This is NOT the Day

Background to this speech -

The year is 2001, and the world was just hit with the news headlines “Enron Corporation, American’s energy giant sued for Accounting fraud. Top Accounting Firm Arthur Andersen implicated.” We all know this bit of the history and also know the outcome, so I will be using the company names as it is in my speech. This is a hypothetical scenario based on historical facts. The scene is an emergency communication session arranged at the Arthur Andersen office in Singapore, located somewhere in Shenton Way. The person addressing the employees is the CEO of the company.

_____________________________________________

Good morning. Thank you for attending our communication session today at such short notice. I believe by now you have read the newspaper this morning and especially on the headline article that we, Arthur Andersen has been implicated by our largest client, Enron Corporation in US due to accounting fraud. I am sure this comes as a shock to many of us. We certainly did not see it coming.

The purpose of this communication session is to help clarify the situation and most importantly, alleviate any concerns you may have. First, allow me to state the facts and as professionals, I will not mince my words. I will table the facts in front of you, and you judge for yourself what the situation is really like.

Yes, it is true that our largest client, Enron Corporation has been sued by the US Government on the grounds of falsifying their accounts. They have found many of Enron's recorded assets and profits to be inflated or even wholly fraudulent and nonexistent.  They claimed that Enron has put their debts and losses into entities formed "offshore" that were not included in the company's financial statement, and they used other sophisticated financial transactions to eliminate unprofitable entities from the company's books. And yes, it is true that as the company’s appointed auditor, our accounting performance and standards also came under intense scrutiny. We are being suspected of helping Enron perform unethical accounting practices.  I understand the shock many of you had when you saw the article this morning. I know you cannot believe what you read, and I fully felt as hurt and as wronged as each and every one of you.  So please allow me to assure you, to my best knowledge as the head of the management of our Singapore office, we are simply assisting in the investigation of Enron, but, we are not sued in any way.

My management team knew about this newspaper release just yesterday, and we have had numerous calls with our US headquarters to seek clarification on the situation. I am pleased to inform you, as of now, our US headquarters is confident that this is a misled investigation, so we would like to assure you – if we are ever called a fraud, it won’t be today. This is not the day for Arthur Andersen to have his reputation tarnished, for 2 very simple reasons.

No 1. Enron Corporation Enron Corporation is an American energy, commodities, and Services Company based in Houston, Texas.  Enron currently employed approximately 20,000 staff and is one of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion last year. Fortune magazine named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years since 1996. It is on the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list last year as well. The whole world knows that Enron is hailed by many, including labor and the workforce, as an overall great company, praised for its large long-term pensions, benefits for its workers and extremely effective management. How could such a well-established, award-winning, high profit generating company be found to be a fraud overnight? Trust me, such things only happens in movies, not in the real world.

No 2. We, Arthur Andersen, have always been known to be the market leader in stringent, superior, successful accounting practice. Remember our Founder, Arthur Andersen himself?  When he was alive, he was a zealous supporter of high standards in the accounting industry. A stickler for honesty, he argued that accountants' responsibility was to investors, not their clients' management. He cannot be bought. Remember his reputation in the 1920s, Andersen was approached by an executive from a Chicago rail utility to sign off on accounts containing flawed accounting, or else face the loss of a major client. What did Andersen do? He refused in no uncertain terms, replying that there was "not enough money in the city of Chicago" to make him do it. That’s how honest he was. And that’s how honest we remain! Remember our company’s motto? "Think straight, talk straight." Such an ethical company, should we, can we, will we ever be called a fraud? Or even accused of supporting fraudulent practices? Never!

My fellow colleagues, I cannot say enough how much I understand the worries you have. Will Arthur Andersen have to give up our practicing license as auditor and never be allowed to practice again? Will all our clients run away by such damaging rumours? And most importantly, will we lose our job? I have to admit this is certainly a great blow to us, but we are Arthur Andersen, we do not fall that easily! So chin up everyone and brace the storm. Today is not the day for us to go down in history. Today is not the day for our clients to lose faith in us. Today is certainly not the day we abandon our employees. We remain committed to our shareholders, our clients and most importantly our employees.

We urge you to bear with us. We can ride this storm so long as we have your support. So who is with us?

Thank you, TMD.

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This is an advanced project in the Speech by Management manual - Delivery Bad News. It was very difficult to develop a speech with the right content of "bad news" and yet make it inspiring. The inspiration of this speech comes from the movie Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn calls his army to fight the hopeless war against the enemy at the Black Gate:

“Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!” JRR Tolkien

Of course, this speech is nowhere near the splendor of the original speech by Aragorn, neither can it be compared to the emotional uplift that it created.

