Vocal Variety in Project Turns

Talk requires taking turns. This is so in projects and anywhere else that “talk” means conversation in real time. 

Most of us have been talking in turns since we were one, so it seems about as natural as breathing.  It seems natural in projects too.  In life, in love, and in projects, if you are good at taking turns in talk, people are more likely to want to talk with you again. 

However,  these days, it is probably not a bad idea to elevate our attention to turn taking in projects. Why? Two reasons. First, because talk in turns has always been much of what drives a project forward – short turns of explanation and coaching, long turns of presentation and walkthrough, turns for everything from “small talk” to  negotiation. Second, because these days, we are talking in turns with counterparts that are not human. Moreover, we are trying to teach these non-human counterparts their responsibilities, their roles, and their rules for good turn-taking.   

In projects, a turn may share information or not, build relationships with counterparts or not, and help achieve project goals or not. It may be that, ideally, every turn of talk in a project does all three - shares information, builds relationships, and helps achieve project goals. 

 To help take turns that are more ideal – in this “elevated” sense – here is a nice video. It explains how to better engage your counterparts by attention to sentence stress, volume level, and pausing in your conversational turn. It also offers a nice, reflective practice for enhancing these dimensions of turn-taking, namely the “Speaking Journal”. 

This video is for human beings, perhaps mainly for non-native speakers. It is also a couple of years old now. However,  in the very near future, it  may assist builders of AI chatbots and AI agents, specifically, by informing the voice variety of these non-human counterparts.