Achieve Results - Edition 19

James E. Szalados

Critical Care Medicine, Unity and ViaHealth Systems
Vice President for Medical Affairs, Lakeside Health System
Counselor and Attorney at Law, Rochester, NY

Fast forward eight years and “[Dragon] is now a mainstay of my life,” says Dr. Szalados. He relies so heavily on speech recognition technology that “it’s hard to imagine life without it.” Dr. Szalados uses the technology in his medical, legal, and administrative roles to work smarter, accomplish more, and still find time to relax.

“It’s a productivity tool,” Dr. Szalados summarizes. “The more efficient you are, the more you can get done in a short period of time; in this case it’s definitely about efficiency but it’s also about adding a level of quality to the final product that is a bonus derived from this technology” For Dr. Szalados, Dragon speech recognition has made it possible to enjoy multiple careers simultaneously and also find time to enjoy free time.

Typing versus Speaking

Throughout my academic and professional career I've always considered myself a fairly good typist. I did not feel that my typing skill made a negative impact on my productivity; that was until I was trained on the proper use of speech recognition. Since I have been speaking instead of typing my productivity has more than doubled. I currently type at a rate of 44 words per minute with a 95% accuracy. I speak 129 words per minute with a 98% accuracy. How many words a minute do you Speak?

Comparison:

Typing

Life and work have been hectic and complicated. There’s too much to do and not enough time. We rush from one meeting to another to another. And when we return to the pffice there are five, 10, 15, 20 or more voice mail messages

RESULTS - 44 wpm / 95% accuracy

Speaking

Life and work had become hectic and contemplated. There's too much to do and not enough time. We rush from one room to another to another. And when we return to the office there are 5, 10, 15, 20 or more voicemail messages that need to be returned, and scores of e-mail messages to reply to and we've only been gone for a few hours.

On our desks are piles of papers that we've got to do something with. There are letters to write, proposal to prepare, and to follow up on, and lots of other miscellaneous stuff that's been hanging around for days, weeks, or months.

On the computer monitor we've attached yellow, blue, and green sticky notes as reminders of things to do or people to call

RESULTS - 129 wpm / 98% accuracy

- Kevin

All I Really Need to Know

My speech recognition software has helped me bridge the gap between knowing what to do and doing it. Here's what I've learned:

All I Really Need to Know about Business I Learned ~~in Kindergarten~~ from My Speech Recognition Software

It is necessary to become uncomfortable in order to make significant change…think about what you want to say before you start to speak…sometimes you need to slow down in order to speed up… if it seems too hard, you're probably doing something wrong… speak clearly, you have a better chance of being understood... invest the time and do it right the first time... it's the little things that make the big difference... take the time to reflect on what you actually said... take responsibility and learn from your mistakes…if you're not being understood, try a different approach... if you mumble or slur your words you will not be understood as clearly... keep things simple... be humble... be open-minded... realize you don't know what you don't know... don't try to learn too much too fast …never say never... do it right the first time... trying too hard could lead to misunderstanding... don't continue doing the same thing and expect a different result ... shouting only creates frustration… master the essentials… have realistic expectations... consult the experts, but ultimately only you know what's best for you.ä My very best, Dana