Workshop Rhetoric: Knowing how words work

In the rhetoric workshop, the participants learned how to appear more confident in a wide variety of discussion situations and how to convey their messages and intentions more effectively.

The course with Daniela Strolz-Holzer began as one would hardly expect: with a hare hunt. The game put the Alumni Club members' coordination skills to the test. It showed them that even the simple change between two hand gestures, when it has to be done quickly, is a great challenge.

The first item on the workshop agenda revealed what this relaxation exercise was intended to achieve: Effective rhetoric requires not only a chosen approach to words, but also a good body awareness. This is necessary to improve body language, which in turn helps to give verbal messages the desired emphasis.

A recommendation which the trainer explicitly made in this context was also the last variable of the success formula ALF. The "F" stands for the principle of always feeling your own feet. Our alumni were confronted with the fact that the unconscious movements we make when we speak with our feet have an effect on our appearance and our perception of others. In the course of an introduction round, the individual movements of each participant were observed and interpreted by the rest of the group. This was followed by a concrete suggestion for improvement from the trainer. The exercise was rounded off with the general tip to pay more attention to one's own body language in the future and to try to stand more securely and to control movements of one's own legs and feet better and use them in a more targeted way.

After the break, attention was focused on the ALF variables "A" and "L", which affect the upper half of the body: Our alumni got the general tip to exhale ("A") before speaking, as this makes us seem more relaxed. Even a big smile ("L"), when used in telephone conversations, can lead to a more positive perception by the respective conversation partner. In principle, it also helps to put oneself in a better mood before picking up the phone - or in the course of preparing for another conversation situation. For this purpose, the participants were recommended to find a motivating motto which they should first speak out loud (in an individual office) or in their thoughts (in an open-plan office).

The feedback round revealed that in future the participants would like to stick to the memorable success formula ALF ("exhale", "smile", "feel feet") in order to improve their rhetorical effect. A first progress in terms of body language could already be seen at the end of the workshop, where - as at the beginning - a hare hunt was organized: This time the change of gestures was already more fluent.