Character...

A guy drives his truck down the interstate and gets cut off by a speedy sports car.  Angered at the thought someone could be so reckless, he speeds around the sports car staring at the man as he passes and nearly misses the front bumper cutting into his lane.  To gain the upper hand he lets his foot off the accelerator to ease his truck to the speed limit ensuring the sports car obeys to the laws of the road.

The next day the guy goes in for his final interview at a prestigious company.  As he walks into the office he recognizes the man as the driver of the sports car from the night prior.  As the interviewer extends his hand he asks, "Was that you driving the truck last night"?

Your Plan...

If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there.

Persuasion - Part II - The Briefing Prep

"Whenever you use mostly command and control to get your organization to do something, you take a withdrawal from your leadership account. Whenever you use persuasion properly, you make a deposit. The key is to keep both in balance."

Persuasion Considerations While Developing Your Presentation

• Know your audience (Pathos)
• Topics must be important, salient to audience (Logos)
• Simplicity - KISS (to Logos) - clear, simple, what do I want my audience to remember? (if you want the audience to remember your brief, never brief anyone on a single topic using more than 3 major points)
• Be the expert (authority/credibility - Ethos)
• Include analogies/metaphors to things audience’ familiar (Logos)
• Tell a story through your brief - give examples (Logos)
• Experiment with counter-intuitive points - when you use credible points that are not normally considered, they’ll be remembered - even quoted (Logos)
• Place a few in the audience who support your cause already - prep the battlefield

Presenting your brand of Cheese

Here's an article on American Management Association's website, dated 2006, titled "Communicating Vision via a Winning Presentation." Most, but not all of the article is quoted here.

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Give some thought to the nature of your audience. The easy route is to work up the presentation and assume that it will fit any of the groups you’re likely to be talking with. The trouble with this approach is that your presentation might fit well with Group A and not at all with Group B.

Make your presentation personal and fun, if appropriate. If this is a presentation to your associates, such as an all-hands meeting, or a project team booster session, weave in some personal stories about the event, organization, project or key players. One leader made the event similar to Oscar Night, with a series of “attaboy”/”attagirl” awards to team members. Poking fun at yourself is another way to connect with the group, showing that you are human, not some remote executive. On the other hand, if the purpose of the meeting is to announce a major layoff, acknowledge the seriousness of the discussion.

Have a good ‘grabber’ to open your presentation. Open with a movie clip, recorded theme song, an interesting tale of success or woe—something that suits the meeting spirit and connects to the presentation theme. Be careful about opening with a joke, especially if you’re inclined to forget the punch line (as one CEO did before a significant industry audience).

Shape the presentation to convey the theme and core messages you want to communicate. Organize your presentation into four to five segments, with clear transitions to make it easy for listeners to follow, a quality often lacking in many presentations.

Reinforce your main points with material that will hold your audience’s interest. If a customer has praised your team, this makes a good testimonial. If a key team member met a critical challenge successfully, tell your audience the story and have that person stand up to be acknowledged by his or her peers. Refer to a recent news report or cartoon that adds currency and perhaps humor. Be careful with your choice of examples.

Don’t think it’s over until it really is--be ready for audience questions and comments. This is definitely an area for preparation, rehearsal and coaching. This is especially important when speaking to audiences likely to probe for additional information, such as stockholders and members of the press. If you are addressing your team, you may have to encourage them to ask questions. If they hold back, be prepared to start discussion with some questions of your own.

A presentation can be one of your best tools for conveying important messages and inspiring your workforce to move forward to achieve your vision. But you won’t achieve either if you haven’t organized your presentation well. That’s the first step to execution of your vision.

Link to the full article here.

Happy New Year!

We saw so much happen in 2011 and I wonder if 2012 will see much of the same, or better. It is a good question to ponder as we head into this new year.

What will we each need to change or keep the same? Should it be our goal to even remain the same? I made pancakes this morning for my family. The pan was too hot and my pancakes were just a tad too brown. I had to adjust the temperature. The batter was too thick at first.  I had to thin it up with extra milk, etc. Simple analogy, of course, but little details do matter. For my family this morning -- the little details meant the difference between great pancakes or burnt pancakes.

nice little bowl of batter

do you see a face?

I do not have predictions as many other sites and blog and reviews will post. I only wish you and your family happiness, prosperity, success, and joy.

Happy New Year!

<ps: the pancakes were great!>

The 'Rule of Two' - persuasion credibility

In life, in work, only two of three things are usually possible simultaneously when trying to acquire a new capability. See the picture at left - at each point on the triangle are the labels good, cheap, and fast. If you want cheese that's good and you want it fast, it won't be cheap. If you want cheese that's good and cheap, you won't get it fast. If you want cheese that's cheap and you want it fast, it won't be good.

Create briefings that never promise all three...

Persuasion - Part I - The Groundwork

The art of convincing someone else to buy, to want, to desire our 'cheese' - as much as we do.

We spend 90% in negotiation, persuading others to do things our way...because we know better and, well, dammit!...our way is better, can’t you see that?

The framework of influence usually consists of three components - power (we can assert, force), negotiation (we can make a deal - push/pull), and persuasion (we can induce involuntary thoughts/actions our way).

There are four components to be considered for each as you begin to prepare for your next ‘persuasion engagement’:

I - The data in your presentation - the message - must be true and absolutely correct - every component. One flaw, and you are done. (Logos);

II: The messenger must have credibility, have a strong ethical characteristic. If you normally can't be trusted or have a flawed characteristic otherwise, you'll be much less convincing. (Ethos);

III: The messenger must understand the feelings and bias of the receiver(s) on the components of your message. Have you considered all of the yings to your yang in the data? (Pathos); and

IV: The event must be framed in the correct context - time and place. Don't pamper them and don't do it in Fargo, North Dakota in January outdoors. (Agora)

Next: Principles of Persuasion

...Learning is when you suddenly understand something you have always understood but in a new way...