Spindrift December 19, 2019
"Willful ignorance" has come to mean any situation in which people intentionally turn their attention away from an ethical problem...
- Wikipedia
President Ken DuFour called the meeting to order and Bill Bechtel led us in saluting the greatest flag in the world!
Buddy Ryan introduced his son Joe Ryan, the only male of Buddy’s 5 children. Joe works at an Artificial Intelligence startup that uses linguistics to help ensure that outgoing corporate communications comply with corporate policy. He’s logged 25 years in the field of technology. The photographer apologizes for not getting his photo. Please visit again soon Joe!
SANTA CLAUS is coming to town - Bill Bechtel has a full slate of assistants who signed up to help Santa in the schools. He asks that you please be sure to show up if you’ve signed up and welcomes anyone else who wants to help out. Please contact him for details.
MAIN PROGRAM Steve Kosch, Media Training Network, has done work for us on our videos. He’s a former weathercaster who worked in the Los Angeles market and nationally with The Weather Channel. He got started by volunteering to help in the newsroom on the weather. One night, the regular weathercaster didn’t show up on time. Steve was given the opportunity to take the stage and he never looked back! Steve was just 15 at the time.
Steve is all about communications and he gave us lively demonstrations of how we communicate differently both verbally and nonverbally, noting the differences between men and women’s style as well as the use of malapropism (misuse of a word in an amusing way). Communication can be verbal, written, visual and non-verbal; only 5-10% of words convey information. 65% of interpersonal communication is non-verbal.
The game of telephone was used to demonstrate how difficult purely verbal communication is. The game is simply retelling what one was told to another. In our case, Mr. Kosch whispered to Mitchell who whispered to Pool, Pool to Major, Major to Bechtel, and Bechtel announced what he heard.
Steve Kosch started it with a tongue twister that involved two toads that ate four flies. Mitch hilariously added in an old phrase about what one could do with one’s self and horse that one rode in on. Interestingly, the phrase Mitch added in made it through intact but the tongue twister was completely mangled!
As the picture shows, Mr. Kosch was not all that impressed by our childish shenanigans.
Steve moved on and got some more volunteers for another demonstration. Norm Von Herzen, Roy Shlemon, and Garry TeWinkle helped out with showing how they communicate nonverbally.
Take a close look, the lawyer of the bunch uses a scowl to convey every emotion! Nicely done Garry!
Many leaders don’t currently view internal communication issues as a threat yet. The different communication styles between generations is a critical threat that will significantly impact businesses from the inside. Steve also poignantly points out that politicians don’t communicate well with one another because they view one another as enemies rather than friends.
Steve’s big hairy audacious goal is, over the next five years, to have taught 100,000 students! Thank you, Steve Kosch, for the interesting and interactive talk!
RAFFLE
Raffle - Roy Shlemon ($10) and Jeff Yergain ($20). !
Greeter Jan 9 - Norm Von Herzen recently joined a short 58 years ago in 1961. To celebrate, $2 will get a smile from this retired Orthodontist.!
Steve Pool - Editor