Get to the POINT
Get to the POINT
I’m terrible summarizing my ideas. I get lost easily with unnecessary details.
During first quarter of this year I am working particularly hard to polish this skill. Again, my lovely fellow Toastmasters are helping me to improve.
Yesterday I presented my project number 3. This third scheme is “Get to the point”. And this challenge was perfect for me! I learned a lot while preparing it.
I learned some techniques to overcome my difficulties to actually get to the point when I express myself.
During last weeks I learned the following methods:
- I don’t have to over explain.
o We speak to a rhythm around 130 words per minute (http://www.speechinminutes.com), and our brain needs time to process that information. To avoid useless words while I talk I have to ask myself “Am I including too much info that they don’t need?”
- I learned to use the journalist approach to express my ideas in a faster way
o When I think about the who, when, where, why and what, I can convert a complex thought in something easy to follow. Even I can convert my idea in a small story, which is key to keep attention during my conference calls or presentations. Storytelling is working in a very powerful way for me to grab people attention
- I learned how to use pause
o I feel uncomfortable when I use pause while taking. But the fact that I feel uncomfortable it means they are necessary J. I discovered that it’s an effective weapon to allow the others to process what I just said. I realized that very often I used long sentences. Glued with a lot of words such as so, and, but … This is complex to follow. I was taught to replace these words with pauses. I practiced yesterday these pauses during my speech and it worked! I saw several nods when I was provoking intentionally long pauses
- I learned how to request others to get to the point
o Since now I’m paying more attention to get to the point I can see others also struggle getting to the point J Sometimes people come to my desk and they ask my advice about something. Sometimes the introduction is very long. Sometimes I don’t know what the question is and quite often I’m not sure where this introduction is leading. When I feel I’m lost after listening for 30 seconds I interrupt politely the other person and I say something like:
§ I'm sorry, I'm not following. What exactly do you need us to do? How can I help you?
§ I see...so how exactly can we help you accomplish this?
I work with people from different countries, different cultures and getting a common understanding it’s tricky. When I use question like this I find easier to get things back on track
This is my shorter post of the year. Maybe because I’m starting to learn how to get to the point? J
@yolocalizo
Every decision a team makes affects not only a digital product's accessibility but also how easily it can be adapted to different markets. Therefore, everyone involved in creating software can help improve both accessibility and localizability. Accessibility is a core consideration in software development and must be integrated into the entire process. The same applies to localization. The best time to consider localization is during the product's ideation phase. The sooner we start thinking about adapting experiences for different markets and making the product usable for as many people as possible, the better. Taking advantage of this week's Accessibility Awareness Day, this post explores how accessibility and localization can join forces to remove barriers.