Matt Eventoff

Portions originally in USA Today

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.” – Dave Barry

We all attend them, participate in them, and to varying degrees, loathe them. The meeting. One study estimates that executives spend close to 1Ž2 of their time, during working hours, in meetings. Numerous studies, with varying results, estimate over 10 million meetings occur – each day.

A decade old University of Arizona/University of Tulsa study found estimates of meeting expenses range from costs of $30 million to over $100 million a year – a decade ago! Meetings can be an organizational “silent killer” as you are literally losing money while ruining morale. If an organization found a project that was continuously losing money, leading nowhere and causing top flight employees to leave, what do you think it might do?

I have worked with countless senior executives whom have meetings scheduled every hour, on the hour. No time to return phone calls. Or use the facilities. Or think. When I ask when the executives actually do the work, the answer is always the same – at night.

If you are in meetings all day, an organization doesn’t just lose productivity, employee satisfaction and a boatload of money. It loses groundbreaking ideas, new concepts and new approaches to handle a dynamic marketplace. In other words, it doesn’t just cost thousands today; it will cost many more thousands tomorrow.

Here are steps you can take today to save a lot of money:

1. Set an Agenda – Not just an agenda stating what is going to be discussed. An agenda should also have a…

2. Clear Call to Action – What is the purpose of the meeting and what should be accomplished? What does success look like? A document? A decision? An agreement? Even if you don’t achieve every objective, have clear objectives laid out, in writing, and discuss where you are with each before the meeting ends.

3. Clear expectations for every employee – Who is responsible for what, both before the meeting begins and when it wraps up? Who is responsible for following up? Articulate this out loud – assumptions are a dangerous game.

4. Pre-meeting homework – I have sat through hundreds of meetings at myriad organizations, and invariably a few people come un-prepared. A defined agenda with clear goals, defined assignments and a clear call to action get people thinking before they enter the room. (Hint – you want this).

5. Hard start and end times – all meetings can get off track – a lack of preparation and clearly defined goals guarantees this will happen, which will lead to…. another meeting.

6. Break the cycle – have two less formal meetings a week, and see what happens. Give defined assignments and give people a bit more time to accomplish them, rather than just scurrying to create a last minute work product in their “free time.”

7. Film a few – sounds tedious, and you certainly don’t want to film every meeting, but if you lead over 25 meetings a year, the one hour investment of watching the tape will show you where meetings go off track, and where you lose time.

8. Communication Practice – If you were paying each employee by the hour, meetings would be a lot more concise. It is critical that every member of your team knows how to a) put together a message and b) deliver that message accurately, concisely and clearly.

Time is a precious commodity, and it is crucial that employees can convey and articulate concepts, arguments and facts succinctly and quickly. Senior executives simply don’t have time for an employee to take twenty minutes to make a point that could be made in two.

There are 3 things every executive, business owner and employee needs to know about any crisis:

Crisis Fact # 1 – They usually don’t occur on a Tuesday afternoon in the summer when things are slow, all key personnel are available, and everyone has free time.

Crisis Fact # 2 – The crisis itself is often not what causes the most harm to an organization or an individual – the response is.

Crisis Fact # 3 – Results usually mirror preparation – a prepared organization suffers less collateral damage for a shorter period of time than an organization that is “learning as we go.”

Part I of this series addressed the first 5 steps to address when developing your organization’s Crisis Response Blueprint.

Here are 10 more things to consider… today:

1) Voice

Who is the voice of the organization? Is there more than one? How many lines of business is the company involved in?

Should it always be the CEO? (Answer – it depends) Who communicates internally? Externally? Who ensures that your business continues to operate even as the crisis develops?

2) Get your lists together

Media contacts? Adversaries? Advocates? Stakeholders? Who, outside of your organization, will speak positively about your organization in crisis? How about negatively? Who are the most crucial regulatory contacts? Trying to put these lists together in the midst of crisis never works.

3) What do you say?

Do you say anything before you know anything? Failing to respond, or saying “No Comment” says a lot more than no comment.

This is where preparedness training, drills and live simulations really help to prepare key executives and spokespersons for the real thing.

What if there are reports of injuries? How are you receiving information? There will be a lot of incoming requests for information – how will you reach out to stakeholders that are not yet beating down the doors?

4) Stop and breathe.

