If you want to know how to use your body language and facial expressions to convey feeling, emotion and story, then look no further than this video. It is surprising and humourous, combining into a short yet powerful experience.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Editing Your Content: the NEED to know basis
Last week I sat through a number of presentations at a networking event. The event was designed to help women grow their business and one of the topics was marketing.
The presenter had great charisma and personal style - she was passionate and enthuiastic about her topic, which she obviously knew a great deal about. She spoke without notes, which meant she could engage with us directly. She even made her talk interactive by asking questions of the audience to demonstrate how some of us had approached marketing for our own businesses.
But she talked about nearly every aspect of marketing known to man: from blogs, to social networking, local and national media, radio interviews, direct marketing and so on and so on. I knew we were in trouble when I saw her handouts - copies of her bullet point ridden slides (never a good sign).
I left in feeling totally overwhelmed - and I was not alone. Various people made comments about how they needed a break now to take it all in.
I was left with that feeling "I am sure I have learnt something, I am just not sure what".
She was suffering from an inability to focus and edit her ideas down into manageable chunks.
As a result her NEED TO KNOW ideas got lost amongst the rest of what she said.
Whatever the presentation or workshop you are designing, before you start cramming in every thing you have learnt in the last ten, twenty or thirty years, think about this...
What does your audience really NEED TO KNOW?
You might brainstorm lots of ideas, but it is vital that you pick out just one thing that you really feel is the most important thing for your audience to learn. You can add in a few more (depending on the time available), but do make sure that you know what thing or few things you really want your audience to leave with.
The presenter had great charisma and personal style - she was passionate and enthuiastic about her topic, which she obviously knew a great deal about. She spoke without notes, which meant she could engage with us directly. She even made her talk interactive by asking questions of the audience to demonstrate how some of us had approached marketing for our own businesses.
But she talked about nearly every aspect of marketing known to man: from blogs, to social networking, local and national media, radio interviews, direct marketing and so on and so on. I knew we were in trouble when I saw her handouts - copies of her bullet point ridden slides (never a good sign).
I left in feeling totally overwhelmed - and I was not alone. Various people made comments about how they needed a break now to take it all in.
I was left with that feeling "I am sure I have learnt something, I am just not sure what".
She was suffering from an inability to focus and edit her ideas down into manageable chunks.
As a result her NEED TO KNOW ideas got lost amongst the rest of what she said.
Whatever the presentation or workshop you are designing, before you start cramming in every thing you have learnt in the last ten, twenty or thirty years, think about this...
What does your audience really NEED TO KNOW?
You might brainstorm lots of ideas, but it is vital that you pick out just one thing that you really feel is the most important thing for your audience to learn. You can add in a few more (depending on the time available), but do make sure that you know what thing or few things you really want your audience to leave with.
Friday, 21 November 2008
Presentation Visuals
This week I have been putting into practice and experimenting with new approaches to presentations and the design of PowerPoint (or Keynote) slides... Whilst I know that you can create workshops and presentations without ever touching a computer (and sometimes they are all the better for it), I know that PowerPoint is embedded within the cultural mindset.
So I feel that if you are going to use slides, they had better be brilliant and enhance what you are saying rather than repeating it (and hence distracting the audience's attention, see yesterday's blog)....
PowerPoint itself does not exactly help you to design great slides - it contains ghastly templates that encourage gruesome colour combinations that are way too busy, with a whole host of bullets or text over the top. Whatever you do, please leave all that alone.
The most important approach is one that says: less is more.
There are three key questions to ask yourself about each visual that you use:
1) Is it simple? Can anyone understand the point you are trying to make easily? That means that large amounts of text or data or points on graph or images are out. Think one key point per slide.
2) Is it beautiful? Does anyone want to look at ugly or cluttered images, clipart or fonts? Why not strive for a beautiful image that people will want to look at?
3) Does it add to what I am saying? The images should be a powerful way of enhancing what you are saying, focussing in on key messages that you want your audience to remember.
Step away from the PowerPoint templates and backgrounds.
Step away from bullet pointed lists.
Step away from clipart.
Embrace full slide photographs.
Create your own simple graphs and diagrams (or even better get a designer to do it).
So I feel that if you are going to use slides, they had better be brilliant and enhance what you are saying rather than repeating it (and hence distracting the audience's attention, see yesterday's blog)....
PowerPoint itself does not exactly help you to design great slides - it contains ghastly templates that encourage gruesome colour combinations that are way too busy, with a whole host of bullets or text over the top. Whatever you do, please leave all that alone.
The most important approach is one that says: less is more.
There are three key questions to ask yourself about each visual that you use:
1) Is it simple? Can anyone understand the point you are trying to make easily? That means that large amounts of text or data or points on graph or images are out. Think one key point per slide.
