Create Your Connection

COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of effective change management and communication practices for any target audience. Great tips from Ragan.

Strategic use of storytelling can be a powerful catalyst for change.

Wonderful PRESENTation about the art of public speaking! Recommend this video for anyone looking to improve their communication - whether professionally or personally.

A communicators job: make the important, interesting.

Telling a story with a “hero” has more impact than delivering raw data and PowerPoint slides. Find communication opportunities in your organization to reveal those heroes and share their stories. Use their stories to help explain company initiatives and drive business understanding. This will make it personable and help it resonate.

Want a simple and effective way to improve the strength of your communication? Pay special attention to the verbs you choose. The power of your speech or presentation resides in your verbs.

If you asked people today to name their top three biggest challenges whether professionally, personally or socially, it's likely at least one of them can be traced directly back to communication. I think part of these challenges can often deal with the volume of communication channels at our fingertips, lack of clarity with when and how to use them, and the paralyzing mindset that transferring information is the same as successful communication. We are transferring information with others like never before, but are we communicating effectively? Is our intended message being created and received in the most optimal way? Can we connect with our audiences better? Asking these questions is a great and simple step toward clarifying a common challenge - our communication. Communicating with such a focus and working to make those connections is what allows us to improve professionally, personally and socially. Remember, like people our communications should have a face, a personality, and a clear need to connect with someone. If we treat them like such, we'll be amazed at how our communication challenges diminish.

How does storytelling help you connect with an audience? Storytellers consciously consider their audience, as telling a tale is inherently a relational act. Stories encompass language and imagery that are immediately grasped by audience members and provide a familiar means by which relevant information is conveyed. Thus, stories can serve as a critical connector between you and your audience.

Public Speaking and Movement: The top thing to remember is as you move, move with PURPOSE. If you are giving two streams of information – sound and movement – that are conflicting then people can’t process the message. You have to make the two work together. #publicspeaking #speech #speechwriting #communication

Being able to relate your own personal experiences to audience experiences is a powerful method for creating a connection. #storytelling #publicspeaking #speech #communication

Once you connect with an audience you earn the right to give them something to consider. #speech #communication #rhetoric

These are two simple every-day actions that we all do on a daily basis. By just keeping your communication repertoire in your mind when listening and reading you can be amazed at what you can learn.