Training on effective communication for speakers of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine

We received a request from the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine to conduct a training on public speaking and crisis communication basics for their spokespeople. 

We started with a questionnaire to find out what kind of public communication knowledge was most relevant to the participants. The answers gave us the opportunity to prepare as efficiently as possible and provide the audience with the information and practical skills that the speakers lacked.

The training lasted 5 hours and was about public speaking and crisis communications. The trainers were Uliana Kolodii, the agency's founder, and Yulia Begletsova, communications director.

The lecturers told the participants about the basics of preparing for public speaking: why it is important to find information about the venue, organizers, and other participants (if any) in advance, what details of appearance should be paid attention to, why you should not do physical activity the day before, etc. We also focused on the content of speeches, for example, that before each speech, you need to update relevant information and numbers, and that you should use clear comparisons and examples in your comments to the media.

Especially for this training, we analyzed the image of famous people in Ukraine and abroad. Together with the participants, we reviewed examples, analyzing the dress code, postures and gestures of these people.

Special attention was paid to the basics of ethical communication — we reminded the participants of the main points and told them the secrets of proper communication with the media. After all, these aspects are important in order to convey one's opinion to the audience in a clear and understandable way. They also taught the basics of anti-crisis communications: how to respond to provocative questions without attracting even more attention and additional questions, and how to respond in an informative and safe manner.

An important part of the training was the practice - we filmed interviews and addresses on camera with the participants. We also used a teleprompter (a special screen that displays text) during the task, so that the speakers could confidently and skillfully use it during their work. Then, relying on the basis we had developed in the previous sections, we analyzed the recorded video.