2) Is it beautiful? Does anyone want to look at ugly or cluttered images, clipart or fonts? Why not strive for a beautiful image that people will want to look at?
3) Does it add to what I am saying? The images should be a powerful way of enhancing what you are saying, focussing in on key messages that you want your audience to remember.
Step away from the PowerPoint templates and backgrounds.
Step away from bullet pointed lists.
Step away from clipart.
Embrace full slide photographs.
Create your own simple graphs and diagrams (or even better get a designer to do it).
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Making PowerPoint Powerful
Where are people going wrong when they design slides that result in the muttered phrase "Death by PowerPoint"?
There are two basic mistakes:
Mistake 1 - Designing Slides as Handouts.If you have enough information on your slides for them to work as handouts, then your slides are wrong. Why not simply print out the slides and circulate them, instead of becoming the voice in your audience's heads as they read them?
These slides are Death by text.
Mistake 2 - Designing Slides as an Autocue.The next mistake, is to design your slides to help remind you what to say. Your audience will still read your slides, as you fill in some extra gaps.
These slides are Death by Bullet Point.
Research has proven that it is more difficult to process information if it is coming at your both verbally and in written form at the same time.
So your audience should not be both listening to you and either reading handouts or reading slides. If they are, then they will be doing neither well.
The point of slides is that they provide a strong visual backdrop to complement your words, with the audience focussing on listening to you, your passion and knowledge. They are the stills and you are the narrator.
To avoid these mistakes, you must design your slides, your prompts and your handouts as separate items. You can use PowerPoint for all three, but they are likely to be separate files not the same one.
Next time you are designing a presentation, see if you can think of the slides as a visually exciting film, which you are narrating.
There are two basic mistakes:
Mistake 1 - Designing Slides as Handouts.If you have enough information on your slides for them to work as handouts, then your slides are wrong. Why not simply print out the slides and circulate them, instead of becoming the voice in your audience's heads as they read them?
These slides are Death by text.
Mistake 2 - Designing Slides as an Autocue.The next mistake, is to design your slides to help remind you what to say. Your audience will still read your slides, as you fill in some extra gaps.
These slides are Death by Bullet Point.
Research has proven that it is more difficult to process information if it is coming at your both verbally and in written form at the same time.
So your audience should not be both listening to you and either reading handouts or reading slides. If they are, then they will be doing neither well.
The point of slides is that they provide a strong visual backdrop to complement your words, with the audience focussing on listening to you, your passion and knowledge. They are the stills and you are the narrator.
To avoid these mistakes, you must design your slides, your prompts and your handouts as separate items. You can use PowerPoint for all three, but they are likely to be separate files not the same one.
Next time you are designing a presentation, see if you can think of the slides as a visually exciting film, which you are narrating.
Monday, 3 November 2008
The Power of Passion
I watched an incredible speech over the weekend, by a 12 year old girl.
She spoke with simple phrases to an audience at the United Nations.
This would daunt even the most extrovert presenters, yet she spoke calmly without a hint of nerves.
What is most extraordinary about her short 6 minutes is the strength of her passion.
She talks about flighting for her future, and how it is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. She pleas for us to stock breaking things we cannot fix (like a desert that was once a forest). She asks us why we are so greedy, why we cannot share. Simple questions that perhaps we forget to ask anymore.
Watch this and learn how to write a great speech that could also silence the world.
Watch it by following this link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
The video is rightly entitled: The Girl Who Silenced The World.
She spoke with simple phrases to an audience at the United Nations.
This would daunt even the most extrovert presenters, yet she spoke calmly without a hint of nerves.
What is most extraordinary about her short 6 minutes is the strength of her passion.
She talks about flighting for her future, and how it is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. She pleas for us to stock breaking things we cannot fix (like a desert that was once a forest). She asks us why we are so greedy, why we cannot share. Simple questions that perhaps we forget to ask anymore.
Watch this and learn how to write a great speech that could also silence the world.
Watch it by following this link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
The video is rightly entitled: The Girl Who Silenced The World.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Leave Your Comfort Zone behind
The most amazing events that I have ever delivered were the ones when I felt nervous. I was going to do something new, something different, something outside of my comfort zone.
I was excited about the possibility of finding a new, even unique, way of creating a learning zone, whilst still nervous about it all going rather wrong.
For one event, I wanted to teach my students about communication through real experience. Instead of some dry exercises about words, or tone, or pace I wanted them to have a direct experience that impacted on their minds and challenged their perspectives. Before a break, I asked them to clear the room and place their seats in a circle then come back in silence.
Even those instructions changed their mood: they came back curious, attentive, charged up (which is no mean feat at 8pm after a very long day). We started with silence and darkness. And I let that experience be savoured before adding in anything else.
I then added in elements gently, one at a time. They listened to some music. We handed around a torch for them to shine beneath their face as they shared what they had experienced. Gradually we built in new elements - for them to feel first hand the impact of various elements such as light, music, images, video, sounds and language.
