June 25, 2009 at 10:34 am · Filed under Auto Responders
Just came back from the Halifax Chapter Meeting of the Canadian Association for Professional Speakers (CAPS). Our guest speaker was Jeff Tobe talking about “Coloring Outside the Lines.”
Jeff used an autoresponder (when you have trained the audience to respond with a specific answer) beautifully and absolutely worth mentioning:
First, he asked for permission. He asked the audience to respond with an energetic “ABSOLUTELY” whenever they were in agreement to a question he asked.
Second, he modeled the behavior by asking, “Can you do that?” while leaning forward with the expectation that the audience would respond with the correct answer.
Then, he reinforced the behavior. When he got a strong response, he acknowledged it. When it was rather wimpy (which it usually is the first or second time until the audience “gets it”), he would tease the audience into participating.
It then became “natural” for the audience to listen for and respond to a question with an energetic “Absolutely!”
June 8, 2009 at 11:49 am · Filed under Ask Questions, Opening Activities
Do us all a favor….start with something snappy rather than saying “hello” and expecting the audience to chime in with a hearty “hello” back to you. Start off with an observation, a poignant question, a quotation, a startling statistic, an anecdote, a piece of humor….
Anything BUT “Hello” (pause….waiting for a thunderous response, only to be disappointed with the audience). ”I can’t hear you” or “You can do better than that!”. Not only are you telling the audience they don’t measure up to your expectations from the get-go, but you are asking for feedback because YOU need their energy! This whole intro is about YOU….and for a presentation to be engaging, your speech has got to be about THEM.
May 21, 2009 at 11:20 am · Filed under Set The Tone
I pitied the keynote speaker at an awards banquet last night. Not only was he competing with the American Idol final results show, but he was put in a dreadful situation from the get-go:
1) As he started his speech, the salad was being served. How rude! This is just bad timing on the meeting planner’s part. There is no reason why the spinach salad could not have been pre-set on the table for the hungry diners to eat something to absorb the alcohol from the open bar. Or have him speak after dinner! To insult to injury, after he finished his speech (and dinner, complete with dessert had been served during his entire speech), they took a 20 minute break to mingle. This schedule made no sense to me and I was severely disappointed as I came to hear the speaker. (No, I didn’t get an award, either!).
2) Oh, and we couldn’t hear the speaker. He had a laveliere clipped on to his shirt - not the optimal solution, especially since he likes to walk around alot. To keep this from happening, I use a Samson SE50 omnidirectional headset that has four interchangeable connections that match just about any belt pack. But that wasn’t the biggest issue…the room was actually two separate rooms with the dividing wall removed. The acoustics were terrible. Even the sound guy wasn’t able to mix it so that we could hear what he was saying at the back of the room.
The end result? He had to work much harder to engage the audience. Sitting in the back, I missed about 25% of his speech. I’m sure it was good. I just felt sorry for him.
May 18, 2009 at 8:40 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I just posted my quarterly newsletter, The Extraordinary Team online. It’s full of stories, tips and techniques to improve the way your teams work.
Download it now here.
In this issue, you’ll find:
- The Dwight Schrute Effect
- Go Ahead and Smile
- Punch It Up!
- Quote of the Quarter
- What’s New with Kristin & Joseph
- Practical Team Activities: You Are Superb!
- From the Bookshelf: Thank God It’s Monday
- Millennials and the RoCs.
May 12, 2009 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Use Inviting Gestures/Movement
Last week, I was facilitating an important corporate meeting where the Senior VP kicked off the event. An eloquent speaker, he started strong and ten minutes later, he was standing behind a chair. Perhaps he needed to lean against something or maybe he missed having a lecturn to speak from, I don’t know. What it felt like (at least to me) is that he was creating a barrier between him and the audience. I don’t think that was his intention, either, but maybe his subconscious was saying something else?
April 22, 2009 at 10:38 am · Filed under Use Inviting Gestures/Movement, Use Visuals
Check out the remote on Ian's belt
Just back from the International Federation for Professional Speakers‘ Global Speakers Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. Hosted by the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa, the Summit was a smashing success with over 150 professional speakers from around the world coming together to share ideas.
One of the best ideas I saw was from Ian Thomas, a game ranger in Africa who speaks on The Power of the Pride” - a teamwork analogy.
Ian describes the characteristics of a lion in fascinating detail - with PowerPoint slides as well as physical movement. So what do you do with the remote “clicker” when you want to use your hands?
Ian put the remote on his belt, much like we put a cellphone in a belt holster! What a brilliant idea! When you want to advance a slide, you just reach down to your belt, and hit the button.
