Week 3 · Measured Influence · Day 21 of 28 · Sunday · Review · 10 min
Week 3 review: record your best story
Day 21 · Week 3 Review
Tell your best story in Speak, listen back for the speed-up and the slow-down, compare hedges and fillers with last week, and choose one habit for Week 4.
Tell your best story in Speak, 90 seconds, then record it once on your phone. A good story speeds up in the middle and slows down for the ending, so listen back for that. Compare fillers and hedges with last week. Then: which story landed best in real life? Where did listening, rather than talking, change an outcome this week? One habit for Week 4.
Steps
Tell your best story in Speak, then record it once on your phone and listen back.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Record the best story
“The client who came back”, ninety seconds, standing, after two sighs. It speeds up in the middle and slows for the landing without you deciding to.
At home At the kitchen table
The pilot story, ninety seconds in Speak, then once more as a phone recording. The phone recording shows you something Speak cannot: your voice drops for the last sentence. You did not plan it. You keep that take.
In the car In the car
The forklift story, ninety seconds, into the phone in the driveway. On playback it speeds up through the warehouse and slows down for the forklift. Your partner, listening from the passenger seat, laughs at the right place.
Compare fillers and hedges with last week in Me.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Compare the numbers
Week 2: 2 hedges, 2 fillers. Week 3: 1 hedge, 1 filler, and the pace is steady instead of fast. The story structure did what the drills alone could not.
In the office The chart in Me
Three weeks of dots. Hedges: eight, three, one. Fillers: five, three, two. Pace steady for the first time. You screenshot the chart. It is the most convincing thing you have seen about yourself in a while.
At home The one that moved this week
Pace, which had been creeping up as you got comfortable, is back at 150, because a story has a shape and the shape sets the pace. The numbers told you something you had not noticed.
Write your three answers in today’s notes.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Three answers
“Landed best: the client story, at the dinner. Listening changed an outcome: the supplier call, when I mirrored ‘unrealistic’ and he told me the real problem. Habit: two follow-ups before I talk.”
In the office Written at your desk
“Landed best: the pilot story, at drinks, to the new starters. Listening changed an outcome: the one-on-one, when I labelled ‘frustrated’ and she told me about the handover. Habit: label, then wait.”
At home Written on the phone
“Landed best: the forklift, at dinner. Listening changed an outcome: my brother, when I asked two follow-ups instead of giving advice. Habit: two follow-ups before I talk about myself.”
Choose one habit for Week 4.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Choose a habit for Week 4
“Two follow-ups before I talk.” It is the one that made the biggest difference this week, and the one you most often forget.
In the office On the monitor
“Label, then wait.” New sticky note. The old one, “say it, then stop”, comes down, because you stopped after the point four times this week and only noticed afterwards.
At home In the phone notes
“Two follow-ups first.” Pinned. It worked on your brother, which nothing has before, so it is the one for Week 4.
Today’s notes
One line each.
- Which story landed best in real life?
- Where did listening, rather than talking, change an outcome this week?
- One habit for Week 4
Lock it in
Tick what’s true.
I told my best story and listened back.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Recorded the story
Ninety seconds in Speak, then once on the phone, then listened back on the couch. It is the first recording you would be happy for someone else to hear, and you nearly send it to someone, and then you keep it.
In the office Listened back at the desk
The pilot story on the phone. You listen with headphones. The pause before “one day” is there without you putting it there. You play it a second time to check it was not luck.
In the car Listened back in the car
The forklift story through the car speakers. Your partner says “that’s the best you’ve told it.” It is the fourth time this week. The telling is what made it the best.
I compared the numbers.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example Compared the numbers
The hedge count is now one. On Day 1 it was eight. You did not notice the change happening.
In the office Three weeks on the chart
Three dots for hedges, going the right way. You look at the Day 1 dot and remember how sure you were that hedging was not your problem.
At home The number that surprised you
Pace. You thought you had fixed it in Week 1. The chart shows it crept back up in Week 2 and came down again this week with the stories. Something to keep watching.
I chose one habit for Week 4.
Picture it · 3 examples
Example One habit chosen
Two follow-ups first. It goes on the sticky note. “Conclusion first” is now automatic, so it comes down.
At home Label, then wait
One habit for Week 4: label, then wait. It is the one that worked in the one-on-one and the one you forget under pressure. The sticky note goes on the monitor on Sunday night.
In the office Two follow-ups
You chose two follow-ups before you talk about yourself. On Monday morning in the lift you use it on someone you have never spoken to. By the ninth floor you know what she does and she knows nothing about you, and she says “nice to meet you” like she means it.