This is one of the best ways to connect with an audience.
I just attended the Consulting Accountants Round Table put together by Mentor Plus, a company that trains exceptional accountants. I attended a great session from Palm Tree, Inc which was all about Kaizen events and eliminating waste. The instructors did a wonderful job of explaining Lean theory and numerous other manufacturing-related concepts to a room full of accountants.
But, when they shared this video about making toast we all understood in an entirely new way. They made a connection and it stuck.
UPDATE: Even bette,r if said video includes images of you dancing to make your point - as noted in the comments below from author and blogger Amy of AmysMamadrama.com.
Seth Godin changed my presentation style forever. As a nerdy accountant struggling to find my voice, I first stumbled upon his book called Purple Cow. I was hooked.
His e-book Really Bad PowerPoint, saved my first big presentation - although it caused me to lose an entire night's sleep as I re-wrote my presentation the night before I delivered it.
His messages are clear and he does what he talks about.
A few weeks ago, I joined his group,Triiibes, which was formed in anticipation of his next book. There I found a group of fellow devotees including to my surprise, other accountants.
I was timid at first, and inspired to share and post a blog entry later.
One of my entries has found its way into his latest e-book called The Tribes Casebook. It is a compilation of stories contributed by the Tribe. It is amazing what members of this inspired group have contributed.
Thanks Seth, for giving me my two pages of fame!
Is it a new drug? Quarantine of some sort? Special vaccine? Change in diet?
Nope. It's good ole communication. It seems Unicef is training people to take the prevention message out to the local community.
Listen to one trainee. "This training is very important, because I learned a lot on communication approaches that I was not aware of before,” said one of the participants, livestock official Than Naing Soe, adding that he already had technical knowledge about avian influenza but did not have expertise in communications."
Apparently, Than is a former avian influenza nerd who can now go out into the world and make a difference. And that's a bird of an entirely different feather.
Despite what certain artists would have you believe, dogs are not very good poker players.
Picture this. You’re at the poker table. Everyone has made their contribution to the kitty. The dog across the table gets a great hand. Aside from the whole missing opposable thumbs problem, that dog is going to be at a serious disadvantage when it comes to bluffing. His tail is going to tell the whole story. Bad hand, he’s gonna be scared and that tail is going to be tucked under him. Great hand, tail will be wagging 100 miles an hour.
At least my dog would not have a problem keeping a poker face. She’s a Basset Hound and looks sad no matter what. But that tail communicates her every emotion.
But it's that same instant feedback you get from dogs that makes them the ideal audience for a presentation.
Just imagine. You could deliver your message and see what they think while you’re talking. No more waiting for those surveys to come in. And you wouldn't have to answer all of those tough questions. You just look out over that pack of dogs and look for a bunch of wagging tails. If you see them, you will know either a.)food has arrived or b.)you are getting their attention.
Talk about non-verbal communication. Too bad they don’t understand what we’re saying most of the time.
Last week I attended a conference that listed Kathy Ireland as the keynote presenter. Let’s just say I was cynical at best and attended her session with my Twitter finger at the ready. If you follow me on Twitter (evenanerd) you saw my comments as her presentation began. She bounded on stage and began to speak in what can only be described as a stream of words punctuated by an endless stream of exclamation points(and probably more than one per word.) It was the kind of speaking that would be equal to third grade writing where hearts replace the dots over every “i” and there are puffy exclamation points at the end of every sentence. I have no doubt that her notes were peppered with smiley faces she drew herself.
Her presentation was preceded by a video that showed lots of model shots and magazine covers which made you figure we were not going to get a lot of valuable content in this session.
She read from her pages of notes in a stilted and unnatural way with the excess useless energy of a cheerleader who hasn’t a clue that her team is losing.
But that’s when it all began to change.
She started making fun of herself. She talked about her lack of expertise in addressing a crowd such as ours, talked about instead her expertise in holding the right pose. And then she started to show some poses to us. She was letting us in on her joke. She talked about her voice and how difficult it was to get taken seriously. She shared stories of how she had trouble ordering pizza by phone because of her voice (I imagine any pizza eating was immediately followed by purging, but I digress.) She told us how she had to persist for 5 years before her brand and successful business got featured on a TV show. And she talked about her passion for the women she serves as customers. And as her passion grew, she became real. She turned that stereotype on its ear. “Yes I am beautiful, but I have something to say that might help you. And I want to help you succeed like I have. Because it wasn’t easy, even for me.”
She became one of us (a gorgeous, richer version of us) but one of us. She made us yearn to overcome our own weaknesses, to strive for more, to persist in our dreams.
And slowly, before we knew it, we were on her side.
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