by Beth Levine | Mar 10, 2010 | Just Mouthing Off
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the lean movement that’s been afoot in industry for almost two decades now. Eliminating waste, promoting efficiency. Producing according to demand, satisfying customer needs. Creating a value stream. Hmmmmm . . .
Surely, there’s room for a lean movement in communications. Business communicators in particular have filled virtual landfills of hollow words, meaningless slides, and endless meetings. Waste is an understatement.
The value stream begins with customer — or audience — needs. Creating and delivering value, whether in manufacturing or communicating, requires some forethought and some planning on the part of the “producer.”
We could all be leaner and meaner if we first thought about our audiences and what would be of value to them, rather than figuring it out as we talk . . . and talk and talk.
More on this another time!
by Beth Levine | Jan 16, 2010 | Just Mouthing Off
When anticipating a speech or presentation, do you have any of the following symptoms:
Don’t know where to begin?
Worry about being interesting or relevant?
Have a tendency to ramble or go off on tangents?
Experience anxiety or nervousness?
Repeat after me ten times, “It’s all about them. It’s not all about me!” Okay, you should be all better now!
It can be such a relief to frame your thinking around “them” – the audience – and can take such a burden off of you!
If you don’t know where to begin, or how to be interesting and relevant, think about them or go find out about them. Go deep, and think seriously – or do research to find out – about what this audience really, really cares about. You want to ask yourself, at the end of the day, what do they really care about when it comes to my topic or expertise? Not what you care about, but what they care about . . . this might require a bit of an adjustment.
If you tend to ramble or go off on tangents, it might be that you find your information very interesting and compelling. Or it might be that you’re so knowledgeable and eager to share it, and/or that you like to be thorough. Either way, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about you. It’s about them. Every audience is listening for the what’s-in-it-for-me nugget. If there’s even a question in your mind as to whether the audience will share your enthusiasm for all your info, then you should limit your talk and be sure to give them something of value. Set firm parameters for yourself by thinking about them.
Oh, and here’s a quick tip for you . . . If you’re really not sure what they really care about, or whether they will share your enthusiasm for lots of detail on your topic, ask yourself this question: why is this audience in the room, by choice or by obligation? Aha! Naturally, if they are there by choice, you have a bit more latitude with time and detail. However, if they are there out of obligation, then you are well advised to be brief.
And, finally, if you are nervous before speaking to a group, look at them, think about them, connect with them. It is said that nervousness is just your body’s adrenaline gearing up and giving you the energy to perform well. That may be, but I say turn to them for some relief. Warm up by talking to members of the audience before you begin formally, or open your talk with a question, be sincere about receiving input, and engage in some dialogue or banter. Share the floor with them, and all of you will have a more enjoyable experience!
by Beth Levine | Nov 17, 2009 | Just Mouthing Off
Okay, so we’ve all sat in rooms and endured speakers who ramble, never get to the point, are hard to follow, don’t seem sharp or prepared, give way too much background, or all of the above. Right? And why? Why are we so willing to be so polite? Why do we enable the complacency and mediocrity and lack of awareness of others who speak and present to us . . . I bet if we had a remote control, we’d switch to another speaker!
We’re polite about it because we empathize. There, but for the grace of God, go I; it could just as easily be me up there; I’m awful too, I hate it, I’m the worst; this poor guy, better him than me. Not true! Or, it certainly doesn’t have to be true! Because this bad-speaker/enabling-audience phenomenon is soooo unnecessary, I want to offer a nugget of advice about “communications packaging” that might help you . . . this will certainly heighten your awareness of where other speakers and presenters go wrong, but it will also give you a little bit of a guideline to improve your own communications.
So, here goes: Package your communications around messages versus information. Messages are statements that make a point, that do a job like persuading or motivating or educating. Messages are verbal takeaways from a talk, they are memorable. Information is the detail or data or examples that back up and support a message. Granted, some information may be so important that it has to take center stage. In that case, fine, then it is the message and it probably comes with some supporting info of its own. But 99.9% of the time, you will find that what you’re seeing with the rambler, the never-gets-to-the-point speaker, the unprepared-TMI-presenter is probably an information dump without any packaging around it!
