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THE Presentations Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

THE Presentations Japan Series is powered by with great content from the accumulated wisdom of 100 plus years of Dale Carnegie Training. The show is hosted in Tokyo by Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and is for those highly motivated students of presentations, who want to be the best in their business field.
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Now displaying: April, 2017
Apr 24, 2017

Evidence Rich Presentations

 

 

There are a number of common structures for giving presentations and one of the most popular is the opening-key points/evidence-closing. We consider the length of the presentation, the audience, the purpose of our talk and then we pour the contents into this structure. Generally, in a 30 minute speech we can only have a few key points we can cover, so we select the most powerful and then look for the evidence which will persuade our audience. This is where a lot of presentations suddenly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

The structure flow is a simple one, the analysis of the occasion is straightforward but at this next stage we can get confused about what we are trying to achieve. We might become so engrossed in the evidence assembly component that we forget the crucial “WHY” aspect of this effort. We are not here to produce mounds of statistics, battalions of bar charts or proffer reams of text on a screen. Technically oriented presenters love to bludgeon their audience with detail, usually in font or scale so small, it is barely visible on screen. Don’t do that, you will be killing your message.

 

No, the WHY is all about persuading the audience of our conclusion or way of thinking. This is communication skill rather than archeological or archival skill. Line charts, pie charts, comparison tables are trotted out to do battle with the perceptions and biases of the audience. The errors though include a presentation style where the actual detail is unapproachable and so is not fully accepted. If you can’t even read it how are we are supposed to be mesmirised by the power of the information. The tendency to imagine that this quality data will stand by itself and not require the presenter to do much, is another grave error. “I don’t have to be a good speaker, because the quality of my information is so high”, is a typical, if somewhat pathetic excuse. This excuse may have had some hint of relevance once upon a time but the internet has swept that excuse straight out the door. The exclusivity of information ownership has been replaced by a free for all provision of all the information you need accessed through search engines.

 

Another common error is to invest the vast majority of the time for the presentation preparation on the accompanying slides for the talk. Digging up the data, tweaking the detail, creating the charts, arranging the order. We become quite busy. So busy, in fact, that we forget to practice the delivery of the talk. We run out of time because w have dome a poor job of planning for the talk and properly allocating our precious time. Toyota does well as a manufacturer using its Just In Time methodology but this is not the model for the speaker. Don’t leave it until the last moment. Be well organised and build in rehearsal time from the start. We can find ourselves presenting the content for the first time up at the podium, peering down at our audience. We are in fact practicing on our audience and this is not a best practice.

 

How should we fix this approach? Some examples of evidence are really powerful when they are numbers but instead of drowning our audience with too many numbers, we can select one and use a very big font to isolate out that one number on screen. We then talk to that number and explain what it means. If we want to use line charts or trend analysis then one chart per slide is a good rule. We don’t split the visual concentration of our audience. We speak to the significance of the trend knowing that our audience can see the trend line for themselves.

 

To improve our communication effectiveness, we go one step further and we tell stories about these numbers. Who was involved, where, when and what happened. We recall stories more easily than masses of data. This helps to get us around to the WHY of our talk, the key point we want the audience to absorb. And we practice the delivery over and over until we are comfortable we have the cadence right. The application of knowledge is where the value lies and telling stories about both failures and successes brings the talk alive.

 

We recall Professor Albert Mehrabian’s study about the importance of not just what we say, but how we say it. He found that when what we are saying isn’t congruent with the way we are saying it, we can lose our audience. They get distracted by how we look and how we sound. Today, it is even worse because they have their phones and tablets handy to escape from us while we are speaking.

 

Emphasising particular words, adding gestures for strengthening key points, engaging our audience by using eye contact and facial expressions, allowing pauses so ideas can sink in and reducing distractions so our words are heard is how we need to be doing it. Yes, we should have great evidence and yes, we should impart that in the most effective means possible. If we have both content and delivery, then we are a force to be reckoned with!

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 17, 2017

When Presenting You Gotta Have Rhythm

 

Usually a speech or presentation is somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour long. Obviously, the longer the talk, the harder it is to keep the audience’s attention. Even worse, today, everyone has their internet connection to email, social media and apps in their hand, right there under the desk, while we are speaking. We have all become fervent multi-taskers, listening to someone speak while surreptitiously scrolling through our email feed, Facebook or LinkedIn or all three!