This is fictitious event; there was no such emergency communication done and none of any part of this speech was ever lifted from any known person. I would, on hind side, loved that such a communication session was indeed conducted. It may have changed the course of life for many then employees of Arthur Andersen, mine included.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - The Ghost of Christmas Present

Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits
 
Awaking in the middle of a snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One.
 
[Cheerily]- He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to him through Jacob Marley's intervention.
 
Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the Bell struck One, [Dong] and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling.
 
[Trembling]-Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came.
 
 All this time, he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be.
 
At last, he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine.[Surprised].
 
This idea taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door.[shuffle feet front]
 
The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock[gesture], a strange voice called him by his name, “Ebenezer Scrooge… come.” and bade him enter. He obeyed.
 
[Surprised] It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there.
 
[Quicken, one breath] Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
 
[Cheery] In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see:, who bore a glowing torch[gesture] and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.
 
[louder] "Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in, and know me better, man."
 
Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this Spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them.
 
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the Spirit. "Look upon me."
 
Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, baring its huge breast.
 
"You have never seen the like of me before!" exclaimed the Spirit.
 
[Softer, submissive] "Never," Scrooge made answer to it.
 
The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.
 
"Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it."
 
"Touch my robe."
 
Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.
 
[Quicken] The room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night all vanished instantly, and [normal speed] they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, where the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain.
 
Scrooge and the ghost went on, invisible, and the ghost led him straight to Scrooge's clerk's; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch.
 
Then up rose Mrs Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes. And then, two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in.
 
[cheery]"What has ever got your precious father then?" said Mrs Cratchit. "And your brother, Tiny Tim; And Martha warn't as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour."
 
"Here's Martha, mother," said a girl, appearing as she spoke.
 
"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!" said Mrs Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, taking off her shawl and bonnet.
 
In came Bob, the father and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. [Darken] Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame.
 
"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs Cratchit.
 
"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. [Gradual to tremble] Somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."
 
Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.
 
His active little crutch was heard upon the floor and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire.
 
At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause [air sucked in], as Mrs Cratchit, looking slowly [slow] all along the carving-knife, [quicken]prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth[surprised], one murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife[metal], and feebly cried Hurrah![feeble]
 
Then Bob proposed: [loud&joyous]
"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us."
 
Which all the family echoed.
 
[feeble]"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
 
[Quietly] He sat very close to his father's side upon his little stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him.
 
[eagerly]"Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before,"tell me if Tiny Tim will live."
 
"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."
 
[shocked, sad]"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit. Say he will be spared."
 
"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. [Sarcastically] What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
 
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
 
"Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child."
 
Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on hearing his own name.
 
[heartily]"Mr Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!"
 
[angrily]"The Founder of the Feast indeed!" cried Mrs Cratchit, reddening. "I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it. On this Christmas Day, I will not drink to the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr Scrooge. You know he is, Robert. Nobody knows it better than you do."
 
[mildly]"My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "the children. Christmas Day."
 
"I'll drink his health for your sake and the Day's," said Mrs Cratchit, "not for his. Long life to him. A merry Christmas and a happy new year!
 
The children drank the toast after her. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes.
 
After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of the thought of Scrooge.
 
All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-bye [quieten] they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed.
 
[Speaking] There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty. But, [happily] they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's torch at parting,[softer, quieter] Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until [pause] the[pause] last[hold].

Advanced Project - Read out Loud. My annotation for a dramatization of a section of the story. Delivered at a Christmas Party for the toastmasters club. Editing to 12 -15 mins was a challenge due to the length of the story. Complete dramatization took 13 mins 50 sec, well within time. 

Was it supposed to be dramatized? Or should it be plain reading? Not sure.  Comment by evaluator - unclear pronunciation. Sigh, got to work on this...

 

White-Canvas Day

"This is a communication session in a corporate setting. The company is a software development company with about 20 staff. It is a new company but is already famous for its creative solutions in the software applications.  The person speaking (me) is the CEO of the company and these are the employees."

A very good evening to all of you. Thank you for attending our quarterly employee communication session, and tonight, I am afraid I bring with me some discouraging news. Our company's productivity has been on a steady decline since the start of this quarter and by the time the books closed for this quarter, we are at an all-time low. I have called for an emergency meeting with the heads of department, and we discussed, debated and developed certain measures that need to be set in place to stop this, and turn the situation around.

