Half the speed, twice the control(clarity) ..

Dear Friend / Colleage,
I don’t know about you, but i went through a rather testing(trying) situation of trying to learn to drive a car. The year was 1996 and I was in UK. While i had taken previously some 10-15 lessons for driving in Bangalore and also got a driving license(which did not involve a real test), i was DEFINITELY not in a position to drive on my own.

In my previous trips to the place i had relied on public transportation but during this time, it was not a viable option due to location my home and that of the client. So, i had enrolled for additional driving lessons. The instructor was almost 60 yr old gentleman by name Mark (don’t remember his last name). On the first day of the lesson itself the guy was amazed that i held an international driving permit while having learnt so little driving :-( . There started the series of lessons with Mark where he began to correct my basics .. which were definitely out of place.
Like all the new drivers learning to drive .. i had tendency to get quite a few things WRONG .. I would release the clutch pedal rather quickly .. i would press against the accelerator little too high or too low .. my breaking tend to be very hard or sometimes not hard enough .. you get the picture right . One of the key lessons i remember very well that Mark told me .. “Half the speed, twice the control“. He used to emphasize this point particularly for the 1st gear change from rest and getting the vehicle to move.

Today while talking about “Effective Communication” in a training session .. I realized that what Mark said is equally applicable for Communication too, although with a minor tweak. It would be “Half the speed, twice the clarity” :-). Because, as indians we tend to speak little too fast particularly with clients etc and we will definitely help ourselves, if we all learn to speak at a more measured pace, our own effectiveness will get further better. I am certain you heard this before, but does as re-iteration hurt? :-)

But, this will not happen for us overnight. We should learn to condition of rate of speech as well as the clarity with which we speak by using some tools like record and play back and also compare/contrast the speech with a native speaker’s voice as it becomes very contrasting and provides a great feedback. Are there tools that can help us to do this. Yes, very much so .. Tools like GlobalEnglish precisely help us with that .. And these tools are becoming available for people within their desktop subject to certain guidelines and conditions ..

Now, have i been able to raise your interest/curiosity about the tool/solution? :-)

thanks
-Jagan Mantha a.k.a J2M