Think food chain. Messages are higher on the communications food chain than information. The next time you’re preparing a talk, you should test yourself and ask, am I leading with just a bunch of info, or am I leading with a message and then backing it up with info? Trust me, you are salvageable, and you will be more effective, with just a few simple clicks of the keyboard. Which is a lot better than your audience wanting to get rid of you with a few simple clicks of the remote!
by Beth Levine | Oct 29, 2009 | Just Mouthing Off
I love coaching engineers on communication and presentation skills – partly because they have the most outrageous anecdotes about their peers. Today I heard a real doozy!
Turns out, in the middle of his presentation at a major annual conference, a high-level, well-known engineer answered his cell phone! Yes, that’s right . . . he was on-stage, in front of a large audience, his cell phone rang in his pocket, he took it out, said hello, told the caller he was in the middle of a presentation and couldn’t talk, then he hung up, put the phone back in his pocket, and resumed the presentation.
Now if that doesn’t take the grand prize, I give up! Wow, I was speechless!
by Beth Levine | Oct 15, 2009 | Just Mouthing Off
For some reason, even the smartest, most seasoned professionals lose all sense of perspective and proportion – e.g. time, place, purpose – when they have to make a formal announcement. I have seen the mere suggestion that someone needs to make a statement, or hold a press conference, or speak at an event escalate into nothing short of the need to draft a new version of the Gettysburg Address.
For example, I recently had a client who was asked to make brief welcoming remarks before dinner to a visiting industry group. Knowing full well there would be other presentations during dinner that evening, this client and his handlers still came up with a full-blown speech that not only welcomed everyone, but addressed and empathized with the biggest challenges facing that particular industry. It was meant to be meaningful for the audience, but it was also long, philosophical, and dissertation-like. Great stuff for a keynote speech, but way overboard for “brief welcoming remarks.” I offered to help, and we cut his remarks back to be much shorter and somewhat more entertaining. He still empathized with the industry for its woes, so he was relevant, but he did it in story format, using some lighthearted humor, which gave it a less formal and more conversational feel. In the end, it was much better suited to a welcome!
Another example was a client in the early stages of a multi-year project to build a new, much-anticipated state-of-the-art facility. At the point in the design process when the client was due to announce the selection of the firm that would create the look and feel of the interior space, I caught wind that the executive in charge was planning to say this: “Today is the culmination of 10 years worth of dreaming and planning and hard work by many. We are so proud and thrilled . . . ” Huh? Really? To see if I could awaken this client to a sense of proportion, I gently asked, “um, so, like, what will you say at the ground-breaking when construction begins, or at the ribbon-cutting for the grand opening? Don’t you want to save the 10-year dream-come-true theme for one of those occasions?”
Here are three tips to help you keep it all in perspective and maintain a sense of proportion:
1. Think about the audience and the occasion. Why is the audience in the room and what do they care about, want, and/or expect?
2. Know your role for the occasion. Are you the only speaker or one of many speakers? What specifically were you asked to do?
3. Know your “job” for the occasion. Are you introducing, informing, inspiring, entertaining? What verb describes your primary communications task for the occasion?
You’ll be just fine if you keep the audience in mind, stick to your assigned role, and do your “job” – nothing more, nothing less!
by Beth Levine | Oct 9, 2009 | Just Mouthing Off
The ‘sound bite’ has taken such a bad rap, and I want to wage a campaign on its behalf!
For a while now, the sound bite has been right up there with ‘spin’ in terms of its public image, but even spin is unfairly maligned. Former Clinton White House spokesperson Mike McCurry called spin “a self-interested selection of facts.” What’s wrong with that? The sound bite is pretty straightforward and, like its name suggests, is basically a bite of sound, or a few digestible words. That – in this world of long-winded-information-dumping speakers and presenters – is a good thing!
As communicators, we do not need to be defensive or apologetic about either one – spin or the sound bite. Instead, it’s our challenge to use them well!
