| Comedian W C Fields said we should never work with animals (and children). And as they're both likely to upstage us, he had a fair point. They can also bite you... as I found when getting too close to one of the monkeys on The Rock of Gibraltar this time last year. (Yes, I've just about recovered. And thanks for all those heartfelt messages of concern for the welfare of the monkey!) But despite such traumas, I'm going ahead with a bold new animal adventure project anyway... "Put More Roar Into Your Company" is the unique, fun, skills-enhancing away day which takes place amidst the magnificent animals of Paradise Wildlife Park. Paradise is the home of this magnificent Siberian Tiger - amongst the characters you get to meet amidst the wilds of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.  I'm running these amazing days with my professional speaking colleague, Nicci Roscoe - known as the Mind Makeover Artist for her ability to transform the confidence, impact and image of her clients. Nicci is the author of "Fabulous Impact - Re-write Your Own Script And Step Into The New You" and a captivating motivational speaker. You can see her videos at: www.nicciroscoe.com Paradise Wildlife Park prides itself on being (arguably) the best venue for animal experience days in Europe. But our action-packed experiential learning days give your team more than just a great day out in an extraordinary environment. Nicci and I put your team through a variety of transformational activities designed to take the communications skills, confidence and impact of your people to greater heights - whatever their starting point. They get to meet the characters at Paradise Wildlife Park - and in selected cases get up close and personal with them.  |
PROGRAMME DESIGNED AROUND YOUR TEAM'S NEEDS
We design the programme around your desired outcomes when planning your day. You get to choose which of the following outcomes you would like your team members to achieve: # Having a bigger more fabulous impact inside and outside your organisation # Developing their skills in telling stories - including, of course, animal stories - to enthral, persuade and inspire clients, prospects and colleagues # Taking their confidence to new heights # Boosting their creativity, team skills and morale # Identifying where and how they can take their performances to higher levels # Enhancing their ability to impress your clients and prospects and grow your bottom line. Our Paradise Wildlife Park away days are for groups of between 50 and 140. Mixing with the animals while working on developing their personal and team skills will help inspire them all. In fact, it's hard not to be inspired when faced with characters like the fun-loving Paradise meerkats - or this attitude-rich ringtailed lemur...  You can see the full range of extraordinary creatures - and animal experience possibilities - at www.pwpark.com If you'd like to receive the E-flyer for "Putting More Roar In Your Company" or line up a chat about the possibilities, email: enquiries@michaeldoddcommunications.com |
DE-AUSTRALIANISING YOUR WORKFORCE
According to the latest research, this tendency has now spread like rabbits to younger generations of British people who have adopted what's known by linguists as "Australian Question Intonation". Clearly it's come from watching too many episodes of Neighbours and Home And Away...or, worse still, drinking too much with the 300,000-odd Australians who live here in the UK. Yes "odd" is the word if you listen to the way that the upward inflection tends to make Aussies sound a touch insecure...as if being here on the fringes of sophisticated Europe leaves us out of our depth. The fact that many locals are now sounding Antipodean is understandably concerning to the British business world. A survey by the UK firm Pearson has found that 85% of managers questioned about the upward inflection trait took it as "a clear indicator of a person's insecurity or emotional weakness". So it's not great for promotion prospects. But getting rid of the upward inflection is a solvable problem - and I can solve it. The reason that I can is that I had it fixed myself at an early age. When I was a trainee journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, we could go to this voice expert called "Arch McKirdy" - who sadly departed this world last year. Arch called himself the "Quality Control Officer". He was also a great presenter - best known for hosting his ABC Jazz show "Relax With Me".  Arch would spend hours meticulously drilling myself and colleagues to make sure we went down at the end of our sentences when reading scripts and being interviewed on-air. So fear not: Arch McKirdy proved that Australian Question Intonation is a curable condition. I regularly use Arch's techniques to help boost the authority and performance of my client's media interview and presentation skills: This doesn't of course mean it's a bad thing to be Australian! As you might guess, some of my best friends... And it shouldn't stop you booking my after dinner speeches on "How To Talk, Think And Act Australian (But Without That Rising Inflection)." Some people even think that an accent like mine - or like Paul Hogan (pictured) in Crocodile Dundee - is sexy. But I couldn't possibly comment.  |
BROADCAST MEDIA ETIQUETTE - LESSON FROM NEW YORK
In media interview training sessions, people ask me many questions. But one they haven't yet posed is: "Is it a good idea to threaten to throw a journalist off a balcony whilst live on television?" Hopefully the answer is a no-brainer. But US Congressman Michael Grimm hasn't yet been to one of my media training sessions. I have decided to offer him a free place...on the basis that he seriously needs it. A former undercover FBI agent with anger management issues, Congressman Grimm was asked on New York television about allegations of campaign financing irregularities which are hovering around him. After storming off in the middle of the live interview (never a good idea, by the way) he then returned to tell reporter Michael Scotto: "You ever do that to me again and I'll throw you off this (blanking) balcony." When Scotto insisted that he'd asked a legitimate question, Congressman Grimm replied "I'll break you in half, like a boy." (This was uttered as if breaking boys in half is a normal, natural activity.) The moment was all captured on video. (Hot Tip: It's always a good idea to check that the camera isn't recording when you threaten reporters with menaces!) So you can see it all here: Eventually the reality of his error became clear to him and, fourteen hours later, he apologised, telephoned Scotto to admit he had "overreacted" and offered to take him out for lunch. If the lunch offer is accepted it should be an interesting occasion. |
WHEN IN YORKSHIRE...
I had the pleasure of running a session of "Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz" in Leeds with a group of Yorkshire business folk. The feedback forms made encouraging reading - with eleven out of twelve giving the session the top rating of "extremely valuable". Alas the other one merely rated it as "valuable" The participant later explained that, in the aftermath of the loss of the Ashes by England, I had made at least ten "jokes" (his inverted commas) about cricket. I suspect that's an exaggeration, but of course the customer is always right. As they take cricket rather seriously in Yorkshire one clearly can't be too careful. So let me rush to congratulate England on now retaining The Ashes (in women's cricket, that is). It can't be long now until Yorkshire's Geoffrey Boycott calls upon the women's cricket team to replace the men. Keep smiling, Michael |
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