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A great article by Philip Yaffe (a former Wall Street Journal feature writer) on writing, speaking, communication
At first glance mathematics and persuasive communication – writing, and particularly public speaking would seem to have little in common. After all, mathematics is an objective science, whilst speaking involves voice quality, inflection, eye contact, personality, body language, and other subjective components.
However, under the surface they are very similar….
A reproduction of the commencement address by J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame at Harvard University – copyright June 2008. A truly extraordinary speech
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention…
Here’s a list of 3 sentences that can change your life – at work and at home. If you think this is just a tall claim, just read on and try practicing these over the next few days..
If you want to look at a framework for the purpose of change management and organizational development, you may want to study the 7-S framework. This is a model that describes how to organize to effectively organize and manage the various elements of an organization in an integrated manner. Consider this as just an introduction or maybe a reminder to get you on the road to further study and deliberation on the subject of change management
There are lot’s of explanations about the common barriers that people encounter during listening. Here’s the most common ones that challenge us..
Appreciative Enquiry – AI – is an exciting alternative approach to organizational change developed by two American organization behavior professors, David L. Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva.In the usual change management model, management thinking is generally based around looking for and fixing problems. In AI, the focus is identifying what works well in the organization, understanding what is behind that, and doing more of it. The purpose of this is to allow this positive energy to spread throughout the organization or team or unit. AI creates an environment where more and more focus is applied to finding the previously unknown and unrecognized areas of good practice, and enabling the rest of the organization in a similar way…
President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates:
I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad, I always told you I’d come back and get my degree.”
I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful dropout.” I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed
Read the full, brilliant speech here
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