Talk and Travel: Week 10
Nearing the end of my internship with IBJ, I began wrapping up projects this week by making final edits to policies. I received edits on the Harassment Policy I wrote from the same pro bono attorney who reviewed the Code of Ethics I wrote. Similarly to how I thought vague language wouldn't hold water in a Code of Ethics, I had written the Harassment Policy with clear definitions. The suggested edits however referenced using vague language in a beneficial way. Since compliance hinges on creating a set of policies and procedures that both abide by the law and make it feasible for employees to uphold the law, vague language in key areas benefits implementation.
I also finished writing the oral communications and presentations guide for the country managers training manual, which finished out the project. The goal for the guide was to serve as an overview of techniques for speech giving. As well an overview of things a country manager should consider when speaking in presentations, like the legal training sessions they will be expected to lead. I compiled well known speaking techniques, such as the story of self, story of us, and story of now persuasive narrative framework employed by former president Obama during his 2008 campaign. After an explanatory section on speech delivery, I included checklists I made for writing an informative speech versus a persuasive speech. Then, I discussed audience preconceptions in the component parts of knowing your audience, knowing the prior knowledge of your audience, and knowing your audience’s prior attitudes toward the topic. Being aware of who your audience is generally can avoid common pitfalls. Such as avoiding use of idioms and regional slang if you are a native English speaker, but your audience is not. Being aware of the level of knowledge your audience has concerning the topic you will be discussing can help in keeping them engaged throughout the presentation. Lastly, knowing your audience’s prior attitudes concerning the topic helps in framing your presentation to be more persuasive.
With the end of my internship looming, I decided to take a trip with some of the friends I’ve made. Last minute flight deals and a travel bug led us to overlook a 6am flight time to Prague! It seems surreal that I was able to visit Prague, with perfect weather and perfect friends on one of my last weekends in Europe. We saw everything, stopping only for food and the occasional picture.
