Gill
McEwen holds two high-profile training positions in Australia: Senior
Education Advisor at Australia’s leading mining professional body and
Director of Education Strategy for Australia’s leading healthcare
company. Despite years of experience, thanks to Catherine Mattiske’s Unlock Inner Genius book and e-suite, Gill has lately been constructing her presentations — and her communication — in a brand new way.“
When
I was first introduced to ‘Inner Genius’ and the ‘Genius Quotient
(GQ),’ I said to myself, ‘I know that. I’ve been exposed to that. I’ve
trained on that,’” says Gill. “But what Catherine has done is taken a
lot of different models and pulled them all together, which makes a lot
of sense.” “I’m
now thinking a bit more clearly about who my audience is and which
words are going to resonate with that audience. Before Inner Genius, I
had never thought about which words might resonate with this group
versus that group.”
Catherine
Mattiske is a globally recognized training expert and the founder of
TPC — The Performance Company. Long ago, Catherine fell in love with how
people learn and sought to create a system by which presenters could
unlock their audience’s attention.
Today, Catherine’s “Unlock Inner
Genius” book and e-suite culminate 30 years of training experience. She
created the Genius Quotient or GQ. GQ exists as a powerful tool for
trainers, presenters, coaches, and team leaders to tap into their
audience’s learning preferences. In
“Unlock Inner Genius,” Catherine introduces the Genius Quotient: 12
Archetypes that neatly map out 12 types of learning preferences.
Catherine then provides tips on identifying and tapping into each
Archetype to maximize that person’s learning.
For example, “The
Narrator” Archetype prefers to learn by listening and talking and seeks
to connect to the big picture to process and synthesize information.
When working with The Narrator, presenters should engage them with why
they are learning, including the benefits and advantages. Instead of
featuring visual media (flow charts, diagrams, etc.), the presenter
would be better served by discussing the concepts and connecting the
person to the idea. Once they have hooked “The Narrator,” it’s time to
focus on facts, figures, and data. Using this flow is a winner for “The
Narrator,” who might not be particularly interested in the detail
straight-up, but having connected first to the big picture, they’ll be
ready for all of the precision, facts and data.
“I’m
a Mason,” says Gill, talking about her Inner Genius (GQ) Archetype. The
Mason seeks to process information by constructing, building, and
getting their hands dirty in real-world, practical ways. “When I read my
profile, I said, ‘Oh my God, I always tell people you have to construct
something.’“Now,
if I’m creating a PowerPoint presentation, I’m making sure I not only
have all of the language for the Inner Genius Archetypes and their
predicate phrases but the influencing words as well.”
And she doesn’t do it with just PowerPoint Presentations — now, she does it with all of her professional communication. “Now,
if I’m trying to talk to our account managers, I will use the
influencing words around sales communication. With salespeople, if you
don’t reel them into a certain time frame, they will forget about it and
move on. So I began using language like ‘time is running out,’ ‘last
chance to get back to me,’ etc. And I actually found I got responses
almost instantly. Before, I was probably a little too soft in my
communication — I was the one having to go back again and again.” “I
used to think to myself, ‘What do I need to do to get these people to
come on a journey with me and come on it easily?’ And thanks to
Catherine, I’ve found it was through words. I used to think it had to be
a lot of other things, but it’s really just words.”
