The conclusion I have come to is relationships and good old fashioned communication. A board may set the policy and direction to guide and govern a school or any organisation for that matter. However it is the Principal or Chief Executive (in the case of a school they wear both hats) that has to make it work. So therefore the relationship between the CE and the board (particularly the chair) is critical.  If like me you are a new chair or board member – a useful place to start is to focus on creating a strong relationship with the Principal. Their enrolment in your plans and ideas is key!

In deciding how hands on to be with day-to-day operations - discuss this together and work out how best you can support and guide as a board – especially when you have an effective and high performing person in the role of CE/Principal. Check in on a regular basis to ensure the Principal/CE is comfortable that you have the balance right.  Ask the question – “What could we (the board) do more of or less of to help you be effective in your role?” Is a good place to start in ascertaining this.

I would also recommend the value of seeking the input from those who have expertise governing in your industry. My colleague Lee Wilkinson provided a referral for school board governance on her last post.

…but then there is real life.  You may have a very formal speaking role where you have to get the wording exactly right.  In this situation, you will have to read the speech.

So really the advice is: Don’t look like you are reading the speech.

Last week I worked with a client on his introduction of a very important speaker at a very formal occasion. Aside from all the usual preparation elements, these were the three important steps so he would not look like he was reading the speech:

• Look up when you speak, look down to pick up the next sound bite.  This sounds very weird, but works really well.  You are creating a good pause when you look down and effective eye contact when you look up. This is sometimes called: ‘Scoop up then dump’. I don’t like that because it gives the wrong idea about the connection you need when you look up.

• When you are working on the speech, always read it aloud so you can get it close to how you would talk if you were just talking and not reading.  Try to recreate the natural rhythms of your speech.  You will need to use emphasis, stress and pace variation carefully to achieve this.  Read it out to someone who knows you well and get them to help you adjust it into your natural speaking patterns. This is the time to alter any wording that becomes difficult under pressure.

• Work out the meaning of the speech and the audience situation, then use your voice to create that meaning.  My client last week  was using contrasting pairs of ideas, from the very large to the very small. He could create that contrast by using a louder slower voice for the large and a quieter voice for the small. Really you are varying your voice to ‘act out’ the ideas.

Just one more thing: Use a large font for your lectern notes and keep the text to the top half of the page.  On the lectern this will enable you to easily see it without having to bend your head

There are some more tips in CommOn

The challenge is to find a different way of using slides if you are not artistic, zany or blessed with the ability to create pithy messages. Just this week I was working with a very busy client who had to rapidly develop a presentation on a very complex topic, including slides. All he could do was to simplify and thin out his slides.

David Gibson’s Trainer Tips useful fortnightly tips from www.Eureka.com recently provided a simple practical answer to this challenge.  I have reprinted it here:

It’s Official – Bullet Points Hinder Learning

I guess most trainers knew that – but until now it was just an instinctive feeling we had that we couldnt’t actually quantify. Well, Dr Chris Atherton, a cognitive psychologist carried out research using different formats of PowerPoint presentations – bullet points and ’sparse’ slides and found that the sparse slides returned double the recall of bullet points. Why? Because here learners are using 2 pathways in the brain, the auditory part of the brain which also handles the written word and a second part of the brain, the visual cortex which handles pictures. So rather than overloading the auditory cortex while ‘boring’ the visual cortex, you stimulate both. It also means that once the slide has been ‘processed’ by the brain, learners can concentrate on the spoken word.

So this tip builds upon that research and suggests ways to help maximise the recall potential of your learners when you have to use PowerPoint for some of your training.

Bullet Points vs Sparse Slides
Here is an example of a traditional type of slide that uses bullet points and a graph.

Chris’s research would suggest to maximise the learning using PowerPoint for this slide, you should use more slides with a reduced amount of text per slide rather than a single slide showing multiple bullet points. For example you might use several slides of just sparse text , or the same sparse slides including images .

How to maximise the learning when using PowerPoint

• Design your slides without using bullet points.
• Break slides down to a single idea per slide and ideally use about 4 words.
• Use an image only if the image ‘adds’ something to the content. Remove it if it’s there just to make the slide look ‘nice’ as this act as a distraction to your learners.
• Only put key information onto you slides, ie what you want your learners to focus upon.
• Make your learners work eg put a graph onto your slide but omit the axis number and have learners try to ‘guess’ the axis and the numbers, or in our example, we could include the text “Increases retention by up to …” and we could ask learners to have a guess at the number . In other words, remember to involve your learners in the learning.

To view a presentation using this method click here. Note, this is a presentation and I wouldn’t suggest you train using this style.

The actual research was presented at the recent Technical Communication UK Conference in 2009 by Dr Chris Atherton. Click here for further information on Dr Chris Atherton.

Call To Action

Design your slides for maximum retention. Do this by avoiding bullet points and ‘cluttered’ slides. Instead use multiple slides which include around 4-6 words and maybe an image to enhance the content.

Thereare important differences  between ‘influence’ and ‘persuasion’:

Persuasion is a more direct, short-term  activity and requires a larger emotional component.  Influence is more indirect, longer term and depends more on logic.  Persuasion mainly involves one way communication, whereas influence is often multi-directional.