 

For the speaker to be persuasive there must be a transfer of passion and belief to the members of the audience. How does this work when we speakers are only getting the partial attention from those we wish to persuade? The irony is we have never had so many devices to aid our message communication and yet we are becoming less communicative thanks to our small screen obsession. Talking at others is not communication. Having our listener follow what we are saying, digest it and agree with it, must be the goal. Otherwise, why are we bothering? We could just send everyone the 10 key bullet points by email and we can all head off early to cocktails.

 

Words carry their weight through the delivery. I was reminded of this recently when some clever person put together a video of Donald Trump speaking, but dubbed him with a very polished Oxbridge style, British accent. The precise same words were there from the original speech by The Donald, but they were magically transformed into something that sounded more intelligent. How was that possible? The delivery is what made the difference and the dubbed speaker was very skilled and polished.

 

Many people imagine that the content of their talk will be sufficient to carry the day with their presentation and that emphasising delivery skills is simply dabbling in verbal voodoo. Such beliefs are often firmly held by technically oriented people, for whom proof, evidence, statistics and data are sacrosanct, solid and sacred. The weight of the evidence is all we need to persuade others. Not true!

 

“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it matter?”, is one of those cool, hipster questions some people like to throw around. Here is another version: “If your evidence was compelling, but nobody was paying close attention, would it matter?”. The answer is obviously “Yes, it matters”. The degree of difficulty in being heard in a cacophonous, blue back screen focused world is increasing everyday. We have to rise to the task.

 

Let’s presume that the presentation’s opening has been well designed and is successful in grabbing the attention of even the most distracted audience. Before we get to the wrap up and call for Q & A, we have our main points to present. This number will probably range between three and five points. If it is a 40 minute speech, then we have roughly 30 minutes for the main body and so around 5 to 10 minutes per section of the speech. There may be main points and sub-points in each section, depending on the density of the topic.

 

We can take a bracket of 5 to 6 minutes as our framework for the speech. Every bracket needs to have a change of pace to keep our audience’s attention. Even within the same topic or sub-topic, we need to switch gears and vary the delivery. This is not something we leave to happenstance – we plan this from the very start.

 

We might introduce a powerful visual effect be it on screen or in the room using a prop. I used a rolled up Japanese scroll to great effect in a speech. I wanted to unfurl the scroll so it would drop quickly and reveal what was written there. I attached some small weights to the bottom of the scroll to have it make a slight snapping sound for even more dramatic effect.

 

On the scroll was written “DatsuO NyuA” (脱欧入亜), which was a play on words reversing a Meiji era slogan of Japan turning away from Asia and going toward European civilization. I was making the point that my country of Australia was moving away from Europe toward Asia. I could have just said so in words, but the scroll drop was much more powerful.

 

On another occasion, I was making the point about Australia being as safe a Japan, because of the similar strict gun control laws. Hidden in my suit jacket I had a plastic replica Magnum 38 handgun, which Clint Eastwood made so famous in his Dirty Harry movies. It has a very long barrel and is a physically big gun, so even when viewed at a distance, it has visual impact. I slowly pulled the gun out and held it in profile view to the audience, high above my head, saying “This is illegal in Australia, the same as in Japan”, to make my argument about the safety of sending their children to study in Australia.

 

Now our speech cannot become littered with too many such devices every five minutes, because we will be exhausting our audience. However, there should be a change of pace at regular intervals to keep our audience with us. It might be a powerful quotation, a joke or a visual on a slide that grabs our attention. We are going for the mental equivalent of an audience stretch break every five minutes or so. The key is to plan the speech this way from the beginning, if we want our message to be heard.

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.

 

 

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

 

Apr 10, 2017

The “55% Of How We Communicate Is Visual” Myth

 Professor Albert Mehrabian’s 1967 study of communication concluded that 55% of the presenter’s message was received visually, 38% from voice tone and only 7% through the words. As we all know a little bit of knowledge is dangerous and these numbers have been widely misinterpreted. As a result a number of gurus and pseudo experts have built businesses around emphasising the importance of how we look when we present. So, according to this misplaced logic, how we look accounts for over half of the impression of how we come across, so pay careful attention to dress etc.

