Who Should Be Your Best Friend

As a speaker, professional or not, there is one person that you want to make you best friend at any event you speak at. The tech people. Now, some of the audio and video technicians don't like the term "tech people/person/etc." Please know that I mean no disrespect in using this term. There are just so many titles that can be applies to this group of people: engineers, managers, specialists, support staff, etc. I use the term "tech" with all respect. 

This group of people can be your lifesaver in your next presentations. Durning my years in the theatre I know that the technical positions and duties can be the most difficult, frustrating, and very often overlooked. Trust me speakers, they hold much power in their hands. You want to be sure to get them on your good side, because if you treat them with respect, are friendly, and acknowledge the hard work and long hours they have put into creating a successful event, then they will bend over backwards to give you their absolute best and help you in any way they can if anything goes wrong. And trust me, something almost always goes wrong. 

Without them, the audience can't hear you. Without them, the audience can't see you. The technicians are the eyes and ears of the events. They know the in's and out's of the location, the event planners, and probably many of the speakers. Make them your best friend at any event. They can easily give you tips on "dead" areas of the stage (areas that make it difficult for the audience to hear you or see you). They can give you a heads up on if any of the other presenters tend to go over their time so you can make some last minute edits. They can give you added support that the event planner may not be able to. Your tech people can make your life much easier at your next event. Make them your best friend.

Educating the Jury

One of the most difficult challenges that a trial lawyer faces is having to educate the jury on a complicated issue without talking down to them. Trial lawyers know that the average education level of a jury is about high school. So if there are some complicated forensic issues or legal technicalities that pertinent to winning in the courtroom, you need to find a way to explain the issues and educate the jury with out talking down to them and insulting them. Because once they are insulted and don't like you, they share that opinion of the client and it's harder to get the verdict you're looking for. So how can you overcome this challenge? You need to be able to develop their CASE.

In your opening and closing statements (and you can even weave this into your cross examinations), you need to have at least one of these four elements: Comparison, Analogy, Story, and/or Example.

1.) See if you can compare the scenario to something similar. That way instead of thinking that the information is too complicated they'll have an easy comparison to which to reference.

2) An analogy will help when you don't have anything similar to use for the comparison. You may have to think a bit outside the box for this one, but an effective analogy can do wonders. Take the elements of you difficult subject (the source) and apply them to a to elements of a, seemingly, unrelated subject (the target). The relation between the source and target will stay in the jury's minds clearly and they won't be confused. When developing your analogy, be sure that you pick a target that have a sufficient amount of similarities and that the target is something fairly well known and understood.

3) A story can take you a long way. Please feel free to read the numerous blog entries on this site and articles I've written on effective storytelling at PresentingMatters.com. The techniques and skills can easily be applied in the courtroom.

4) Examples can be a mixture of comparisons and analogies. The term "for example" makes people pay attention. You can even pull different examples to make your point as well as find examples to use to show the contrast between your side and the opposition.

Developing a CASE is so often overlooked in the courtroom. Trial attorneys are inclined to simply pass on the facts, but the facts aren't good enough. If a subject is complicated and confusing to a jury, they need something to anchor it to so they can understand. When trial attorneys become effective communicators, then they are more likely to win over the jury and win their case (small pun intended).

Take a Note from the BIG Companies

We all know that stories are a crucial part to a successful speech or presentation. But have you ever thought about how stories could build morale, a sense of team, and camaraderie within your organization? 

Take a note from some big companies and see what their doing. One of my favorite companies is Dove. They, in the last year or so, have started the Campaign for Real Beauty (http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com). It is a wonderful program that helps promote good self-esteem in young women. In this campaign they ask women around the world for stories about women who helped them and were good role models. Insurance companies do this all the time in their commercials. They'll share a story about how they helped a person or family in a tough situation. Drug stores are now jumping on the bandwagon. Their commercials are filled with stories about how their employees go the extra mile to help their customers.

Each of these examples are about companies taking stories from their customers and using them to draw in new customers. What if you used a similar technique for your organization internally?

Ask for stories from your employees! They can be sent anonymously or not. But the possibilities and potential could be endless. 

• To promote good customer service, ask for stories on the topic and share successful customer service examples in meetings or in newsletters and memos. 
  
• For just a good laugh, ask for funny stories (company related or not) that could be put in the newsletter. What a great way to send the message that is a fun place to work.
• If you are trying to reach certain goals, ask for stories about accomplishing goals that you could use in your staff meetings.
• And you could even ask about general stories of success about the company that you could use for employee recruitment!

