LISTEN

Listen to the audio recording below.

PRACTICE

Read the following speech exactly as it’s written. Record yourself and listen to your recording. Did you notice how the noise makes your message unclear? This is not the way you should speak!

Umm, “Innovation” is uh, a popular buzzword today. You know, companies claim that their products are, umm, innovative, uh, business leaders say that, you know, the key to success is, uh, innovation, and everyday workers know that innovation could, uh, help them get a promotion. I mean, if innovation is the key, is the key to our, um, success, then we should be, we should be focusing all of our attention on it, right? However, you know, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not, umm, spending much time on our own innovation, are we? Being innovative, um, doesn’t necessarily take a lot of, umm, money. Instead, it takes a, uh, uh, a paradigm shift. In order to, umm, innovate, we need to look at our, umm, life and, umm, daily work tasks and say, this isn’t, uh, working well.

PRACTICE

Read the paragraph and pause when you see brackets [ ]. This indicates where the noise was in the previous reading. A short pause is better than adding noise!

[  ] “Innovation” is [  ] a popular buzzword today. [  ] companies claim that their products are [  ] innovative, [  ] business leaders say that [  ] the key to success is [  ] innovation, and everyday workers know that innovation could [  ] help them get a promotion. [  ] If innovation is the key [  ] to our [  ] success, then we should be [  ] focusing all of our attention on it, right? However, [  ] if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not [  ] spending much time on our own innovation, are we? Being innovative [  ] doesn’t necessarily take a lot of [  ] money. Instead, it takes [  ] a paradigm shift. In order to [  ] innovate, we need to look at our [  ] life and [  ] daily work tasks and say, this isn’t [  ] working well. What can I do to [  ] improve it?

REVIEW

Read the paragraph again without pausing at the brackets, and focus on ONE skill from the Accent Diet. What skill will you review?