Words to create impact
A pioneering measurement system that assesses communication patterns has been developed in a consultancy project between an Oxford linguistics expert and a global strategic communications consultancy.
A leader who fails to land the message risks failing to land the strategy. When the stakes are high, the spoken word can be the difference between success and failure. A leader must use delivery techniques that will enhance their impact and avoid the habits that hamper understanding.
With this in mind, global strategic communications consultancy Kekst CNC approached Dr Matt Hunt Gardner at the University of Oxford to work with them on a pioneering measurement system that assesses communication patterns used by successful business leaders. Oxford University Innovation’s Consulting Services managed the consultancy allowing Dr Gardner to concentrate on the linguistics.
The Kekst CNC Executive Impact Score is a new tool for assessing a person’s speech and comparing it to the most effective business communicators. “Humans are incredibly proficient at recognizing small differences in others’ ways of speaking but are notoriously inaccurate at assessing their own speech,” says Dr Gardner, an internationally recognised specialist in language variation and change in the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics. “The Kekst CNC Executive Impact Score is a powerful tool for self-assessment. It empowers people by providing them a snapshot of their own linguistic tendencies and suggests pathways for improvement.”
The Kekst CNC Executive Impact score was not designed to correct people’s “bad grammar” or regional accents, instead, it focuses on more subtle speech characteristics, like speech rate or the ratio of sharing emotions vs. sharing information, which have been shown to influence understanding. It also uses a rigorous analysis of hundreds of hours of speech data from recognized business leaders communicating across contexts as a basis for comparison.
“There will always be mavericks and innovators when it comes to language,” says Dr Gardner, “and there should be space in the boardroom for diverse voices. That being said, many people still want to know how to emulate their successful peers or the business leaders they look up to.”
From the earliest design stage of this project, Kekst CNC has worked alongside Dr Gardner to co-create this measurement system. Dr Gardner advised on the methodology for collecting, processing, and presenting the data, as well as ensuring the metric is informed by the latest linguistic research and does not rely on outdated linguistic stereotypes.
“This is not about making everyone sound like an old, rich, white guy,” says Dr Gardner. “No matter who you are or where you come from, you can benefit from knowing if you are speaking too quickly or not expressing yourself clearly enough — especially if you need to regularly communicate in tense or critical situations.”