Use you imagination. These stories will make your employees feel like a part of a team. It doesn't matter is their the person on the front lines or the executive in the corner office, everyone could share stories. People could learn about each other, learn about the company, and learn about the standards you expect them to meet.  What a wonderful way to build morale and teamwork within your organization!

Opening Remarks: "Thank you." "No, thank you"

I've run into this twice within one week. That's enough for me to know that it's a bigger problem than I thought. 

When giving a speech or presentation there a few formalities that generally have to be covered. In every meeting or conference someone needs to be thanked. Whether it's the person or company that provided the space, the presenters, the coordinator, or the people that provided the food, someone needs to be thanked. So whose job is it to thank all those people? Ideally the Master of Ceremonies (MC). In any meeting or conference there, hopefully, is one person who is directing the flow of the day. This person (again, hopefully) is introducing the speakers. And it is also this person who, during their opening and closing remarks, thanks all the people who made the meeting possible.

But here is what usually happens. The MC gives the opening remarks and thanks everybody. The first speaker gets up and thanks everybody. The coordinator gets up and thanks everybody. The next speaker get up and thanks everybody. The third speaker gets up and thanks everybody. Beginning to notice a trend? If it's boring for you to read it, imagine how boring it is for the audience to listen to it.

So as a speaker what should be your role in thanking everyone? If you are there to give a presentation to educate or entertain, it is not your job to thank the people who brought the food. You are there for a very specific reason: to give a message. And to give that message effectively, you have spent time on preparing, structuring, and practicing you speech. If you break the timing and flow of your presentation with formalities that have nothing to to with your message, then you are diminishing the effectiveness of the presentation. 

Think about it. When you are introduced, you come up to the podium and start off with formalities by thanking people, your audience starts to tune you out. They've tuned you out before you even got started! Who knows when in your presentation they'll tune back in! Your opening in one of the most crucial parts of your speech. Start with a bang! And don't break the flow of your closing by thanking everyone under the sun either. For you to leave them with a WOW feeling, you've got to give them a WOW moment. Giving formalities isn't going to cut it.

Now, some of you may be thinking, "I'll feel rude not to thank the people." Two thoughts: 1) wouldn't it be rude not to give your audience your very best 2) If you feel absolutely compelled to thank people be sure you work it in your speech and preparation and be sure that you are thanking someone specific for a specific reason. There's nothing worse than babbling through the thanks.

One way to get around thanking people in your speech is to have the thanks in your written prepared introduction. Just keep in mind that it is the MC's job to thank the people who coordinated the event and your job to deliver a great presentation with a powerful message.

Quick Thought

To have an effective delivery, you must know your presentation through and through.

From Technical to Wonderful

Yesterday I attended a very interesting meeting. It was a monthly luncheon held for entrepreneurial businesses that focus on technological advancements. The audience was full of fellow entrepreneurs and potential investors. I attended because one of my clients was a presenter.

This first speaker talked about a new medical technology being developed to detect a certain type of cancer. I was always an "A" student in all of my science classes in school, but this stuff just went right over my head. The presenter, who had a Ph.d. in engineering, talked about.... it was so technical I couldn't even try to describe the technology to you. And what a shame that is. 

Here is this brilliant man who is working diligently on developing a technology that can detect cancer easier and faster, but no one understood what he was talking about. He is in front of a room full of investors and isn't able to get his message across effectively. I thought it was a missed opportunity.

How could this man have made this terribly technical information more understandable so that he could take advantage of the opportunity to get funding? He need to develop his CASE.  A CASE is very important for any presentation, but it is critical when giving a presentation about a technical issue.

Every presentation needs some part of a CASE: Comparison, Analogy, Story and/or Example. When discussing any technical information, you need to have one of these 4 elements. For us to be able to process the technical information we need to be able to compare it to something we already do understand. For example, if we're talking about light waves and how a certain type of focused light will detect cancer better, then we might want to compare the process to knives. A sharp knife will cut faster, smother, and more accurately than a dull knife, which is similar to how light waves work in detecting cancer. With a more focused (or sharp) light we are able to hone in on the cancer more effectively; in a sense, we're cutting away the bad from the good with out new "sharp knife".

There might be better analogies, but the point is that you no longer have to go into any great depth about the exact process and science behind the project. We are now able to easily understand the basic fundamentals of the process because we can compare it to something. 

In the future, see how you might be able to develop your CASE for your presentations.

Promotion to Manager? What You May Not Know

It's a common problem. You've been working for a company for years. You started at the bottom and have earned your way up.  You've been doing so well that you finally get a managerial position. Congratulations! Now what?

