Everything at work is shaped by the quality of conversations.
How can we develop quality conversations at work?
Everything is influenced by the quality of conversation at work. So, how do we develop quality conversations? It starts with understanding how we talk—our talk forms our preferred speech patterns, which are often habitual and unconscious. Empowerment and growth happen when we move our understanding of how we talk from unconscious to conscious. The SoundWave assessment tool can help us understand how we talk and unlock the nine Voices within us to develop quality conversations.
Which Voice resonates with you? Is it the voice of inquiry for engagement, probe for insights, or diagnose for solutions? Or is it the Voice of articulate for influence, advise for credibility, and advocate for impact? Or is it the Voice of critique for good judgment, correct for improvement, and challenge for change?
These are the nine Voices. Which Voice resonates with you?
Empowerment and growth happen when we move our understanding of how we talk from unconscious to conscious.
Eddie Eng
Do you know HOW you talk?
As a consultant, facilitator and coach, my work pretty much revolves around conversations. However, I was surprised one day when someone asked me, “Calvin, how do you talk?”
I said, “Actually, I don’t know. This is just how I talk.”
So, this quest to find out how I talk led me to discover new research and a new diagnostic tool called SoundWave. SoundWave reveals that everyone has nine voices that form their speech patterns, but like many people, I only use four to five Voices actively, and the other four to five are relatively passive. This opened up my mind to the possibility of reactivating my passive Voices so that I could have more effective conversations. It was like me discovering that I've got a larder full of spices, sauces and herbs, and I didn’t have to just rely on soy sauce, pepper and tomato ketchup.
And now I use my repertoire of nine Voices to create more tasteful conversations, depending on the need for that conversation. Supposing it's a conversation that was more to do with, you know, something that was comfortable with kaya and eggs. Then I would use my Asking Voices, and one of my suggest voices called "Articulate" to deepen my understanding of the other person's opinions, perspectives and concerns. However, if the conversation required a spicier outcome, then I would activate my passive Tell Voices, complimenting it with my often used Asking and Suggesting Voices to get a more effective outcome.
What about you? How do you talk? And how does that impact your conversations?
It was like me discovering that I've got a larder full of spices, sauces and herbs, and I didn’t have to just rely on soy sauce, pepper and tomato ketchup. And now I use my repertoire of nine Voices to create more tasteful conversations, depending on the need for that conversation.
Calvin Yeo