There is an interesting post and discussion on this  at Saying What You Mean, and a thought-provoking acronym from Brian Ahearn that covers both persuasion and influence:  He says that influence is about

P. E.O.P.L.E.:

Powerful

Everyday

Opportunities to

Persuade, that are

Lasting and

Ethical

Many of us put a great deal of time and effort thinking about persuasion and not nearly enough into influence.  If you are not very articulate, you will  probably find it easier to focus on influencing rather than persuasion.  At least it is a more gradual process that you can plan and execute.

So look for those everyday opportunities and use them to build your influence.

How do you usually answer? – ‘Oh, fine thanks’?  This response could waste a good opportunity. With a bit of planning, you could use the question to raise your profile with the questioner, or gain their useful insight into a problem.

Claudyne Wilder’s latest newsletter in Wilder Presentations covers using the elevator speech to handle these situations.

In the low-key New Zealand environment, if the elevator speech seems a bit forced, think about planning a soundbite. The system is similar.

For your important projects, you could adapt Claudyne’s suggestion to:

1. Progress: We have surveyed the range of best software solutions

2. Results: It looks like the most applicable one was developed in South Korea

3. Interesting fact: It costs way less than any of the competing systems and looks really good, but for some reason it hasn’t been taken up in any other New Zealand organisations before.

4. Next step: We’re being careful to check that out further

5. Question for the listener: Have you any past experience of this type of gap in adoption of a good software solution?

I am always surprised how challenging it is to work out an elevator speech.  If you need some help, there is a very practical open thread on developing an elevator speech at: Freelance Folder

In case you’re wondering, the guy in the picture is racing from your brilliant elevator speech to organise you a promotion.

Are you better than the average driver?

… or any other skill?

Answer?  Deliberate practice.

Take driving as an example.  Recent research shows that most drivers believe they are better drivers than the average!  Well of course!  We have so much experience.

Yes.  We do,  but how much driving ‘practice’ do we put in?  If we were going to deliberately practise, we would:

• Raise our  awareness of HOW we are driving – maybe focusing our attention on one particular aspect of the skill until we perfected it, then move on to another.
• We would also really listen to and possibly even act on driving advice!!

Hmm…! How many of us could do that?  I certainly remember putting a stop to my four year old son’s habit of giving  me driving advice from his car seat!

• We would do even better if we sought regular feedback on our driving from a good instructor and then put the advice into action?  Think of the lives that might be saved!

An interesting article in Fortune Magazine shows that across a huge range of fields, the top people are the ones who devote the most time to deliberate practice.  The rule of thumb holds that experts need ten years of very intensive practice to be extremely successful in their chosen field.

On a recent long flight back from the UK to New Zealand, I watched a fascinating series of BBC programmes on child musical prodigies.  The programme speculated on which ones would make it to greatness as adults.  Once you are up there in prodigy- land, the long-run greats are the ones who have maintained intensive practice for at least ten years. Mozart was practising three hours a day by the time he was three years old.  By six, he had clocked up 3,500 hours practice – apparently over three times more than anyone else his age!

I am not sure how they know that, but back to us normal mortals and our presentation skills:  Whilst we may have plenty of presentation ‘experience’, how many of us use deliberate practice?  Do we take the time to reflect on a particularly demanding piece of presenting, seek feedback on our effectiveness and then work on the suggested changes?

So to become a good presenter:

1. Work out what aspect you need to focus on.  Each time you present, concentrate on getting that aspect right.  Keep going until the required behaviour becomes a habit, then get to work on the next bit.
2. Get feedback from a reliable observer and act on the feedback.
3. Watch what other presenters do and see if you can learn from them – good or bad.  But then make sure you practise what you have learnt.
4. International Toastmasters is a great way to get practice and to obtain supportive, constructive feedback.

Now while you are about it, about that right hand turn you just made….!

Once you know your image purpose, you will handle situations more carefully. Do you want people in a meeting to think you listened sincerely?  Do you want them to think you are a fair and focused meeting leader? Whatever the image awareness you decide on, you will behave in a way accords with it.

Earlier this year I was working on presentation skills with a group of scientists. When I asked what they would like an audience to go away thinking about them after their presentation, one woman had an instant answer: ‘Oh, yes.  I want them to think I am 10 years younger than I am!’

I rest my case though.  If she thinks about that goal as she plans and delivers her presentation, it will take years off her age.

For some extra suggestions, here’s  a practical article from the Guardian

There is an art to giving feedback and many innovative organisations are creating a feedback culture to grow and develop their people.
This can be easier said than done.Many of us find giving confident objective developmental feedback difficult. Others comment on personality rather than behaviour “You are so stupid when you …”

Of course receiving feedback can be hard and according to research gen Y’s find any form of ‘criticism’ hard to take(but they don’t mind giving it upwards!). We often deflect the message or attack back and give as much as we can “Yes but I remember when you….!”

It is hard when emotions are in the feedback.

Some tips on feedback:
Do not offer feedback when you feel emotional e.g.angry,frustrated or disappointed.Wait until you can think through the situation and clearly and specifically comment on the behaviour and its effects.
Don’t save up all your ‘negative’ feedback and give it in one go!
Catch people doing something good.
Be specific and objective-its a great way to help people grow.
When receiving poor feedback (in the way it’s delivered) listen and then ask questions to clearly understand what the message is and try not to think they are just in a bad mood.
Don’t give them ‘feedback’ in return.

“He has a right to criticise who has a heart to help” Abraham Lincoln