doubt that does not need to exist.
Comments
I would like to remember this man in a position of strength but instead I remember his weakness... I don't think that is what he intended.