 

Professor Mehrabian nearly 50 years ago, flagged an issue that has reached epidemic proportions today – audience distraction. In his day, he was worried about factors that might compete with the key point we were trying to get across. His research showed that this 55/38/7 split only applied under one very critical condition.

 

When what we are saying is not congruent with how we are saying it, the audience leaves us. They go off message and get distracted by our dress and appearance in 55% of the cases. Others are no longer listening to what we are saying, but to how we are saying it. So 38% are focused on how we sound, our voice qualities, our accent, our pronunciation, etc. When we are incongruent between what we are saying and the delivery, only 7% of the words are registering with our audience.

 

When we say “incongruent” what do we mean by this? In some societies, family members being interviewed by television reporters after losing loved ones in a tragedy, are smiling while talking to camera. This is a painful moment, yet they are smiling. In these cultures this is accepted as a polite way to not burden others with their personal, heartfelt grief. This for the rest of us is incongruent. What we would expect is a face contorted with sad feelings, tears rolling down cheeks and a voice barely audible and breaking up under the strain. In the same way, a happy event greeted with a long, sad face would not be congruent.

 

Mehrabian’s work tells us that when we don’t match what we say with how we say it, we lose our audience. It wouldn’t matter how well dressed we were, we wouldn’t be able to maintain attention to what we are saying. No matter how stentorian or lilting, pleasant and professional our speaking voice, the key message is still being lost.

 

Wooden faces, devoid of expression are precisely the target for Mehrabian’s research results. These are often the experts in their fields who rely on their reputation and authority to carry the day. They are heavyweights and their faces are ever serious, never smiling. The problem is they are only able to manage one facial expression throughout their presentation, regardless of the content.

 

Not every sentence in a presentation is of such heavy weight seriousness. Consequently, the audience leaves their message and to add to that dilemma, it is so easy to escape the presenter today, thanks to powerful hand held devices allowing us to instant on-line access to the world.

 

We need to have highs and lows in our presentations. Serious and light moments, complex and simple components of the message. Each of these requires a face and voice of its own, that is in synch with the content. Of course we should be dressed appropriately for the occasion, but we need to make our face and voice do the work, not the suit, blouse, tie or shoes.

 

If the topic is serious, be serious but be prepared to ease off the pressure from the constant seriousness. It is exhausting for an audience, they need a break or we will lose them. If we are flippant and light all the time, we will not be providing enough variety for our audience at the other end of the scale. Telling jokes and repeating witticisms constantly for 40 minutes is not a substitute for a well designed presentation, unless you are a professional comedian and that is your trade.

 

If we focus on being congruent when we speak, then we will be more successful in getting our message across to our audience. That 7% number will flip to become close to 100% and that is what we want.

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

 

Apr 3, 2017

The Design Stage Of Presenting

 

Many people don't start out with a design for their talk.  They launch straight into the details, especially working with the slides.  The lack of design shows as the structure isn't tight enough, the points are nor clear enough and mostly the talk is totally forgettable.  They feel happy however because the talk was completed and they can tick that box.  This is often the case here in Japan where giving the speech well and just giving the speech are confused. Our objective is to provide value to our audience and build our personal and professional brand, not just give a speech.  We judge companies based on who we meet. If the person speaking is really impressive, we extrapolate that ability and project it to the whole team.  Conversely, if the speaker is a dud, then we assume nobody at that shop is much good.

 

Designing our presentation is a critical stage.  We have identified our target audience for our key messages.  We have selected the title to really engage our audience.  We know the purpose of the exercise - inform, persuade, entertain, motivate to action.

 

Designing the conclusion is always a good place to start.  The conclusion is really the summary of the key message we want to get across.  The actual content delivery of the concluding message may vary from what we design at the beginning, but it is still a very good discipline to force us to focus on the one central thing we want our audience to take away from our speech.

 

Having boiled all of the various things we could say down to the one most important thing, we can now work backward and think about how we can get our audience to agree with our conclusion.

 

Covering too many points and our audience will have trouble following the thread of our argument.  Too few points and the argument may not seem convincing for lack of depth and evidence.

