What are they?
Those are two among the most essential components of an efficient communication. Effective usage of these two components will certainly make you stand apart and ahead of others in the same filed/job like you.
Thought Flow:
“A sequential flow of ideas (thoughts), well-organized and explained in a way others can understand it easily”
Fluency:
“Ability to communicate the ideas one have in his\her mind without deviation or unnecessary interruptions at the same, without boring the target audience”
Who will need it?
Everyone including but not limited:
- A school student who wants to win a prize in a speech competition
- A high school student explaining about his\her project to others
- A college student involved in a paper presentation
- A school teacher
- A lecturer or a professor
- A philosopher
- A Salesman
- Any corporate employee (Independent of the grade and Profession)
Why they need it? / What if they don’t have it?
If I may use this phrase “In this competitive world,” communication plays such an important role needless to say. If I point a finger at something else when you are looking at me, I have communicated something to you. If I blink my eyes or raise my eyebrows, any micro reaction in my face or body can tell my thought(s) to you. Communication must be handled with at most care. With such critical importance, you read or write something and if you can’t express your thoughts properly, you lose. So organizing your thoughts in a proper sequence and delivering them without any interruptions is always a need of the hour.
I thought if you've got the first one, you've also got the second one:
I would say that is a myth. Of course Thought flow can help you IMPROVE your fluency. But it can never help you to achieve 100% fluency.
May be your perception changes after looking at these examples below, If you have ever been in any of the following scenarios, you had the former but not the latter
· You completed a wonderful presentation with a good thought flow, but after using so many verbal and nonverbal fillers (aah, hmmm, like I said, you know, etc.)
· You know the complete answer for a question, your teacher asked, but you forgot the third point and got stuck
· You were telling an excellent story to your kid, but he\she wanted to watch their favorite program in TV
· You had a severe cold, which made you sneeze and cough once in every two minutes during a delivery of a business presentation
· You forgot to turn off your mobile and got a call during a presentation
· You were unable to talk properly because of a bad throat
· Your audience can’t stop laughing at the last joke that you said
· Your boss got a call when you were explaining something important
Unlike Thought Flow, Fluency can easily be affected by external and physical factors. You are solely responsible for your thought flow, but not for your fluency.
How to Improve Them?
Thought Flow
Improving thought flow is very simple if you find answers for some/all of the following questions related to your topic of intent:
1. What?
2. When?
3. Where?
4. Why?
5. How?
6. Who?
7. Advantages?
8. Disadvantages?
9. What if it is not there? /Why do we need it?
10. It’s past and Future?
11. Anything, similar to this?
12. How this is different from others that are similar?
If you look at the structure of this article, my topic of intent is “Thought Flow and Fluency” and I have answered some questions from these above mentioned 12 questions.
Let’s discuss two different topics of Intent, DOGS (Very Simple) and Cloud Computing (Advanced), now try to apply these questions in out Topics:
What (Dog):
It’s a four legged domestic animal; it has also got a Tail.
What (Cloud Computing):
It is a latest technology that makes digital information to be available and accessible from anywhere in the world
When (Dog):
Several centuries ago, dog was the first animal that started to live with man and help man mainly with hunting and protecting man from other animals
When (Cloud Computing):
The term originated in the late 1980’s and became widely famous and useful for the past 8 years
Why (Dogs):
Dogs are raised as pets for multiple reasons, it can guard the house, help you in hunting, helps blind people as a guide, act as a symbol of status, they are cute and friendly.
Why (Cloud Computing):
People need not carry a physical device (with the data) wherever they go, even if the information is huge with hundreds of millions of Gigabytes. They can access it with any device from anywhere with the help of Internet
Who (Dog):
There is no age restriction or gender restriction in terms of who can pet a dog. A dog can be a perfect friend to anyone.
Who uses (Cloud Computing)
Business people who always keep travelling, large enterprises that handles enormous amount of data, enterprises that are distributed globally and wants all of its employees to access common data etc.
Who Provides (Cloud Computing)
There are many companies that act as cloud service providers including Google, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft
Advantages (Dog)
Companion, Friend, Stress Buster, Guardian, Shepherd and Guide
Advantages (Cloud Computing)
Data is replicated in multiple places – Reliability
Can access complex data using a mobile and simple device – Compact
Most of the simple cloud services are free – Emails, Share drives etc.
Disadvantages (Dog)
Maintenance, clean them, provide food and space etc.
Disadvantages (Cloud Computing)
Cost Increases as the complexity and amount of service increases
Maintenance is a recurring Task
Cloud service providers become the receiver’s boss (Very few and rare scenarios)
As you can see, it’s not mandatory that you must answer all the questions and it’s also not mandatory that you must only answer these 12 questions, These are 12 general questions that I can think of, which can be matched any topic right from a simple topic such as a stray dog, street lamp, signal light to a highly complex topic such as rocket engineering, big data, IT and even Quantum Physics.
The last, but important step, ARRANGE the points in a sequential order and put yourself into the shoes of your audience and check whether you will be able to understand it. That’s Thought Flow for you.
Fluency
Now, with the Thought Flow taken care of, it’s time to gear up fluency.
Know your Audience – It will be easy for you to decide the choice of words
Know the Time Limits – You can add or delete some points, thereby need not rush up towards the end (Completing the delivery within time is Important)
Know your Environment – Get to know the place from you have to deliver (this is not possible in all the cases)
Set proper expectations – I always do this, I will give my audience a general two liner about what is the intent of the delivery and I would ask them not to use mobiles or not to move around
Maintain Energy level – You voice is the key, have some water before you start
Maintain proper pause and stress – A long pause might interrupt fluency
Check the Equipment(s) – In case you are going to use a Mic or Headphones
And last but not the least
Practice - Practice and Practice.
Everything mentioned above are my own thoughts gained out of experience and I always respect your views as well, feel free to comment
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