SO HERE IT IS, MERRY CHRISTMAS
It’s come at last. At last it’s come. The day we knew would come at last has come at last.
With help from a line from the vibrant American musical, Bye Bye Birdie, today is the long-awaited day for the Michael Dodd Communications Christmas ezine.
So to celebrate, here’s your electronic Christmas card.
Those of you who have received a Christmas card from someone in the United Kingdom this year may recognise this nativity scene as being from the 2015 Royal Mail Christmas stamp.
What I like about this nativity scene is the caption which one internet wit came up with to go with it:
“Great to see Mary on keyboard and Joseph on vocals on this year’s Christmas stamp.”
When you read this caption and look back at the picture, the scene takes on a whole new perspective.
It’s the power of words that can make you see things differently.
GETTING IT RIGHT IN YOUR CHRISTMAS-NEW YEAR SPEECHES
At their best words, used effectively, put colourful and memorable pictures in the minds of those listening to them.
I’ve been particularly aware of this as I’ve been helping business leaders seeking to say just the right thing to their teams at their Christmas parties.
There are two things leaders typically want to do in these talks.
The first is to ensure that their teams know they’ve been appreciated for all they have done in the past year.
The second is, as much of the global economy is picking up, to give their teams a sense of confidence about next year and beyond.
If you’re going to be convincing on either the past or the future in your Christmas or New Year talk there’s one thing in particular you need to do.
You need to put colourful and memorable pictures in the minds of your audience.
In other words you need to tell real life stories and give examples.
So when thanking people for their efforts during 2015, it will come across as so much more credible and heartfelt if you cite specific examples of what team members achieved throughout the year.
By doing so you will be telling stories about which many are already aware.
This is a good thing. What it does in communications terms is that it hits a “resonant chord” with audience members.
It activates pictures in the mind that are already there, possibly lying dormant, as you remind them of what they did or something that happened during the year.
And when it comes to specifying what future challenges you are seeking to get your audience to take on, again you need to put pictures in their minds so they can perceive what you envisage.
PAINTING PICTURES OF YOUR VISION
It’s all about what US President George Bush Senior once called “The Vision Thing”.
He wasn’t very good at it (a big reason why he was only a one-term president).
But some other American presidents have been exceptionally good at it.
At a time when Britain is getting excited about having its first “official” UK astronaut occupying the International Space Station, it’s a reminder of how one US president was extraordinarily good at “The Vision Thing”.
As one-time helicopter pilot Tim Peake has become the initial British astronaut to be employed by the European Space Agency, we can be reminded that President John F Kennedy was prepared to be heroically specific when he spelled out his vision for humans in space back in the early 1960s.
There was characteristically Kennedyesque visionary rhetoric when he told a crowd of 35,000 at Rice University in Texas about his ambitions in space: “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained…”
And in setting out his aspirations for humankind in space, President Kennedy was admirably precise about where and why: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
You can relive Kennedy outlining his astronomically ambitious plan here:
Alas while setting the target of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s, John Kennedy was assassinated before he could see his vision accomplished in July 1969.
But you can still let his specific picture and swashbuckling justification inspire you if you’re preparing to share your vision with your team in a Christmas or New Year grand address!
There will be more on how to formulate and utilise specific examples in your answers to questions coming in 2016 when the Dodd book “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” becomes available in hard copy in a shop near you.
Since the last issue of this ezine, the publishers have decided that 10 June 2016 is the date when it will appear on the bookshop shelves, with Amazon and on the Michael Dodd Communications website.
Watch this space – not the international station in space – for more.
So there is something very specific to look forward to as the year ahead progresses!!
PREPARING FOR – AND PREVENTING – EMERGENCIES
Of course it wouldn’t be Christmas without a wise man and without Santa Claus.
Let me introduce you to both in a two-for-one offer.
He’s one of my professional speaking colleagues, Ian Jarvis.
Ian is a wise man because he knows some of the lessons for humanity from the aftermath of the world’s worst industrial disaster and seeks to help companies put these lessons into practice.
And Ian is like Santa Claus to the people where the giant explosion happened because he uses his skills as a complementary therapist to help treat the ongoing health problems of the victims and to tackle the ongoing pain of the tragedy.
Ian Jarvis helps out and speaks on the poisoned legacy of the massive release of toxic gases from the Union Carbide pesticide factory Bophal in India in December 1984 that killed thousands instantly and left tens of thousands with injuries for life – along with genetic problems for many of those born later.
In 2016 I am keen for Ian to be involved in projects I take on where I help clients know what to do when it comes to dealing with the media and answering tough questions if something goes seriously wrong.
I work with media training and speaking colleagues to help teams know the kind of things they need to say and how to best say them in the wake of a disaster.
This can be done through presentations at company conferences and/or through making mock news bulletins of nightmare situations your organisation might face – for teams to respond to, so they can work out in advance what’s best to do and say.
There is an important fringe benefit to be gained by learning about what to do when something seriously bad happens.
By focusing on the worst case scenario it helps teams work out what they can and must do to avoid terrible things going wrong in the first place.
This is where Ian can help.
By sharing with your team the shocking things he has witnessed in the wake of Bophal, Ian can encourage team members to do whatever it takes to help prevent such things from happening in your organisation.
Ian does indeed put powerful pictures in people’s minds. A lot of them are not happy or comfortable pictures but they make people determined to take action to prevent Bophal-type situations happening again.
He also paints positive pictures that illuminate the indomitable side of the human spirit.
As a speaker on corporate social responsibility, Ian can show your teams some of the lessons of Bophal and encourage team members to work out ways to maximise the prospects that they’ll never happen to your organisation.
You can witness Ian Jarvis in action here:
[huge_it_video_player id=”3″]
And there’s more about dealing with the media in emergency situations at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/media-master-classes/
This little boy, being treated by Ian Jarvis, suffers – like so many others in Bophal – with Cerebral Palsy.
You can see the typical way he is holding his arms and hands.
Ian says this is part of the spasm in the muscle common with this condition.
There’s no known cure for this disabling condition. Treatment of children like this is about reducing the rigidity, getting more flexibility into the limbs and then strengthening so they are useable.
Ian shares their tragic stories, but in a way that provides hope.
Here’s what the Chief Executive Officer of the Professional Speaking Association, Graham Jones, says about Ian Jarvis’s speech.
Here’s what the “Internet Psychologist” and Chief Executive Officer of the Professional Speaking Association, Graham Jones, says about Ian Jarvis’s speech.
“Ian Jarvis’s talk about the ongoing implications and lessons from the tragedy of the 1984 Bophal explosion in India is engaging, absorbing and surprisingly uplifting. I was swept away by how – amidst the understandably negative emotions surrounding the world’s worst industrial disaster – someone so involved in the efforts to help survivors and their offspring deal with the long-term health problems from the explosion of toxic gases and chemicals was able the to focus on the significant positive side of the aftermath. As a speaker Ian motivates with a clear passion for his subject and through his quiet, caring nature. You cannot help but want to do something positive after listening to him. His talk is full of human stories as well as information and data to prove his points. If you want to do something positive in your business to help change the world, you need to get your people to listen to Ian.”
As Graham Jones says, hearing about terrible things – when heroic things are being done to combat them and when lessons are being learned from them – can be surprisingly uplifting.
Amidst the troubles of the world, from industrial disasters to the terrorism in Paris, have a surprisingly uplifting seasonal break!
Keep smiling,
Michael