 

We may group similar ideas under the one umbrella idea and may include those together.  We have the key points selected that we want to raise and now we have to construct the argument to support the ideas.  This would include some evidence based around statistics, data, expert opinion and authority references.

 

Usually three key points is easy for an audience to follow, but if the subject matter is complex or if you have been given a longer time to speak then five may be needed.  There are a number of structures for how you present the individual ideas. It could be a result/problem/ solution structure or you may switch the problem to the start and then outline the solution and the consequent result.  The key is that the structure flows logically to make it as easy as possible to follow.

 

Having derived the key points we are going to make, we go back and design two closes.  One is for the very end of the speech. This is to tie the whole presentation together.  We might review what we said or we might focus on a particular key point.

 

Having designed that close, we now design a different one to follow the Q & A session. We need this second close, so that we can keep the whole proceedings on track.  We have no control over what people will raise at the end by way of questions and so it often happens that an audience member will take the discussion off topic.  If we just allow the event to finish at that point we have lost control of the messaging.  We need to wrap it up in a way that the audience have our key point ringing in their ears as they leave the venue.

 

Finally we design the opening.  This is a tricky one because it is wrapped tightly together with the first impression we will make with the audience.  If we try a joke that is weak and falls flat, our initial impression is negative.  If we start rambling, we lose the audience's attention.  If we commence with something very boring we are going to have trouble breaking through the noise that is humming away between the ears of our audience.  We need to break into their attention and capture them for the receipt of our key message.

 

Questions are very powerful.  These should be asked rhetorically, in a way that the audience is not actually sure if it is a rhetorical question or something they actually have to answer.  This creates a certain amount of tension that drives their attention to what the speaker is saying.

 

They are curious to find out what you meant.

 

Quoting some relevant expert on the subject is also good because it references the topic and gives the speaker additional authority to their message.

 

Statistics are powerful because they are hard evidence and tell the audience this is going to be a fact based presentation and not just opinion.

 

Something shocking is a good way to grab attention, so make a provocative statement and then explain what you mean.

 

We can always flag our conclusion at the start and then spend the rest of the time justifying our interpretation.

 

This is a standard ploy and it has it’s own risks.  Audiences are already distracted and anything that smacks of predictability sees them drifting away from us and straying into extraneous unrelated thoughts, completely off-topic.

 

The title of our talk is usually selected before we get down to the nitty gritty of the speech design.  We may have been requested to speak on a certain subject, so our ability to use our title to intrigue may be contained.  It is not such a problem because most people will have forgotten the exact title of your talk and unless there is a slide with the title listed, they will have trouble recalling it word for word.

 

The opening, therefore is the opportunity to break through all the audience noise - all their screaming monkeys running around inside their brains.  This should be designed with great precision and delivered the same way. Don't digress or comment on something that has happened in the lead up, get straight into the opening and grab the audience.

 

Before the start of the event, get there early and mix with some of the participants.  Get them talking about the topic, this is a good way to connect with the audience by referencing what a couple of them said in the moments before the speech started.  The person referenced feels very special through the recognition and the imaginary boundary between the speaker and the audience disappears as the speaker becomes one with the group.

 

Only at this point in our preparation should we start playing around with the slides to support the presentation.  Once you have designed it this way the need for a lot of text on the screen disappears.  We know what we need to say and so we can start introducing pictures and diagrams, as well as text.  Even the text can be just one word because we are able to talk to the key points covered by that word.  This is very powerful because it keeps your eyes on the audience and off your text.

 

When we are designing the talk there will be key words that lend a lot of weight to our argument and these may be key words we want to emphasis on the screen, though a photo or a video or some image.

 

Everyone is used to seeing lots of text on the screen and when you present in a different way you remain memorable.  The audience will not remember the details of your speech, but they will remember their impression of you, the speaker.

 

Japan may be the land of Zen but there is very little Zen influence going on when it comes to slides.  Baroque with its ornate detail is more the flavor here with many competing colors and a screens packed with information, spread across an astonishing number of different fonts styles and sizes.

 

Japan has a love for detail, but we don't have to put it all up on the screen.  Japan also has a love of the written word and what is written down carries a lot more weight that in Western countries.  The point here is that Japan is still some way behind the rest of the world in this aspect of clear communication.

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

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