We are a little over three weeks into 2012, with myriad communication disasters, from major crisis communication errors to communication errors that have directly resulted in a crisis. 

Why?

Failure to remember the ABC’s of effective communication.

I am excited to announce that I have written a manifesto, published today by ChangeThis,  entitled “It Really Is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn From Masterful Orators of The Past.” 

Change This, owned and operated by business book giant 800-CEO-Read and led by Dylan Schleicher, is changing the way business ideas are exchanged, and I am excited to join authors and thought leaders such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Tom Peters,  Seth Godin , Guy Kawasaki, and many others on this platform.

The manifesto is available for free, can be dowloaded here,  and is a quick read with implementable communication lessons for everyone.  It contains fundamental communication principles that can benefit anyone, whether a CEO commenting publicly or a call center employee answering a customer. 

If you have trouble accessing the document, please let me know and I will forward it to you.  Please forward it on to anyone who may benefit from it, and I would appreciate any feedback or commentary.  Thank you.

“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.

I will be teaching the class along with Kevin O’Toole, Managing Partner of leading legal crisis management law firm O’Toole Fernandez Weiner Van Lieu, Tom Scrivo, Partner, McElroy, Deutsch and insurance expert Anthony Slimowicz, Of-Counsel to the O’Toole law firm.  The course will address issues ranging from research/investigations; crisis communication, dealing with the media and public presentation; risk mitigation and risk management. 

The course will be approximately 1.5+ hours and will satisfy 2 CLE credits, and the next available course date will be December 20, 2011.  Please contact me for more information, scheduling, etc.

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.

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.

“In conclusion, I appreciate your time to hear about ________. Thank you.”

…and then nothing happens.  Everyone quietly claps, or just nods, and leaves the auditorium or conference room.

What can you do to prevent this from occurring?   Here are three effective techniques for closing a speech or presentation:

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 address  It is the final impression to you will leave your audience with.  So what are other effective ways to close?  Here are three of my favorites:

1. Direct Call to Action – I am a believer that a speech or presentation without a clear call to some type of action is a speech or presentation that probably is not worth giving. 

While not appropriate for every address, there is no clearer call to action than a direct call to action.  ex.  ”In order to guarantee that we save ______ tomorrow, we need to _____ today!”  “If every person in this room leaves and immediately _____, I can guarantee that will result in ______ next year?

2. Quote - Short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective as openers, and short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective for closing.  With a plethora of resources available to get quotes in an instant,  it is now possible to come up with a quality opening, or ending anywhere.

3.  Call-to-Question – Ending with a rhetorical question that captures the message and leaves the audience thinking, especially one that ties a call to action directly in is often very effective.  ex.  What choice will you make when you leave here today?  Will you ____, or will you go about your normal routine?

Stay tuned next week for Closing a Speech or Presentation, Pt. II.  For ideas on how to effectively open a speech or presentation, please click here and here.

The reality is that there are a lot of people like me in every organization, and technical professionals 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 IT executive adequately make a funding request to “the business”;  can a professor approaching tenure make his or her case to a foundation; can an engineer make his or her client, often a finance professional, understand why a change is necessary? Tech communication is critical!

There are a few tips every technical professional can utilize to make communication with divisions, departments, clients, grantors, 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 a non-technical audience, 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 a scientific or technical 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 a non-tech crowd – this often generates stories and analogies that would otherwise have remained undiscovered.

This is the second in an ongoing series for technical professionals on tech communication.  If you teach a science or technical discipline and have an interest in a lecture on this topic, please contact me here.

What made Steve Jobs an effective communicator was not innovation or new technology.   His public speaking skills had everything to do with fundamentals – an example being one that is crucial yet often ignored – extensive preparation.  The preparation and practice that went into a product launch or public presentation was evident, and each presentation became an event itself – not very common in the corporate world today (unless it is bad news).

Two of my favorite Steve Jobs presentations:

The launch of the original iPhone

Some Key Takeaways:

1. Very limited use of slides (no “Death by PPT”);

2. Limited content on each slide;

3. Effective use of movement;

4. Use of the “Power Pause”;

5. Effective gesturing;

6.  Simple, conversational language (I am convinced one of the reasons Apple is the market leader is not only the ease of use of the product line, but the ease of explanation as to how the products work.)