Practice putting yourself in a semi-stressful position through crisis response drills. Warning – this is absolutely not a substitute and not representative of what you will feel like in the middle of a crisis.

What it does do is prepare you to know how to breathe properly to control epinephrine and control your heart rate. I have a number of breathing techniques I favor

5) What does the filtration system look like?

In a crisis, there may be a number of parties who want answers and access public, victims, press, regulators, investors, elected officials – who filters each call and determines who answers; what are the answers for each?

6) Who is monitoring social and web media?

What is the process of answering questions and comments online? What does the strategy look like? Whose responsibility is this?

There are a number of excellent social media crisis communication professionals – having contact with one is never a bad idea.

7) Opposition Research

Every real political campaign not only researches the opponent, the campaign also researches its own candidate to determine what might “pop up” at the most inopportune time.

Do a comprehensive internal “opposition research” report on yourself – what else will come to light in the face of a crisis? What else should be on your radar screen? What are your answers?

The reality is that any negative information that has ever been identified, or may exist, about the organization and key executives is

8) Inside/Outside

Do not forget to communicate internally! This point is important enough to mention twice.

How you handle yourself during a crisis sends a strong message to employees, and a star employee who is a little rattled is a star employee who is looking.

9) Spokesperson

Make sure your spokesperson(s) is trained and media ready – this is one area where on the job training never works! Being a spokesperson in the midst of a crisis is a brutal job to begin with – doing so with no preparation is not only unwise, it is unfair – and will hurt your organization.

10) Pay Attention to Borders

If you are a multi-national or do business abroad, how does a crisis abroad affect your business here? What are your answers? Who is doing the answering?

Recent corruption allegations against major multinationals that occurred thousands of miles from US borders still got a lot of media attention in the US.

“How can I motivate my team when I speak?”

“How can you motivate your team more effectively?”

“How can I be more inspirational when I present?”

I am asked some semblance of these questions on a regular basis.  I see hundreds of motivational speeches every year.  Very few warrant a second look, even fewer a third. I have watched this speech over thirty times in the past week. The first 3:30 of this speech should be a staple in classrooms. 

This is not an orthodox speech.  The delivery would not work in the boardroom. Much of the presentation is raw and there are significant grammatical issues.  There are improvements that Eric can implement to be even more effective.  So what is this speech, and what does it have to do with motivating your team or any audience)? 

The speech is powerful, inspirational and memorable; and one of the best motivational speeches I have seen in some time.

There are lessons here that are applicable to presentations in any setting, and certainly usefull for speeches or presentations aimed at motivating your team, staff or audience:

1. Passion – If you are not convinced that Eric Thomas believes his message, watch again.  Passion comes barreling at you from the first ten seconds until the end.  It is difficult to move people without passion, and even more difficult to avoid being moved by someone as passionate as Eric;

2. Story – The story itself is riveting, and well timed. The story itself is no longer than a 30 second story; the delivery draws it out.  If you ever questioned the power of story in a speech, this should make you a believer.  A story does not have to be long to be effective;

3. Message - When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.  Everything Eric says relates back to his message;

4.  Audience – This presentation is perfectly geared toward capturing, and keeping, the target audience’s attention.  Know your audience and what the audience members will respond to;

5. Strategic Pause – Eric is emphatic and energetic throughout, and still effectively pauses before key lines;

6. Presence/Poise – There is no question who is center of the audience’s attention;

7. Rhetorical devices – Start with imagery, move to analogy, on to repetition and keep going;

8. Personalization - This speech is addressed to an audience, and at the same time the individual.  Very effective;

9. Tone/Intonation/Rhythm/Pitch Variety - This speech would be completely different without the vocal toolkit used;

10. Call to Action – Crystal clear.  A motivational speech should focus on….motivating to action!  This one does.

11. Body Language – I am not a believer that there are  rigid rules that apply to how to hold your hands, position yourself, etc. that work for every person presenting in every situation.   We are all individuals, and what works for nearly everyone else may not work for you – hence the need to determine what your presenting style is, and what works for you.  I have never witnessed a speech where I found pointing to be an asset – always the opposite – until watching this speech.  Pointing does not work for 99.9% of the speaking public – but in this situation, it works for Eric.  Learn what works for you – before you present.

