A Synopsis of The Case of the Recovering Boring Speaker Featuring Do You Talk Funny? by David Nihill.
Doris considered herself to be boring, and there wasn’t anyone who would disagree with her. Not anyone who listened to her presentations at the weekly sales meeting that is.
In fact, Doris knew this is what people thought of her because of the 360-degree appraisal she’d received the previous week. The feedback didn’t say outright that she was boring. It was slightly softer, saying: “That she came across quite seriously in her presentations, and that perhaps a lighter approach would help her to be more engaging.” Same difference, Doris thought.
While pondering what to do, as Doris walked home from work, she was listening to the podcast - BIG Questions with Cal Fussman. The guest on the show was the comedian and author David Nihill. He struck her as being a very down to earth guy, and more importantly, he was very funny. He spoke about how he went from being deadly afraid of public speaking to regularly performing stand-up comedy. He was promoting his book Do You Talk Funny? by David Nihill.
While Doris wasn’t convinced that she could go from boring to funny by reading a book, she figured she had nothing to lose, and so on getting home, she ordered a copy.
On its arrival, next morning, the book spoke to Doris. It was exactly what she was looking for: a step-by-step approach with lots of helpful tips and techniques that she could immediately begin to practice and try out.
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The Case of the Recovering Boring Speaker Featuring Do You Talk Funny? by David Nihill, is part of the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series, by Carmel O' Reilly from School of WorkLife.
The Learning Through Reading series is a collection of stories inspired by real life WorkLife struggles and successes, presented as case studies for group discussion. The case and the accompanying recommended book is the required reading for each meeting, and will help to frame the subsequent discussion.
The premise behind the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series is that experiences we have in our WorkLife shape our understanding of the world. Stories help communicate truths about human behaviours and relationships, bringing an opportunity for change and development. Books help anchor WorkLife conversations through characters, plots and settings, enabling a range of issues to be worked through.
My stated mission is to guide learning through reading. I also have a secret mission, which is to draw attention to stories of change and active decision making – people standing up and saying they want to do something different with their WorkLife. I want to highlight stories, books and discussions that focus on in-depth portrayals of subjects inner feelings, thoughts and motivations. While readers will not encounter the exact scenarios they read about, they will be able to use an increasingly finely tuned ability to understand and respond to multiple competing viewpoints.
Carmel O’ Reilly, WorkLife learning practitioner, writer and founder of School of WorkLife. Author of WorkLife Book Club: Volume One: Shoreditch.