I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a fantastic one day instructor led workshop by a company called SpeedReadingPeople. The workshop teaches a two part process; SpeedREAD & SpeedREACH.
- SpeedREAD helps you to quickly identify key personality type characteristics of others based on easily observable clues such as demeanor, body language, appearance, energy level, vocabulary, and speech patterns. It is based on the Myers-Briggs personality typing and breaks out into 4 type preferences . . . Extroversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving.
- SpeedREACH teaches the techniques to adjust your communication style so you can present information in a manner that is more comfortable for the person you are engaging with.
An interesting observation from the workshop was how engaged the attendees were for the entire all-day session. They all seemed excited about the content and how the training might help them better communicate with managers, peers and direct reports. During workshop down time, the attendees seemed to enjoyed trying to guess each others personality types.
Another interesting take away from the session was the section on presenting to groups. The strategy takes into consideration the various personality types of the audience and the suggested style/order of reaching the audience is Intuitives - Sensors- Thinkers - Feelers. This fits nicely with the concept of enteRETAINment and specifically storytelling. Drawing all personality types into a story early by presenting the content in an order and style that appeals to each can pump up the engagement level significantly.
With so many companies having both internal and external communications as an top challenge the SpeedREAD/ SpeedREACH concept seems like a great tool for all,especially executives, managers and sales folks. The CEO of the company. Paul Tieger, has written several books one of which is The Art of Speed Reading People
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