Stanford Commencement – 2005

This is one of the most moving speeches I have seen in the past decade, and moves me every time I watch it.  From a delivery standpoint, I can only imagine how powerful this would have been had Jobs given it in 2010, as his evolution as a public speaker over the past six years was evident.  Two key takeaways:

1. The use of story – amazing storytelling;

2. The use of repetition;

3. Use of summation – every story is neatly summarized with a memorable takeaway;

4. Chronological Speech Structure – not the conventional use of structure, and very, very effective.

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

 - Steve Jobs

Litigators effectively utilize focus groups to test key messages (full disclosure – I often run them for litigators around the country).  I find the true value in a focus group, whether used in politics, the corporate world or the legal world, not necessarily is the ultimate decision – we like your candidate, your product, or we decide for your client; but rather – here is what we don’t like, this is what we do not like about your client, your product, your message, your argument, etc. 

I am a believer that every person, whether front line associate or CEO, can benefit from running a mini focus group prior to a high stakes speech, investor pitch or presentation, again, not to validate how “good” your presentation is, but to see where there are soft spots, weak areas and pain points, so that you can improve before the big day.  Here are a few steps to set up a quick, effective focus group before your next big speech:

1.  Know your audience – Who will be represented in the audience?  All employees?  Board Members? Investors?  Have a representative from the various sectors that will be represented in the audience.  The group does not have to big, nor does it have to be formal – it has to be representative. 

2. Friend are not always your friends – When running focus groups for litigators, I shy away from having a firm member participate as a focus group member- if you are involved, you are involved.  What you are looking for is distance from the issue.  People you know, respect and trust, but do not necessarily spend all of your time with, often offer the best feedback.

3. Friends are not always your friends, Pt. II – For this reason, I try to avoid having people who are very close to each other participate as well – it tends to skew the dynamic and often overpower the group, leading to missing key feedback.

4. Preparation – I like to throw just about everything that I am planning on speaking about out there – sometimes I am just too close to the topic, and miss things that might be more effective and more beneficial to my audience; An unprepared speech or presentation will focus all of the attention on delivery and not much on the message – meaning that you will get half of the value.  Spend some time preparing.

5. Ask! -  If you are a front line associate, ask your mentor to sit in to represent executives. Conversely,  C-level executives often balk at having a lower level associate watch a presentation first, and there is undoubtedly some risk to this – I have done it a number of times and it has worked every time.  The key is to identify the right person to participate.  You are looking for a very small group, again, not to validate how “good” you are, but to offer opinions and bring a different perspective.

My ties to the Big Ten are strong – both of my parents were educated at the University of Michigan and I was born on the campus of Purdue University. My cousin (one of only two) attended Indiana University; I have guest lectured at other Big Ten schools such as Ohio State University (had to get that in for my parents).  Until I went against the grain, we were a strong Big Ten family.  This speech reminded me why.

Kirk Cousins did a lot of things right with this speech:

1. Message Discipline – There is no way to miss Kirk Cousins’ message, no matter how distracted an audience member.

2. Stories & Anecdotes – Whether reminiscing about his Tim Dwight jersey as a kid or his recruitment tale, Cousins wove a number of anecdotes and stories into a 5 minute address.

3. Preparation – This was not the first or fifth time Cousins delivered this speech. It was obvious the preparation he put in before talking the podium, something many professional athletes can learn from.

4. Vocal delivery – no shrinking violet, his tone and intonation were great throughout.

5. Respect – In paying homage to rival Coach Joe Paterno, not by name, Cousins implemented a lesson credited to Winston Churchill – praise in the beginning of a talk sounds like flattery, whereas the same praise in the middle of a talk come off as sincerity.

6. Anaphora – On different occasions, anaphora was successfully utilized – “It has been a privilege….”; “We have a responsibility…”

7. Smile – Cousins was warm from the moment he took the stage, not always the easiest image for an athlete to effectively convey.

8. “Big Play” Delivery – The set-up and effective pause around the story about the school boy who asked if he was as good as Denard Robinson was great.

As with any speech, there are areas to improve upon, and areas that, with a little work, will make Cousins even better.  Here are a few things to think about:

1. Pausing – The speech was very quick, and pausing throughout would have made a big difference.

2. Eye Contact, I & II – In spots, the eye contact was great.  More pausing and a slower tempo would allow for more eye contact; in addition, speaking while looking down is never an effective practice for myriad reasons.

3. Notes – Although not certain, it appeared Kirk was reading from a written speech; working to turn that into bullet points would allow for more eye contact and more effective delivery.

4. Religion – Religion is always tricky when it comes to a public address, and this is where knowing your audience is critical.  While choosing to include religious references is a personal opinion, remembering that there are those from different backgrounds who will benefit from your message but may tune it out if your address is deemed “too religious” is something to consider.

My vote doesn’t count, but I would encourage all Heisman voters to take a long look at Kirk Cousins – the stated mission of the Heisman Trophy is to “….annually recognize the outstanding college football player whose performance exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.”  Cousins certainly achieves that.