Companies often make the mistake of promoting their top employees to managerial positions without giving them managerial training. One of the biggest complaints is about managerial communications. A new manager, in general, hasn't had the chance to develop the skill of communicating effectively to their team.

Recently I heard about a problem at a hotel near where I live. The assistant manager, recently promoted, was called in by the manager.  She had been working at the hotel for years, and the manager had only been there for a few months. He brought her in and gave her a pretty harsh critique on her communication skills with the other employees. He said that it is an area she will have to improve on if she wants to stay in that position. 

She walked away upset, but acknowledged that her manager was right. She didn't know how to delegate, advise, or critique her team in a clear effective way that wouldn't upset anyone. Then she realized that she had no training in that area. She got promoted to her position for doing a great job. But no one taught her the necessary skill set for being a manager.

80% of problems at work are related to a breakdown in communication. Is your company providing the tools necessary to avoid those problems? 

What They Need vs. What They Want

It's something all presenters need to figure out: what is it the audience needs to hear, and what is it they want to hear?

Most presenters miss the mark when they decide to focus on what the audience needs to hear. This is not the most effective way to make your presentation memorable and successful. Now, of course business presentations have to contain information that the "big boss" thinks the team needs to know. There's no getting around that. However, having the right ratio of "need" information versus "want" information is crucial. Always have a high ratio of "want" information.

To Joke, or Not to Joke....

It's an easy trap to fall into. We try so hard as presenters to be pleasing to the audience. So we throw in a few jokes here and there, just to keep the mood light. But then, something happens. They laugh....and we like it!

So the next time we run a meeting or give a presentation, we try to fit in a few more jokes. And, oh my gosh, they laugh again! It's like a sweet nectar, an energy races through our body, and we get jazzed! So the next presentation we think, "Where can a fit in a joke here? Where can this cute story I just heard fit in? Oh, they'll think this is funny. I'll get a few laughs from that." And next thing you know, your 20 minute meeting is pushing 50 minutes. And your audience is tired of the jokes.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke. Of course it can be useful to tell a story here and there that gets a few chuckles and smiles, but it is your job as the presenter and the person running the meeting to always ask yourself, "Does this serve the point of the meeting?" When you are giving a presentation, everything you say should support the theme of your presentation.

It can become a hard battle to fight. Get a few laughs here and there feels great! But thinking in a business perspective, will the few laughs produce the results you're wanting from your team, your employees, your audience?

There's nothing wrong with a little interaction

In many businesses there are many meetings. And in these many meetings, there are many people have attended these meetings many times. Since these many people have attended these many meetings many times, they begin to lose their attention span. They've seen it all before. They know the format, they know the rhetoric, they know they're just waiting for their next cup of coffee.

A presentation is pointless if it doesn't grab the attention of its audience. Effective presentations have become a time management issue in businesses. They want the most effective outcome in the shortest amount of time, which is not an unreasonable request. But if the meetings are being rushed through the assembly line with no thought put into it, then the audience (your employees) will just sit back and wait for the end and continue with their day.

One good way to break the mold of boring, ineffective presentations is to add a little bit of interaction. Think of spots in your presentation when you can call on a few people to the front to help demonstrate your topic. Or, an activity that I love, is get a Nerf ball and when you're looking for ideas, feedback, or questions, you throw the ball around the room and anyone who catches it has to respond. There are many areas in which a little bit of interaction will catch the attention of the listeners and set the tone for something new and interesting.

Campfire Stories for Your Business

One of my favorite books is The Bard by Morgan Llywelyn. It is a historical fiction book that is about the life of a Bard in ancient Ireland. Long ago this book opened my eyes to the power of storytelling. Bards, in many cultures, played an important role in preserving the history of a culture. These individuals practiced their craft of storytelling. They told the tales of their heroes, their victories, their rulers, and their people.

These Bards and other storytellers were the only resource for learning about a people's history. So many stories were not put to paper for centuries and these people had the honorable role to remembering, preserving, and sharing these stories. If it weren't for powerful storytelling, many myths and historical occurrences would have been lost to time.

Imagine if your company had its own bard and powerful stories that are shared throughout the company, influencing the culture. So often companies struggle because they forget where they began, they forget their history, and therefore forget their vision. Stories can be used to ensure that the employees and executives don't get lost.

Wal-Mart has a culture of storytellers. Many times they share the stories of Sam Walton, his vision, his struggle, his success. His stories have influenced that culture to become one of the most successful businesses.

So who could be a bard in your company? You. In your next presentation, see if there is a story about the company that you can share. Every company has its heroes, struggles, and victories. It would be shame if those were lost.