Harvard and Google got married (NY Times article, Fri Dec 17) and have given birth to a database containing all the words in all the books published between 1500 and 2008 in English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian.
 
You—yes you—can find this database on line and search for a single word or particular phrase up to five words long and track its birth, life, decline, ascent or long-term flat-line existence.  You will see, in graphic terms, how frequently your word or phrase appears from year to year.
 
This is very cool for language historians:  they will be able to track the evolution of words and phrases. The question is what will the rest of us use it for?
 
We can use it to recognize this truth: key words repeated throughout a speech or presentation will live a long life in the minds of our listeners, and as a result, can have considerable influence over them.

For instance, if you use words such as “slow,” “patient,”, and “easy” when speaking to a group, and then ask them to go stand on a line to wait for something, they are more likely to wait placidly and politely than another group that did not hear those words spoken prior to waiting. 

Speech has power to change behavior.  Using a word repeatedly has power too.  Choose your key words strategically and speak them often to create the behaviors you’re looking for.

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

You may be aware that I’ve been going to investigator meetings and finding them kind of out-of-date.

We’ve got to get away from what’s easy for the sponsor, and instead move toward what is effective for the investigators and their associates.

What is easy for the sponsor is to have the usual cast of characters give PowerPoint presentations—all day, if need be. 

What is effective for investigators and their associates is engagement with the information being presented.

When adults engage with new information, they assimilate it more easily into their already crowded store house of information. 

Engagement with the information includes, but is not limited to:

-          Spot quizzes

-          Small group problem solving

-          Case studies

-          Competitive games for small groups or teams

-          Live enactments with faux-patients and product

-          Small group role plays in which investigators and associates play themselves, the patient, and individuals from the sponsor company who will be interacting with them during the course of the study.

-          Hands-on experience with data systems

-          Social time with sponsor personnel

Not only would investigators and their associates retain more of the information.  They would enjoy the experience, and that enjoyment would attach to their perception of the sponsoring organization.

A win-win, right?

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Right now I’m sitting in the back of a hotel meeting room near Washington, DC, where two dozen physicians are rehearsing for a presentation to the regulatory authorities. They are debating what point they are trying to prove.
 
The question has to do with the use of a certain methodology to measure, in clinical trials, the efficacy of a class of drugs.
 
There is no agreement amongst those currently engaged in the discussion as to what the point is. Does the proposed methodology relate to clinical outcomes?  Will it yield usable data?  Should it be used only in high risk patients?  Should it be mentioned in the label?  
 
These people have been working on this issue for months, and yet here they are, not quite clear on what point they are arguing.  
 
Because the key point in this situation is difficult to understand, and even more difficult to explain, they are instead discussing the relative value of certain pieces of evidence.
 
Evidence of what they are not sure, but they have evidence, so they are determined to use it.  And maybe the debate will lead them to what they can and cannot claim.
 
It is interesting to consider whether, in situations like this, we determine our point by wrestling with our evidence and beating it into a clear point, or whether we decide what point we think we want to make and then test it against the evidence we have in our possession.
 
It seems to be me that rehearsal, or debate, is the forum in which we test our hypotheses against our evidence. It is the trial by fire, the stress test, by which we learn if we ourselves, and others, hear the ring of truth in our talk.  If we have trouble making our evidence support our point, we must change our point, not our evidence.
 
Although if we want, and if we have time, we can look for more evidence to support our point, except in this case—in this room, at this moment—we don’t have time, and we’re still trying to agree on the claim that we want to make. 

I think the key point is buried in our pile of data, like a needle in a haystack, and while we can see it glistening through the stalks, we can’t quite reach it with our mental tweezers, or find the right words that would pull it, like a magnet, out of the confusion.  

Presenting for Results^SM Update:

We have scheduled our 2nd public seminar called Presenting for Results^SM. If you are so inclined, please join us on Nov 18 & 19, 2010, at the Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, NJ, which is on Rte. 3 East, just east of the Garden State Parkway.  The program is fun, eye-opening, highly experiential and beneficial to your confidence and career, and thus good for your company as well.  Or let somebody who could benefit know about the program. There is very limited enrollment to keep it practical and interactive.  Click here to learn more.

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.