I gave them no handout for this session, asking them only to write a reflective piece for their own records. The results were amazing - their reflections showed how inspired they had felt and how it had shown them new and different ways of thinking about their impact on their learners.
I challenged every single element of this event - no plan, no notes, no slides, no light even, nor much discussion at first, as I wanted each of them to feel and be fully involved in their personal experience not that of the others in the group.
If you never feel nervous, never feel that you are taking a risk, never wonder if your new exercise will bomb or boom, then you are probably not being creative enough.
Creativity is a risk - but whatever happens you will gain greatly from taking that risk - in learning, in new skills, in new confidence, in a whole new approach.
So next time you are designing a learning event, don't ignore that amazing idea that you have (that gives you butterflies). Embrace it. Go with it. Leave Your Comfort Zone behind and soar.
I was excited about the possibility of finding a new, even unique, way of creating a learning zone, whilst still nervous about it all going rather wrong.
For one event, I wanted to teach my students about communication through real experience. Instead of some dry exercises about words, or tone, or pace I wanted them to have a direct experience that impacted on their minds and challenged their perspectives. Before a break, I asked them to clear the room and place their seats in a circle then come back in silence.
Even those instructions changed their mood: they came back curious, attentive, charged up (which is no mean feat at 8pm after a very long day). We started with silence and darkness. And I let that experience be savoured before adding in anything else.
I then added in elements gently, one at a time. They listened to some music. We handed around a torch for them to shine beneath their face as they shared what they had experienced. Gradually we built in new elements - for them to feel first hand the impact of various elements such as light, music, images, video, sounds and language.
I gave them no handout for this session, asking them only to write a reflective piece for their own records. The results were amazing - their reflections showed how inspired they had felt and how it had shown them new and different ways of thinking about their impact on their learners.
I challenged every single element of this event - no plan, no notes, no slides, no light even, nor much discussion at first, as I wanted each of them to feel and be fully involved in their personal experience not that of the others in the group.
If you never feel nervous, never feel that you are taking a risk, never wonder if your new exercise will bomb or boom, then you are probably not being creative enough.
Creativity is a risk - but whatever happens you will gain greatly from taking that risk - in learning, in new skills, in new confidence, in a whole new approach.
So next time you are designing a learning event, don't ignore that amazing idea that you have (that gives you butterflies). Embrace it. Go with it. Leave Your Comfort Zone behind and soar.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
The Girl Effect
I have just been watching the most amazing clip on the internet and it moved me deeply.
In less than one minute I had a powerful, emotional experience.
It combined two very powerful aspects of learning:
1) the WIIFM factor
2) the story factor
WIIFM is the 'What is In It For Me?' question that we all have when we are learning.
Why should I learn this new skill or information? How will my life benefit? How will I benefit?
Learning is a process that involves creating new thought processes and getting rid of old ones, so it is vital that your learners know how that effort will be rewarded, for them, personally.
This video clip doesn't tell you WIIFM, it helps you experience it, at an emotional level.
Stories are incredibly powerful ways to help embed learning and create powerful WIIFM elements. By sharing your own experiences (or those of others) you can demonstrate how these skills or information have effected your own life or those of others.
Use great story telling principles, so instead of using a phrase such as "by mastering these skills you could save an hour a day", use a character instead. Your story might then become:
"Sally was feeling overwhelmed juggling all the things she had to do. By using the simple steps you will learn today, she was able to save an hour every day and got to spend that in the park with her young son, having fun and relaxing."
The video I am talking about can be found at www.girleffect.org, so please check it out.
It will give you a first hand experience of the power of a simple story to engage and inspire people.
In less than one minute I had a powerful, emotional experience.
It combined two very powerful aspects of learning:
1) the WIIFM factor
2) the story factor
WIIFM is the 'What is In It For Me?' question that we all have when we are learning.
Why should I learn this new skill or information? How will my life benefit? How will I benefit?
Learning is a process that involves creating new thought processes and getting rid of old ones, so it is vital that your learners know how that effort will be rewarded, for them, personally.
This video clip doesn't tell you WIIFM, it helps you experience it, at an emotional level.
Stories are incredibly powerful ways to help embed learning and create powerful WIIFM elements. By sharing your own experiences (or those of others) you can demonstrate how these skills or information have effected your own life or those of others.
Use great story telling principles, so instead of using a phrase such as "by mastering these skills you could save an hour a day", use a character instead. Your story might then become:
"Sally was feeling overwhelmed juggling all the things she had to do. By using the simple steps you will learn today, she was able to save an hour every day and got to spend that in the park with her young son, having fun and relaxing."
The video I am talking about can be found at www.girleffect.org, so please check it out.
It will give you a first hand experience of the power of a simple story to engage and inspire people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
