Preparation and World Cup excuses

In the midst of the post match despair last night, I heard arguments about Capello's decision to inform his squad who was in the team, only two hours before the kick off. Within a context of business; the performing arts and the emergency services, there are situations where important decisions or actions are taken at less than 2 hours notice. A crisis might occur where a snap decision is needed; a tragic accident where firemen and hospitals have to implement life threatening actions and treatment; someone might be sick and an understudy given 10 minutes warning to perform in front of 2,000 people.

In all cases, the people involved are highly skillful; highly trained and very well prepared. In certain cases, they have mentally prepared themselves for such a crisis for years and the knowledge they have acquired during their career enables them to step in. They will also have prepared strategies for delivering emergency care or crisis management within their team.

The England Football squad are highly trained, skillful players and within their preparation, they will have had sufficient support to develop their mental preparation; including strategies for 'getting into the zone' within two hours of a match. To use this as an excuse is, possibly, a red herring.

We all know that the success of our performance - and of course I focus on communication skills - is dependent upon the quality of our preparation.

More information from http://www.executivevoice.co.uk

World Cup Footballer Communication Watch: Our leader SG is speaking slightly clearer, although I don't know whether I have just managed to tune in to his thick dialect. He has clearly had some media skills, although more work is still required.
WR used his media skills work well yesterday, when he ranted after the game. Although the BBC wisely used subtitles, he spoke slowly and used a small phrase.
Capello is now asking for a translator: possibly wise given the anger of the media.

What we can learn from the vuvuzela!

What a commotion - or noise - that is being caused by the 'Vuvuzela' debate. Poor European football fans can't hear the expert commentary from the BBC or ITV; fans in the stadiums can't be heard chanting and, well, the English Team have an excuse other than the shape of the official tournament football for under performing.

The challenge is, of course, that the pitch and tone of the vuvuzela is in the most powerful part of the human hearing frequency. However, I have, against my better judgement, attended arena concerts where the volume has been equally loud and where quite frankly, it was impossible to hear the music as it was TOO loud.

The argument about the commentary being inaudible is an interesting one. There are situations where the pitch of our speech can make us inaudible, or more difficult for the listener to hear you. One example is teachers. For female teachers in particular, there is a tendency to raise the pitch of their voices when they raise the volume of their voices. Their voices become less audible as they are highly undistinguished from the children's voices. I work with teachers to keep the tone and pitch of their voices low, so they are more audible. Maggie Thatcher and Betty Boothroyd both adopted this technique in the Commons.

Also, actors wishing to be audible within a noisy scene, or comedians keep their voices low pitched to cut through the noise of audiences laughing. An acquaintance of mine: a very gifted amateur stand up comedian, had feedback that most of his jokes were being lost. Watching a video of his, I realised that his voice went higher and higher, as he was coming closer to the 'punchline'. He was laughing along with his audience - and they couldn't hear him!

So getting back to the vuvuzela; what relevance is this to football. Well, commentators need to be aware of their pitch; sound engineers that are mixing the sound in UK will be able to utilise these lower harmonics and frequencies, to make it easier for viewers to hear. Instead of becoming high pitched and squeaky whenever there is something exciting, they need to keep their voices low and modulated. Of course, there is something else BBC and ITV could do; provide subtitles, then we could enjoy the sound and atmosphere created by the vuvuzela!

Lost in Translation: we need subtitles please!

I am a great fan of regional accents and always champion this rather than getting clients to adopt a "RP" accent. However, I also promote good, clear diction and where necessary, slowing down when you speak. However, several situations last week made me laugh - and prompt me to write this short newsletter.

At the weekend Prince William struggled to have a two way conversation via satellite with the latest England Football captain. The Prince looked bewildered whilst the footballer waffled on in a very thick dialect, at record speed. The Prince looked rather like a French Exchange student on the first day with his family; confused and unable to understand anything; he eventually started nodding and saying "Good luck".

Obviously it was very funny, but this is a figurehead for England Football; if an English person couldn't understand the captain, who could the foreign media? It does no favours for this country or for English Football.

In fairness, I heard a brief interview yesterday, and clearly the captain had had some media training: he had slowed down his speech, and his responses to questions were very short. Whilst his diction was still very sloppy, I could vaguely understand what he was saying...

When we speak to people, we want to make it as easy as possible for them to listen; by making them work hard to understand you, there is every possibility that they will switch off and not pay attention. So my message to you is, when you speak to people - particularly on the phone, take your time and pronounce words clearly!