Arrow Ridge Publishing


                                                 Communication Excellence
                                          Change Your Words, Change Your World
                                 is a program of Verbal Fitness for Personal and Professional Success
                       and is a summary of the Philosophy, Principles, and Strategies shared in
                Dr. Brian Polansky's award-winning seminars.  Below is the book's Introduction.

                                                    INTRODUCTION

“Hello, I’m a doctor and I’m here to help you!”

      Those are always my first words when I present my program of Communication Excellence  seminars. My seminars have been attended by tens of thousands of folks just like you, people who want to enhance their ability to say just the right thing at the right time. I find most everyone is interested in learning how to effectively use their words to encourage cooperation from others.

      Much of my adult life has been spent studying and teaching the topic of effective human interaction. I completed a Ph.D. program in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas , taught as a professor in the Speech Communication Department of an Arkansas university, and today, travel extensively presenting seminars to a wide range of professionals. My seminars are the synthesis of a three-decade effort to identify the philosophies, principles, and strategies of effective human interaction. 

      I am flattered the seminars receive the highest evaluations possible and proud that participants report the lessons have helped them to say the right words at the right time and avoid saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

      Today, the majority of my work is with law enforcement professionals. I teach in a number of police recruit academies and serve as adjunct faculty to several leadership institutes and schools of law enforcement supervision.

      I also work directly with a number of federal and state agencies providing professional development training to police officers. I am especially proud of the feedback I receive from uniformed professionals who report they are finding it much easier to say just the right words in some of the most difficult circumstances.

      Last month, I received a note of appreciation  from a police detective in La Marque, Texas.  He wrote to tell me that a strategy I taught him, in a long ago seminar, was successfully used to recently secure a confession to a local capital murder from a previously uncooperative suspect. Dozens of police agencies have significantly reduced the number of citizen complaints against their officers after their department completed the training. Officers cite case after case where they recently resolved a confrontation with just the right words—confrontations that in the past seemed to require a physical solution.

      Law enforcement audiences also report both professional and significant personal benefits from attending my seminars. I often hear, “Man, I could have used this stuff two marriages ago!”

 We All Police Behavior

I have found that all of us “police” other people’s behavior. All of us have roles that require us to verbally encourage cooperation and compliance. My roles of professor and parent have required me to police the behavior of my students and daughters. Management and supervision are “police” roles, as are coach, teacher, and administrator. Unlike the uniformed police officer, most of us have only our words to encourage cooperation and compliance. But like the uniformed officer, the better you can use your words, the easier your job will be, and the more success you will enjoy.

      My message of Communication Excellence  is universal: Improve your words, and improve your world.  I have presented to a wide range of students and professionals. Audiences have included police chiefs, teachers, judges, accountants, investigators, engineers, medical professionals, government administrators, and business and sales professionals. All have benefited from taking a hard look at how they are using their words to encourage or hinder their personal and professional success. Over the years, I have seen familiar faces return to my seminars and report that they continue to find value in revisiting the principles of Communication Excellence time and time again.

      For a number of years, participants asked if I had written a book they could use as a handy reference or to share my message. Until now, the answer had always been, unfortunately, no. 

This Book is My Life’s Work

 I have spent the last three decades observing human interaction, sifting through thousands of years of systematic academic literature, experimenting with strategies, reading textbooks and journals, testing hypotheses, and teaching courses focused on how we can better use our words to ensure our personal and professional success.

      If you had done what I have done over the past decades, you would discover there are some universal truths about human interaction. There are some lessons about effective communication that were true thousands of years ago, that are still true today, and will still be true a thousand years from today. Think of this book as a collection of universal truths about human interaction.

      Although I teach a number of different seminars with different objectives to a wide variety of audiences, I keep coming back to the same lessons, principles, and universal truths about effective human interaction. The principles you will learn in this book are the same principles I teach in my two-day schools: Persuasive Skills & Professional Success , and Leadership & Communication Excellence . These are the principles I teach in my professional development seminars with diverse titles, audiences, and objectives:

Communicating with Difficult People ,
Team Leadership & Coaching ,
Conflict Management & Negotiation ,
Communication Excellence  for Medical Professionals ,
Enhancing Client Communication for
    Certified Public Accountants , and
Verbal Fitness for Patrol Officers .

       The principles are the same because the principles are universal truths. My seminars and these chapters operate on this assumption: If you do what successful people do, you will be successful!

I Want to be Successful with This Book

If you were to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Kansas  in the Department of Communication Studies, you would learn some things about ancient Roman oratory and Greek rhetoricians . You would learn there are some things that were true thousands of years ago about public speaking  that are still true today. The first lesson is if you are going to be a successful orator, your success is dependent upon your audience’s reaction. Successful orators centuries ago, just as successful speakers today, would get one of three types of reactions from their audiences. 

Three Types of Reactions

The first type of reaction was that the audience was particularly impressed with the message and content presented by the orator. The orator’s words had such a powerful impact on the audience that they would listen not only with their ears but also with their eyes and their hearts. The message related so directly to their lives that the audience would reach for a recording instrument to create a permanent record of the powerful message and content.

      Although I am flattered when I occasionally see participants in my seminars frantically scribbling down notes as I lecture, I never specifically strive for this type of audience reaction.

      The second type of reaction successful orators elicited from their audiences was a standing ovation. At the conclusion of these presentations, the audience members didn’t exit holding a thick stack of notes recording the message. Instead, the audience was much more impressed with the orator’s delivery of the message and how the content was expertly presented. At the conclusion, the audience was compelled to rise to their feet and vigorously applaud the orator because they were so impressed with the speaker and his delivery of the message.

      That is nice when it happens, but it is so rare, with my audiences, that I only cautiously hope for that type of success.  Rather, I always actively seek the third type of audience reaction whenever I present my message. 

      The third reaction was one in which the participants were neither eager to record the message nor to stand and cheer the speaker. Instead, at the conclusion, the audience would be compelled to rise to their feet in unison and STAND AND MARCH! Each participant would eagerly march through the door and do exactly what the speaker hoped they would do as a result of his words.

      That is the kind of success I hope for with this book. My success is never measured in the hours I present a seminar but rather in the days and weeks after I have spoken. My success with these chapters will, again, only be measured in how much more successful you become at saying just the right words to change your world. I wish us the best of luck!

      You will find, within these pages, principles that have helped successful people find the right words to say at the right time. By applying these principles of Communication Excellence,  you will have greater success with your words because…after all,

I’m a doctor and I’m here to help you!

Copyright © 2005 Arrow Ridge Publishing. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 26, 2007