12. Movement – Eric moves a lot, and is part of his audience throughout the presentation – no barriers – he is literally part of his audience.   Engaging your audience is crucial, and one of the best ways to engage is to get as close to your audience as possible.  Your presentation is a conversation, and the more you active you

Some backstory – Eric Thomas is a former high school dropout who is now a professor at Michigan State University, and is also the founder of The Advantage Program, an undergraduate retention program targeting academically high-risk students of color.

Do you need to motivate your team?  Contact us for more information.

Having worked with technical  professionals (engineering communication) ranging from top IT executives to Ivy League scientists to internationally ranked engineers,  I fancy myself a cocktail party technologist – I understand enough about a wide spectrum of technical disciplines to discuss them for a minute or two, but can barely hook  up Wi-Fi in my own house.

The reality is that there are a lot of people like me in every organization, and engineers rarely work in a vacuum – there are other divisions and departments to interface with, and key business decisions are often based around communication – can  an engineer make his or her client, often a finance professional, understand why a change is necessary?

There are a few tips every engineer can utilize to make communication with divisions, departments, clients and myriad others much easier. 

1. Pronouns – I have been to hundreds of technical presentations in the past, and when hearing men present I often hear the same generic gender-specific pronoun usage – He, him, his, himself, etc. – and as you can see, more often than not it has been specific to males.  Alienating any segment of your audience is never a good idea.

2. Acronyms – My rule on this is simple, unless you are CERTAIN everyone watching you present, reading your email or receiving your document knows exactly what an acronym stands for – don’t use it!  Spell it out instead.  I cannot state this emphatically enough – I have witnessed countless instances when folks in one division of a particular discipline, whether  IT or molecular biology, do not know what an acronym used in another division in that same discipline stands for.  Assume your audience does not know and spell it out – the last thing you want is to be five minutes into your presentation and the audience trying to figure out what the first acronym stood for. (By the way, if you look closely, the first letter of these tips is an acronym as well, but the acronym is not stated!)

3. Information – Key message right away.  Especially when talking to an audience that is not made up of engineers, make sure to lay the groundwork for what we are going to be listening to, so that we can follow and understand.  If you are waiting to the middle or end to unleash your message, chances are the audience may not be there with you as following complex technical information is not easy for everyone.

4. Relate – People often understand concepts and ideas related to their own experiences.  If explaining an engineering concept, relate it to something the audience already understands.  Analogies, metaphors, contrasts all work, as do personal stories.  I often ask professionals to explain a concept to me as if they were addressing an eighth grade class – I find this exercise works well to help a professional prepare a presentation to an audience not well versed in engineering concepts - this often generates stories and analogies that would otherwise have remained undiscovered.

This is the second in an ongoing series.  If you teach engineering and have an interest in a lecture on this topic, please contact me here.

Whether taking a company public, introducing a new product to market, delivering a new lecture or simply leading a team meeting, the conclusion is crucial to the success of any presentation.  It is the final impression to you will leave your audience with.  Last week we went over three ways to effectively end a speech. So what are other effective ways to close a speech or presentation?  Here are three more  of my favorites:

1. Vision - Illustrate a vision of what your call to action will result in.  Dr. Martin Luther King illustrated this with the final words of his epic “I Have a Dream” speech:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

2. (Very) Short Story/Anecdote - Based on the principle of show, don’t tell:  Use a very brief story or anecdote to drive a message.  I had a Major League Baseball player as a client, and he very effectively told the following (abridged) story to end a presentation about teamwork: 

So Coach entered the locker-room after a pretty tough game where a number of us had standout performances and the result was….a big loss.  One of our players went four for four – Coach called him by his last name, Smith, asked him to come up front, and then asked him to stand with the back of his uniform facing the rest of the players.  .  Then he asked a kid who had just been called up from the minors, Jones, to do the same thing.  He then said “Smith, Jones I want you to turn around.”  When they did, he pointed to the front of the uniform and reminded us all – “You play for the name on the front of the jersey (the team) not the name on the back (your own).”

3. Contrast – One of my favorites, and is even more effective when tied directly in to the call to action.  “We can have____, or we can have ______.  The choice is ours, and is based entirely on the decision we each individually make today.  _____.  Or _____. ( I know I’m choosing _____.)”

If you missed Part I., please find it here.

These are just a few examples – there are a number of effective endings (challenges,  and techniques to set up those endings that I will go over in future posts.  If you are working on a presentation and need help with an ending, contact me here.