There are many factors that cause the drop in productivity, but today we would like to tackle just one very important aspect, that is the loss of concentration. We all know that as software developers we need the "flow"... The flow of thoughts when our creative juice runs... We commonly call these moments “in the zone". For all of us to be effective creative productive workers, we need to enter this state of flow for several hours during which time, our productivity will skyrocket and we come up with the most creative codes that produce the award winning software that our company is well known for.  As such we spared no effort in minimizing noise disturbance around here, and have tried to provide the calm, quiet, conducive environment for our software developers to get into the zone to produce good quality work.

However, in the last few months our department heads have observed frequent disruption of work among us, and we believe that these disruptions have substantially contributed to the poor and sometime illogical programming that causes a lot of rework, retesting and reconstruction of the whole software. This delayed our production schedule and caused our company valuable time and resources. Thus we need to stop such disruption of work at all costs! In order to stop these disruptions we need to know the source of it, and I believe we do. Emails, ladies and gentlemen, emails! They are the culprit!

How many times you have to stop in the middle of a sentence when the "you have mail" notification pops up from our email? How many times you tell yourself “I can quickly reply this email and then get back to my programming", only to realize that you have already spent 3 hours on it before you get back to your flow of programming? Guilty? Guilty? Even I, guilty as charged. Yes I am not spared of this email victimization, and I submit to you I know your pain!

I would like to announce, with effect from today, the company is going to propose a “white-canvas” day once a week. This is a day where our IT department has been instructed to shut down our email system. Only the mail system will be shut down for a day, and everything else you need for your work, such as programming software and applications will be up and running as usual. This is the day where we can tore ourselves away from the enchanting “reply” button and start doing some really value-added work. This is the day where we all can feel free to indulge in our creative zone without the disruption of the annoying emails.

Scary? Can’t believe anyone of us can survive without email for a day? Allow me to assure you, yes you can! White-Canvas Day can work and will work better for all of us! Think of all the benefits of not being compelled to check emails? It is like a chain in your mind that suddenly gets unlocked and slipped off to the floor. We are now free to stay in our creative zone without being disrupted. We are now free to schedule face to face meetings to brainstorm and bounce off ideas from one another. We are now free to fill up the white space in our mind with brilliant, ingenious ideas and finally be able to give it rainbow colors to help boost our creativity.

White-Canvas Day will not only remove the unnecessary email disruption, it will also allow us to increase our productivity by having to work on only one task at a time. Contrary to what we all believe, multi-tasking is not the way to greater productivity. Studies have shown that – our brains can’t do even 2 independent things that require conscious thought, especially if those two things involve different goals. When you multitask, your mind move sequentially from one thought to another thought, and it takes time for our brain to do the switching.  Therefore, let’s use our brains the way they are meant to be, one task at a time. Give it 100% and do it well.

Now, I understand that some of you may still be doubtful. And so did I, when the department heads proposed White-Canvas Day to me. The immediate thought that came to my mind was - “how unproductive! Now I have to go talk to someone instead of sending him an email.” I am sure the same thought crossed your mind too! But think of it this way, emails has since eons ago replaced our face time with our colleagues, and reduced our precious human touch to mere words on the computer screen. It is now time to get up, go to someone and say “hey, let’s discuss.” And trust me, you might actually find it refreshing to discover the joy of human interaction.

My fellow colleagues, I hope tonight I have presented to you a compelling business case for change that stirred your hearts to embrace our proposed White-Canvas Day where emails are banned for the benefit of all of us – better concentration, 100% devotion to one task and increased interpersonal face time. I know it could be a huge step for all of us to take, but I am willing to take this step. Who will join me?

Thank you, TMD.

This is an Advanced Project from the Speech by Management Manual - Communicating Change. This is a hypothetical situation with a realistic setting. The hardest part of the speech was to coin an appropriate name for this 'day', and it was changed from white-space to white-canvas at the last minute. Evaluation - the whole scope of the change was not communicated clearly. Was it once a week and was it to last one whole day?

 

Friendship Table Topics

The famous American professional boxer, Muhammad Ali, once said "friendship is not something you can learn in school, but if you have not learn the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learnt anything." Anyone can make a guess, who is Muhammad Ali's best Friend? It was Joe Frazier, a fellow boxer during his time.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, we have come to tonight’s table topics’ segment. I am your table topics master for tonight, and in line with tonight's theme of "friends", we are going explore friendship and especially our very own best friend in our lives. The table topics segment is open to members and especially guests for a chance of impromptu speech. This helps us to listen, analysis and think on our feet. Good training in a fun way.

Each speaker will be given a topic to speak for 2 mins. At the end of 1 min there will be the green card, 1.5 min the orange card and after 2 min the red card. At 2:30 mins there will be a bell to tell you the time is up.

