Doyoursentencesseemtorunonwhenyouraregivingaspeech?

Doyoursentencesseemtorunonwhenyouraregivingaspeech? If you need some help on this topic, you
may enjoy Victor Borge in this video as he describes his system of Phonetic Punctuation. 

The Major Barrier to Mutual Interpersonal Communicaion

Carl Rogers said in the 1960’s, “… Suppose I say with some feeling, “I think the Republicans are behaving in ways that show a lot of good sound sense these days,” what is the response that arises in your mind as you listen? The overwhelming likelihood is that it will be evaluative. You will find yourself agreeing, or disagreeing, or making some judgment about me such as “He must be a conservative,” or “He seems solid in his thinking.””

He is giving an example of what he calls the major barrier to mutual interpersonal communication: “our very natural tendency to judge, to evaluate, to approve or disapprove, the statement of the other person, or the other group.”   

Much political fatigue from political campaigns, conventions and comments from friends to Facebook is felt.  By using Rogerian Listening, to understand and accept others, much of the angst, anger, frustration and other reactions that lead to political fatigue is eluded. 

It is a difficult challenge to open one’s mind to understand positions that are different from your own.  But that’s when communication is more likely to occur.  That’s when I feel like a more informed voter.

Christmas movie about organizational change

Been working too hard, not finding success and losing your happy family?  Here’s a movie for you.

A fundraiser with angst provides the scenario for an angel’s intervention in the 1947 B & W movie, The Bishop’s Wife. 

The Bishop, played by David Niven, has a stalled capital campaign to build a cathedral and is thwarted by a dowager that wishes to build an edifice to recognize her husband.  She even wants a stained glass window depicting St. George to show the countenance of her departed husband.  The Bishop is losing his purpose as a churchman and his family while striving for project completion.  Sounds like an organization in need of a consultant, or in this case an angel, played by Cary Grant.

The angel comes to offer help, not a cathedral, and is tempted by the Bishop’s Wife, characterized by Loretta Young.  Along with his charm, the angel offers an allegory for making a difference in the world.  Dudley, the angel use a light touchto bring the best out in others, and keep an eye on the corporate vision, be the corporation a marriage or a church.  After he’s gone, nobody knows he was there.  Sometimes divine intervention helps out.  

 

This charming older film was remade in 1996 as The Preacher’s Wife with Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance updating the production.  

Perhaps you’ve seen It’s a Wonderful Life to many times?  Maybe you need a role model for creating organizational change?  This movie might be your new holiday ritual. 

Not Many Women on List of Powerful Speeches

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Recently I asked “Can You Suggest Examples of Powerful Speeches?”

Outcomes from this question include the list below that was suggested.  Interestingly only 2 women's names show up on the list.  Male privilege?  Likely so...historical speaking opportunities largely went to males.  Can you help round out the list with great speakers male or female?? 

Below are the responses I received

Great, moving speeches suggested:

General George Patton's address to his troops before D-Day

Sen. George Vest "Man's best friend" eulogy September 30, 1870

J.K. Rowling Harvard  commencement speech.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c

Robert Emmet's Speech from the Dock

Martin Luther King I Have a Dream,

Pres Obama Yes We Can

Pres Obama 1st inauguration,

Winston Churchill We Shall Never Surrender

BIll Clinton's A Place Called Hope

William Wilberforce address to British Parliament on the abolition of the slave trade

Randy Pausch "The Last Lecture" you tube

Martin Luther King I Have Been to the Mountaintop

Al Pacino's speech in "Any Given Sunday"

Robert F. Kennedy’s Indianapolis speech following death of MLK 1968
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address

Recommended presenters:

Andy Dooley just YouTube him

Joyce Meyer

Tony Robbins

Lou Holtz

Joel Osteen

Collections

American Rhetoric top 100 speeches http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

Ted Talks http://www.ted.com/

Vital Speeches of the Day's Cicero Award Winners http://vsotd.com/cicero-awards

Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking you tube

William Safire's "Lend Me Your Ears." print

Can you suggest examples of powerful speeches?

Robert F. Kennedy's unrehearsed speech in Indianapolis on the night when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 is an example of leadership. The video, Ripple of Hope, is about 45 minutes of set up describing some of what preceded the speech, and showing the speech itself. RFK is running for President and early on in the brief speech he asks campaigners to put down their signs promoting his candidacy.

It is humbling to consider I would likely have advised him not to appear that night, and if he did, not to quote Aeschylus to the crowd¹. To my knowledge he didn't talk much about his brother, JFK, also being assassinated. He did that night with powerful results. You might not like his politics, but on that night he showed leadership that may have averted rioting in Indianapolis, when other cities burned.

 

What speeches do you know of that have moved and led us?

¹ Here is the quote from Agamemnon:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

Fat, dumb and happy is not a movie for me

Ho Tei is the Budhist God of Contentment and Happiness.  I've been there not out of religiosity but from seeking easy paths.  Unfortunately being fat, dumb and happy ended with a jolt again for me.  

In the past I listened to a veteran of war in the Mideast describe ghastly things I thought never got talked about.  I was moved to action and spent time volunteering for an organization that helps disabled veterans.  I didn’t protest foreign policy enough, although I did vote partly based on that political platform plank.

Two friends are violently gone from domestic violence this week.  I was unaware of this issue in their lives and am shocked at the abrupt, awful end of their relationship.  Rep. Mark Green has said, “If the numbers we see in domestic violence were applied to terrorism or gang violence, the entire country would be up in arms and it would be the lead story on the news every night.”  

I’m searching for a way to help others before another murder suicide reaps lives.  Are there suggestions for me and those like me? 

Perfection and wabi sabi in Pageants

The viral response to Miss Utah, Marissa Powell, flubbing her answer to a question during the Miss Teen USA Pageant personifies the fear that many have about public speaking:  they will be made fun of for being less than perfect.  

NPR’s Linda Holmes says of the question asked that, “…it's basically a test of your ability to generate cow patties on command.”  So Powell’s not a great bull sh*tter.  Given a second chance on the Today Show she answered fine.  

Beauty contest entrants focus on maximizing how they present themselves in many ways.  They are striving for perfection.  Salvador Dali has said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it”.   

Striving to be perfection can achieve excellence, but for another twist in thinking consider the Japanese concept of wabi sabi.  It is about finding beauty in imperfection.  

The viral response, both bullying and accepting, has overshadowed that Erin Brady of Connecticut won the Pageant.  The now notorious Powell did go on to be 3^rd Runner Up in the competition.  That’s pretty close to perfection.  She is grandly gorgeous and more beautiful because of her humanity.