Thanksgiving Blessing

Presentation in Lansing, MI

Watch Here: (38 minutes) ==>  Lansing Presentation

Speech Abstract

Getting the Truth - Unlocking the Secrets of Communication

This presentation, "Getting the Truth – Unlocking the Secrets of Communication," teaches attendees to more fully understand the communication process. The communication process (lightning-quick subconcious/conscious decision-making) is best imagined as a huge parking lot full of vehicles, each of which constitutes a communication element. Think of each vehicle in this parking lot as a word, a physical reaction, a grunt, a raised voice, a voice inflection, eye movement, hand movement, silence, pause, or a phrase. The “parking lot attendant” is our mind. This model serves to help explain the intricacies of the communication process: the timing, our individual and unique nuances of speech, our body language, and the infinite combinations of the thousands of variables involved. Our mind (the “attendant”) decides to select a combination or a string of these elements to create the communication (message) and to interpret and understand received messages. Each element has its own uniqueness. And when an element is selected, not selected, moved, or changed, a track is laid — to be detected by the trained observer to help interpret the real meaning of the message. The communication elements (vehicles) constitute most of the ways we uniquely communicate: our vocabulary, our communication habits, our experiences, our unique physical traits, and the library of all our communication tools and components. Each and every selection by the “attendant” represents a decision. There are no mistakes. Even mistakes are decisions.

Finding facts, like identifying deception, is not easy. The attendee will learn to identify a person’s communication patterns and identify changes in those patterns. Changes are significant and telling, requiring us to determine the reason for the change. The reason may be some distraction, a reaction, a sudden errant thought – or it may be deception. No changes in patterns tells us the communicator’s stress level is consistent – also giving us clues to the real meaning of the message. The communication process leaves tracks the trained investigator can use to zero in on what the communication really means. Are they communicating in a stressful way? If so, why? If not, why? What did they not say? Why? Why not? There is much, much to learn in finding out what is really being communicated.

Attendees will learn the importance of contamination, how to structure and ask questions, and how all of that impacts the response. A methodical and clear interpretation of a communication is the only way we can discover the real meaning of that message.

We will further explore deception. People who tell the complete truth are relieved. Truth tellers have less stress than those who don’t. One of the principles attendees will learn is that people don’t tell complete lies – they tell partial truths because that composition helps reduce the stress of telling a complete lie. Thus, there is always a modicum of truth in a lie. Partial-truths leave tracks. Liars hide in partial truths. Truth-tellers want you to know the whole truth. The deceptive don’t. The different approaches again leave tracks.

"Getting the Truth – Unlocking the Secrets of Communication" powerfully promotes better understanding and ethically fact-based decisions. Facts that can only be obtained through properly interpreting and knowing the real message.

Great Review by US Book Review

This is a great review by US Book Review on Getting the Truth:

US Book Review