Smart people are using twitter?

Sigh. Last time I looked to see what all the fuss was about I was entranced by TwitterVision in a kind of an overtired/ADD/look at that puzzling trainwreck kind of a way, but that was about it. Now this blogger comes along and claims good uses by smart people for this thing. Hmpf.

Now if I could offer some kind of promotion to whomever Twitted that they were working on their presentation, that I might pay for...

Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule

Pretty darn good rule, as rules go. (Hint: I am not a fan of rules, except that knowing them allows you to break them productively...)

Why We Hate "Book Reports"

Presenters, PLEASE remember, you're not in 4th grade anymore, trying to use your book report to prove to the teacher that you read the entire book (you know you didn't) by including every possible fact.

In every presentation, even project and performance reviews or status checks, you need to work to accomplish a well-defined business objective.

(HINT: Not "tell them every piece of data possible about the project")

All joking aside, even when the presentation/objective requires significant detail, deliver it in comprehensible ways. Handouts, supporting documents, heck even white papers = good, presentation visual aids = bad, fillibuster-style speaking = bad. Your presentation guides the audience through the material, as opposed to shoveling it onto their heads until they're smothered.

Two-Way Communication

While some accomplished speakers find it sexy to dis Toastmasters, I am finding more and more to love about the group and its doctrines, even when they rub me the wrong way. I think some of the core rules and values are almost beautiful in their mercy and kindness towards the frightened speaking learner/learning speaker. But I digress.

Toastmasters doesn't just teach speaking. They teach listening too. This is crucial. Give me the most talented speaker in the world, if they cannot listen to my information about who they'll be addressing they'll almost surely crash. You just can't speak well if you refuse to listen well.

Marketing communications, I have always taught, is as much about taking in information as it is putting information out there. In any medium. To be a good speaker, come to understand what the audience will respond to by asking questions and listening for the answers.

This is very active listening, not just taking in what you happen to hear, but making a point of seeking out answers, absorbing them, and taking them seriously enough to be able to speak with impact.

3Vs Disease

3 Vs Disease, or, poor ol' Albert Mehrabian

Anyone ever try to tell you what you actually say only supplies 7% of your credibility? Please tell me somewhere inside your skull someone jumped up and yelled "bullsh*t" when you heard that.

Mehrabian broke communications down into what we popularly call "3 Vs": Verbal, Vocal & Visual. His research assigned 7% importance to the verbal (what you say), 38% to the Vocal (tone, or how you say it) and 55% to the Visual (facial expression, body language).

The research pertains ONLY to communication of emotions (feelings and attitudes) and situations where you are projecting "mixed messages" (face of misery, words of glee). In his words:

Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.

I still talk about the 3Vs, explained properly, for two reasons:

• It's valuable to break communication into the Verbal, Vocal & Visual to show why communication breaks down when limited to just two (telephone) or less (email) of these 3 contributing factors. Even if the recipient won't know it, you can use the missing one/s to help a little. Try standing up and smiling on your next important call to see what I mean.
  
• You often need to use emotional credibility for certain aspects of your presentation to work. If you are blase about the project and you shouldn't be, you have a problem.
  

The Presentation is NOT The Meeting

How many meetings consist mostly of lengthy (or if you're really unlucky, multiple lengthy) presentations that end with mere summary points and the great relief of the audience, who then dashes for the door?

For gods' sakes, why? Your presentation is a LEAD-IN to an effective meeting. End by jump-starting one.

The more important the meeting, the shorter your presentation should probably be. Tell them what they want and need to know up front, and then stimulate the discussion (and steer its trajectory) that needs to follow it in order to accomplish your business objectives.

When the presenter asks "how much time do I have?" and proceeds to construct a PowerPoint to fill every last minute allotted, (and probably a few more) everyone's time is wasted. It is pretty thoroughly proven that people do not absorb new ideas just by listening or watching. To internalize ideas, they must get involved, ask questions, articulate them to others, debate them.

Remember:

• Define what you need the audience to DO, and then get them started doing it.
• Figure out what you need the audience to understand, retain and repeat from your presentation.
  

Communications, Defined

Over steaks in Philly years ago, Frank Maguire gave me this three-part definition of "communication". I invoke it in nearly every engagement:

Communication = message sent, message received, message acted upon

We're all geniuses at "message sent" -- advertising, brochures, endless talking -- it's all literally a "broadcast" model of communications. Erect the tower, transmit the signal and send send send. And at the same time, if a tree falls in the woods, and nobody hears it...

You're confidently hitting "message received" most of the time? Good for you, you're measuring, paying attention, ensuring that the message reaches its destination. While you speak you also should absorb whether you are getting across. Stop, look, listen, just be sure you create a two-way street with the audience, however subtle or overt.

The true destination, though, is "message acted upon." Speaking and presenting is a results game. WHY are you speaking? WHAT do you need to achieve? Results, objectives, outcomes, goals are all the provenance of audience response. WHO do you need to affect, and most explicitly HOW do you need them to react?


Do you speak well? Good. Are you consistently heard? Better. Do you accomplish your objectives whenever you speak? Hurrah, email me to become a contributor to this blog :-)


If you think "objective" doesn't apply to your presentation, you're wrong. Objectives can be subtle, unexpected and indirect. They can be improvised, ad-hoc and changing on the fly. But ultimately, there's a REASON why you are up there (even if that reason is appease the audience until the main show can begin). You need to always focus on that reason.

But should you really have a blog?

See "Do you need a blog?" for Part I

Part II: Can you make enough time not only to write, but to read related blogs and to search the web for fresh content relative to your subject area? Is this a fad or will you stick with your blog and give it some of your best thinking and writing? In short, can you commit to consistent, quality communication of your ideas?

If you're really not sure, try blogging offline for a while, in a word document, spreadsheet or even on your blogging software (but save as DRAFT)...

Do You Need a Blog?

• Do you want people to know that you are smart and write well?
• Do you want them to know you have an eye on industry news and work hard to keep abreast of it?
• Do you want them to know you can see the significance of ideas, synthesize them with existing knowledge in your sector and apply them to making business more effective?
• Do you want more publicity and viral marketing of your ideas and products?

No?

Okay then, no blog for you


Update: April 12, 2007 WSJ Article about another good reason to blog: getting a job.

Letters I've Written, Never Meaning to Send

Pretty easy back when that song was released, but what about now? Raise your hands if you've ever accidentally or hastily sent an email you never should have sent. Some ways to avoid this:

1. address the body: go ahead and hit reply or address the email, but then before you write a word, cut and paste the recipient address/es into the body of the email. this saves you from accidentally hitting "send" on a half-baked missive.
   
2. serve it cold: emails written in the heat of any emotion -- anger, enthusiasm, etc. may not be written well at all. if you were emotional in the writing, you need to take a step back (even if it is a trip to the coffee machine and back and then a re-read) before you send it.
• don't serve anger-ever: angry emails are never going to serve you well. even in the most outrageous and aggregious circumstance, you can probably accomplish a lot more using humor or other more positive tactics to respond to something that justifably made you angry.
3. take it outside: if it's particularly explosive and really needs a lot of time in drafting, recondsidering, etc. don't even write it in your email software, just open wordpad and spew away. the ideas are captured, and it's just seconds to cut and paste it into your browser if you really need to.
   
4. the circular file: sometimes you just need to write it and NOT send it. period.