Being a consummate professional, Ian has his holster custom-made for his specific remote, but I am sure you can take this idea and adapt it to your own remote - thereby freeing up your hands to gesture wildly!
April 6, 2009 at 7:20 pm · Filed under Set The Tone, Use Visuals
An “anchor” is a theme, concept or principle that remains long after your presentation is over. It can be one word, a phrase or a statement that captures the essence of your speech and reinforces your call to action. It might be an acronym or acrostic that is easily remembered with each letter representing a key idea within your presentation. It could also be a symbol or gesture that recurs during your presentation.
Here are some examples:
Slogan: Mark Sharenbroich says “Hey, Nice Bike” (you have to hear the speech to understand the depth of this anchor!)
Acronym - which is a word formed from the first letter or syllables of the words: TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More. (Be careful of this…I was in Malaysia and the speaker constructed an Acronym on Leadership & Management. That’s twenty talking points! I started looking at my watch after the third point….)
Acrostic (often confused with an Acronym) - which is an arrangement of words in which the first, last, or other particular letters in in each line, taken in order, spell a word or phase. The most famous acrostic is HOMES – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Since I specialize in teamwork, if I did use an acronym, I could use TEAM – Talent, Energy, Achievement, Momentum,
Gestures: Steve Rizzo does a little dance when he does something “just for me” that makes him happy - and he talks about “becoming a humor being”! I just laugh when I see him dance, and I have caught myself doing a “happy dance” upon occasion.
Slogan & Gestures: Tim Gard combines a phrase and a gesture (“Bummer” and hand to forehead) that are the cornerstone of his speech.
How do you come up with an engaging “anchor”
1. Think about your message and brainstorm creative ways to anchor the concept. Don’t worry about how silly it may sound, just get all your ideas out. It’s okay to brainstorm with others! Then, let your ideas simmer for a while….
2. Pick through the pile and see if there are a few that grab your interest. Or maybe even a combination of ideas will work….or maybe not….
3. Try out your “anchor” during random conversations at work, home and social events. You’ll get a sense about what resonates and “sticks” with people.
4. During your speech, say or demonstrate your anchor phrase at least six times.
5. Reinforce your anchor phrase by asking the audience to finish the phrase with you – or- ask the audience to do something physically while repeating the phrase.
Anchors aweigh, my friends!
March 24, 2009 at 2:02 am · Filed under Revisit/Review, Tell Stories
I am at the Annual Business Retreat for the Association of Learning Providers (ISA) in my new hometown of Scottsdale, AZ. Today, within two hours, I heard two different speakers share the same concept two different ways:
First Speaker, Andy Stefanovich of Play (Richmond, VA), danced around the room emphasizing the need to “bake it in” - with the “it” being the 3-4 strategies that align with the organization’s passion. I just love the simplicity of the metaphor to “bake it in.” I get it; it is memorable and it encapsulates Andy’s message. It is one of his calls to action.
The Second Speaker talked to us about “branding”. At one point in her presentation, she proudly displayed a PowerPoint slide with “a word I invented”: “Inculturating.” She then had to explain what it meant…which was essentially the same thing as “bake it in.”
I think I like the simple turn of the phrase vs. an invented word - it’s just easier to get your arms around. Simply put, I can remember “bake it in” better than I can remember “inculturating”.
Furthermore, Speaker B lost an opportunity to “call back” Andy’s phrase. If she had been in the previous session, she could have bonded with the audience in a subtle way of letting us know, “I am one of you…I listened to the same speakers as you…I care about what you are learning here today.” Instead, she parachuted in, gave her speech and promptly left the building. Too bad she missed a subtle way of engaging the audience.
March 19, 2009 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Asign Activities, Case In Point-Video, Set The Tone
As one who flies the friendly skies about once a week, I was amused to find this flight attendant take a rather boring onboard flight briefing and make it into an interactive rap song. Check it out here!
Who says you can’t make a one-way presentation interesting and interactive? :-)
March 17, 2009 at 9:32 am · Filed under Tell Stories
Was talking with Pat Minicucci, Senior VP for International Banking at Scotiabank yesterday. Of course, the topic of conversation centered around these interesting economic times. (BTW, who isn’t talking about the economy these days?). Pat shared a compelling analogy that resonates with his bank managers in the Caribbean. You see, the Caribbean has a fair amount of experience with hurricanes - so Pat suggests that this turbulent economy is like a hurricane. We’ve been through plenty of hurricanes, and we’ll get through this one too! And the people who survive the best and are able to be up and running the fastest are those who planned for just this kind of weather - to batten down the hatches, store water, etc. Good news is that the Canadian-based Scotiabank is in pretty good shape (unlike our US banks….which I won’t name here!)
It’s an analogy that his people can relate to…and gives them hope.
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