- Joined
- Feb 15, 2003
- Messages
- 23,213
If you have taken every public speaking/leadership/conflict resolution course known to man spending an entire evening parroting all that you have learned just makes you sound like a Pompous Phony.
I went to a public meeting last night over a controversial issue that has many very upset. The meeting was being conducted by one person but the one that is the highest on the totem pole was there and would speak when needed. People were asking questions or expressing concerns they wanted addressed. Every time he got up it would go something like this: (capitalized words are the ones he stressed)
No answers, just this sort of "dialog" each time. Just because you have paid good money for those courses doesn't mean you have to use their exact wording. And for the love of God, when did the word "dialog" replace the words talk and discuss? That is the only word they used-- over and over again, making them just sound even more insincere.
The audience was a group of people that have most likely also been exposed to the same types of leadership/conflict resolution techniques. It really became ridiculous and was almost like talking to a telemarketer reading from a script. When it reaches that level you are no longer HEARING us. You are just being a talking head parroting the answer you have been taught that we want to hear.
And the few times that he had an answer it was also the classic public speaking formula:
When you are at a formal speech or in a setting where the person is really only speaking once then the classic format of : Tell them what you are going to tell them, Tell them, Tell them what you just told them is fine. But after the 5th or 6th time you have addressed a fairly simple question or concern with a longwinded formal speech you again sound scripted and phony. This was not a Formal Speech forum, it was an informal Q and A for people to have their questions answered.
Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot answers-just a lot of double talk and scripts-- and most left feeling like they didn't HEAR our concerns and didn't GET it. There is a lot of DIALOG going on between the people concerned in emails, texts, phone calls, and petitions.
I went to a public meeting last night over a controversial issue that has many very upset. The meeting was being conducted by one person but the one that is the highest on the totem pole was there and would speak when needed. People were asking questions or expressing concerns they wanted addressed. Every time he got up it would go something like this: (capitalized words are the ones he stressed)
No answers, just this sort of "dialog" each time. Just because you have paid good money for those courses doesn't mean you have to use their exact wording. And for the love of God, when did the word "dialog" replace the words talk and discuss? That is the only word they used-- over and over again, making them just sound even more insincere.
The audience was a group of people that have most likely also been exposed to the same types of leadership/conflict resolution techniques. It really became ridiculous and was almost like talking to a telemarketer reading from a script. When it reaches that level you are no longer HEARING us. You are just being a talking head parroting the answer you have been taught that we want to hear.
And the few times that he had an answer it was also the classic public speaking formula:
When you are at a formal speech or in a setting where the person is really only speaking once then the classic format of : Tell them what you are going to tell them, Tell them, Tell them what you just told them is fine. But after the 5th or 6th time you have addressed a fairly simple question or concern with a longwinded formal speech you again sound scripted and phony. This was not a Formal Speech forum, it was an informal Q and A for people to have their questions answered.
Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot answers-just a lot of double talk and scripts-- and most left feeling like they didn't HEAR our concerns and didn't GET it. There is a lot of DIALOG going on between the people concerned in emails, texts, phone calls, and petitions.
and they have no clue what is going on and why we are talking like this!