I have here with me 10 special quotations about friendship tied to the ends of a friendship band. So, when you come up here, you will first share with us who your best friend is. Then you will pick one of these quotation and your topic would be "Sarah and I are best friends because ....". The time will start when you are ready to speak. So, who shall go first? Don't worry, I guarantee that none of the quotes are more than 10 words long. 

This is a table topics segment following the theme of "Friendship" for a toastmaster club's meeting. The outcome - not enough time to do even 4, and I was graded downwards for 'wasting' time on the introduction?!

Be A Star!

How many of us this morning, can honestly say that they have never told a lie?

I am glad that I see no hands raised. This shows that while we could be a liar at some point in time in our lives, we are absolutely honest at the moment.

My fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen, from young we have been told not to lie because lying is bad. But our sinful nature unfortunately, prefers to lie, so that we can get away with things easily. As we grow older, our conscious and moral values tell us that we really should try to avoid telling lies, and so we did. I am sure we did, to a greater or lesser extent. However, does this then cause us to tell more truth? Nope, unfortunately, we still avoid telling the truth, for fear of constraints, confrontations and consequences.

This is especially so in a situation where we need to provide feedback to the people around us. We just find it hard to be honest in providing feedback, especially if it is negative. However, we need to understand that the spirit of providing feedback is not about pointing out the flaws. Yes, in the course of our feedback on someone or something, we may have to touch on things that could otherwise be done better, because we need to be honest and stating the facts. Instead of using feedback to criticize, we could turn it around to motivate that someone to improve instead.

So how can we effectively provide feedback that does not condemn but construct? By simply being a STAR J Use to STAR approach to help us – S/T stands for Situation or Task, A – Action and R – results. Essentially, this approach helps us to focus on the key points so that our feedback is effectively delivered. It also ensures that the background or context is explained clearly, states only the facts and demonstrated the impact or results, which set the stage for the action plans which both of you can proceed to jointly develop. This is what we called a specific and complete feedback.

In addition to being complete, our feedback should also be balanced…. With praises. We need to give credit where it is due and by accentuating the positive, we increase confidence and trust, and demonstrate our support & encouragement for better results.

Allow me to demonstrate these principles of giving feedback. My good friend Carolyn here has kindly agreed to help me with this role play. Carolyn is tasked with the project of our special Christmas event, a table topics workshop.We are now in the Exco meeting talking about the progress of this event.

Me: Carolyn, for our December Christmas Table Topics Workshop, we have 5 mini presentations that needed good speakers to deliver them. I see that you have taken the effort to contact various speakers for these presentations, and you have successfully secured them on that date. Well done, we have now successfully finalized the program. I am totally impressed with you speed and efficiency.

Carolyn: Thank You. I am happy we finalized the program as well.

Me: On the other aspect of the events, such as the venue, the food and the equipment that we need for this workshop, you have yet to secure them. As such, we are unable to start our publicity for this event because we have not finalized the venue. Carolyn, this is part of your responsibility as well. Could you share the challenges you faced and suggest some solution to this problem?

Carolyn: My apologies, I do not have enough time to look into these aspects yet, and it would be good if I can get someone to help me.

Me: No apologies needed Carolyn, we all know you have put in a lot of hours into this event already, and it is understandable that there would be things that are still not done and you needed help. Let’s list down some action plans with appropriate deadline in order to complete this task.. And why don’t we ask another Exco member to help you with this as well? Do you think it would work?

Carolyn: Thank you for being so understanding. We can certainly set out the action plans and with additional help, I am sure I can complete them in no time.

Me: That’s great! Let’s get on with it then

(Thank you Carolyn, for the role play)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have demonstrated 2 scenarios of providing feedback using the STAR approach by explaining the situation/task, action and results. In addition, in the first scenario, it is a positive feedback coupled with praises and appropriate recognition. This builds trust and motivation… prepping the scene for the second, not so positive feedback. The key to the second scenario is to put the issue in a most positive and least threatening way, yet not losing any facts. On top of that, I also demonstrated understanding towards Carolyn’s difficulties and encouraged her to provide solutions, thus creating a win win situation for both of us.

So let’s all be a STAR today, and make someone a STAR by providing positive and motivating feedback. So the next time, we can all safely declare that we will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God!

Thank you, TME.

This is an advanced project - Appraise with Praise, that was delivered to a panel of evaluators at an advanced projects meeting. The main comment from 3 evaluators - the role play is too simplistic. It could have been made more realistic by having heated arguments. 

My own take on this - role play's too hard and time consuming to prepare as part of a speech, better to leave it in training workshops instead.