Help for academic writing and speaking

  Mindful and expressive writing can offer an outlet to improve your health and ease emotional turmoil. The basic idea of mindful writing is to take a prompt and write about it. Companion ‘resident poet’, Andy Perry, has penned some thoughts to get the ball rolling…

There’s a big difference between ‘can’ and ‘will’. Effective lasting behaviour change is about creating inspiration in individuals rather than old fashioned motivation techniques like carrot and stick that wear off. To inspire means getting clever and using scientifically proven techniques and methods to up-level our own communications with others. Human communication is a product of our personal filters, our beliefs, and our focus. We have huge power to change any of these, and in doing so alter the content we effectively deliver in each communication. Cognitive dissonance cannot be overcome by merely reciting facts to others and hoping it will make them ‘see sense’; it has entirely the opposite effect and merely forces them to entrench their position and behaviours in order for them to remain feeling neurologically ‘safe’. There are ways to speak and be heard, ways to delicately influence an existing leadership team (even if you’re junior), and ways to use our ‘Human Chimp’ behaviour to get better outcomes in whatever level you currently work at. The 6 Human needs and Conversational Intelligence are detailed in this lecture to better understand how different profile types view communication – and how to influence all of the types you’ll come across in daily life (nb – just please use your powers for good…). This lecture pulls together how to develop influence in a seemingly hopeless situation, and how to utilize the technologies of behavioural communication to best effect.