Chapter 11. Measure
Existing tools measure prepared speeches. Meetings need measures that capture what the listener actually received — one for each HERON move.
What already exists
Communication scholars have built careful tools, but almost all assume a prepared presentation.
| Tool | What it measures | Use for meetings? |
|---|---|---|
| NCA Competent Speaker Form (Morreale et al.; developed 1990) | Eight competencies — four for preparation, four for delivery — each rated unsatisfactory, satisfactory or excellent | Partly. Topic selection and similar items don't apply to meetings |
| Public Speaking Competence Rubric (Schreiber, Paul & Shibley, 2012) | Eleven competencies, from introduction and organization to vocal expression and persuasion | Partly. Organization, supporting material, language, voice, audience adaptation and persuasion carry over |
| AAC&U Oral Communication VALUE Rubric | Organization, language, delivery, supporting material, central message | The rubric itself says it doesn't readily apply to an oral answer to a single question. Its definition of a central message — the main point or "bottom line" — is still useful |
| PRCA-24 (McCroskey, 1982) | Communication anxiety in four contexts, including meetings; 24 items | Yes. The six meeting items work well before and after practice; subscale scores are less reliable than the total |
| Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) | Anxiety specific to speaking another language; 33 items | Yes, with items adapted from classroom to workplace |
One measure per move
Because effectiveness is the listener's impression (Chapter 1), the best measures ask what the listener received. These are this book's proposals, and the basis of Kairu's HERON Check. C
| Move | Measure | How |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | Time-to-point; count preview; point recall | Seconds until the main point; did you say how many points; can a listener restate it in one sentence? |
| Enter | Entry | In a practice roleplay: did you get in within a few seconds, with an opener? |
| Reason | Reason rate | Share of opinions that come with a "because," a fact or an example |
| Own | Hedge density; hesitation rate | Hedges per sentence; filled pauses per minute; uncertainty stated in one place, not spread across sentences |
| Next | Closing action | Does the turn end with a step, an owner or a request? |
| Pace (support) | Words per minute; pause after point | Can a stranger follow on the first listen? |
Most of these can be measured from a recording and a transcript — by you, a colleague, or software.
Three cautions
- Counting behaviors isn't the same as measuring impressions. Check now and then that your numbers move with a real listener's judgment.
- Zero isn't the goal for hedges. Chapter 6 showed that one honest "I think" is fine. Measure excess, not presence.
- Don't optimize one number. In one study, training that reduced filler words did not raise expert ratings of speaking effectiveness (Chapter 12).
The HERON Check
Kairu's diagnostic applies these measures automatically: you choose one of the moments in Chapter 10, answer a realistic prompt for up to 60 seconds, and get a five-move profile, one focus move, and one of your own sentences rewritten as a Before/After. Your first check is free. Scores will only be shown once they have been validated against trained human raters, listener tests, retest stability, and an audit for fairness across accents — speech recognition is less accurate for some accents, and no score should penalize that.
A simple self-check
Record yourself answering a real question from your work in 60 seconds. Then answer:
- How many seconds until my main point?
- Could a stranger write my point in one sentence?
- Did each opinion have a reason?
- How many hedges did I stack?
- Did I end with a next step?
Do this once a week for a month. The trend will tell you more than any single score.