Do you ever ramble when you speak? Unsure where you’re going to finish a sentence? Concerned that the words you wanted to speak, aren’t the ones coming out of your mouth?

In Module Five of The Art of communicating through video conference the focus is on demonstrating the seemingly too basic, yet powerful, Open-Middle-Close speaking structure and its variations.

The Open-Middle-Close speaking structure will

give you rambling-prevention insurance

– and it is particularly effective for video meetings where being concise and clear in delivering your messages is particularly more important.

Here’s you can watch 2:10 minute CLIP with a description of the Open-Middle-Close structure.

Here again are the four Key messages of the series:

ONE: Make sure you set up the environment for a professional video conference

TWO: Increase the energy certainty in your face, body and voice when you speak

THREE: Use an Open-Middle-Close speaking structure

FOUR: Be assertive in checking if your messages are understood.

Own the Conversation

Here’s a practical way to quickly practice the OMC (Open-Middle-Close) structure.

Within the next seven days:

#1 Look at your phone’s contacts list and choose one person (family member, friend, associate, client et al) and make a calendar time, to do a ‘How’s things’  call with the person. For example, enter ‘Phone x for a ‘How’s things?‘ call.

#2 When the calendar time arrives reflect briefly on using the the Open, Middle, Close structure and what you want to talk about with the person (if they answer their phone).

#3 To plan for when you phone and get a voicemail, intentionally plan to use OMC structure. Here’s an example. Open: hey x, (your name) here… Middle: ‘Just saw you name on my phone and thought I’d call to say how things?”Close: ‘When you get a moment phone or send me a text, bye.’

#4 To plan for when the person answers your call, intentionally plan again with the OMC structure in mind. For example: Open: ‘X (your name) here, is this a bad time to talk?’ (If the person can talk) ‘just saw your name on my phone and thought I call how things were going for you.’ Middle: (have a conversation with the person) Close: ‘ok, let’s talk again soon, bye.’

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p.s. this post – Why every banker comes to revile the word pitch – might interest