JD Schramm, Stanford Graduate School of Management has a reassuring message for anyone ? and that includes just about everyone, really -- who frets over the prospect of public speaking. "The beautiful thing about communication is that it is part art and part science," he told a recent gathering at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. While some people are naturally gifted storytellers, "there are strategies that each of us can employ to work for us."
Schramm, a lecturer in organizational behavior who also directs the business school's Mastery in Communication Initiative, gave advice to a dozen of the school's alumni in advance of an Oct. 20 celebration of the school's commitment to developing leaders who can address the social and environmental issues of their times. For the occasion, the school's Center for Social Innovation and its 40-year-old Public Management Program have asked alumni social innovators to participate in "Class Notes Live" sessions. The participants in Schramm's workshop are among a larger group who will tell, in just four minutes each, their personal stories of impact. Schramm's job was to get them ready.
His first piece of advice:
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