by Monica Lunin | A Speech a Week Series, Communication & Influence, Leadership
“My fellow citizens, we stand at the threshold of a new decade. The 2020s can be good years.” A few hours before the strike of midnight, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed her country with a speech embued with determination and hope....
by Monica Lunin | A Speech a Week Series, Communication & Influence
A Message of Warning to Men of Science J. Robert Oppenheimer addressed the Association of Los Alamos Scientists on November 2nd, 1945. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project – an Anglo-American project for the research and development of...
by Monica Lunin | A Speech a Week Series, Communication & Influence, Leadership
A Campaign Speech to Unite a Divided Country and win an election… There are many, many examples of Boris Johnson at the podium. The Tory victory in the recent UK election owes a great deal to the rhetorical skill displayed by Boris Johnson. Love him or hate him,...
by Monica Lunin | A Speech a Week Series, Communication & Influence, Leadership
Pathos with a dash of politics: Ronald Reagan, 1986 On the 28th of January, 1986 the world witnessed the disastrous explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Ronald Reagan addressed his country and the world in the aftermath of the tragedy. This was a powerful speech...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
We need to clear up a common misconception. The words that you use don’t really matter. People remember your body language and your tone of voice more than your actual words.- Public Speaking Experts Everywhere Have you heard this sage advice? Let’s Go To...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention” -Hebert Simon (winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1978) We are living in the information age. You can no longer claim an advantage because of your specialist knowledge. Chances are, the people you are...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
Echo Chamber is a term commonly applied to the social media environment where we are fed the content an algorithm thinks we want to see. There are also offline, real-world echo chambers. They might exist in your organisation. How will you recognise the signs? ...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
Misused or Reinvented? It’s easy to take the high ground. To snigger behind the back of someone who misuses a word when you know the correct meaning. In fact, as you scroll down you will see a shot at a very easy target. Superiority can be a nice place to...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
Arguments are to be avoided, they are always vulgar and often convincing. -Oscar Wilde It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. -Joseph Joubert What is an argument? An argument is an adversarial exchange of...
by Monica Lunin | Communication & Influence
Parliament is in session and I am both appalled and intrigued by the infantile behaviour of our elected representatives. Consider the challenge a speaker faces when trying to land a point whilst relentlessly assailed by verbal sucker punches from the cross benches. ...
