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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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THE Presentations Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
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Now displaying: March, 2021
Mar 29, 2021

I was watching an “expert” giving a series of video instruction modules on leading dispersed teams, now that many of us are working from home.  I thought this will be useful and maybe I can pick up a few ideas for myself.  It was a rather pedestrian affair I have to say and in one part, dangerously incorrect.  The instructor claims to have a Ph.D., so presumably has done some major original research to warrant that degree.  Shoveling misinterpretations of research done by other academics into the public domain about first impressions is quite shocking. It is even more jarring when that instructional course commands a payment of our hard won cash.

 

We have many opportunities to create a first impression.  Meeting someone for the first time at a networking event is a mini-presentation of your personal and professional brand.  Talking to people at the venue, before you go up to the podium to give your talk after the luncheon is another example.  Appearing on audio or video live stream and in recorded content are also in that same category.  Obviously presenting on stage or virtually are the arenas given the most attention for building first impressions. Let’s take a look at all of these in turn and also put our “expert’s” fake news to the sword.

 

Meeting someone in a crowded noisy networking environment is a tough one.  Fortunately in Japan, we exchange our meishi or business cards, so that we have the name and details about what they do.  Counterintuitively, in these situations we should say little.  Many thrusters imagine they need to dominate the air, hog the conversation and talk continuously about themselves.  To build a solid first impression, start with a smile when you meet the person as you shake hands or bow and keep smiling as you hand over the meishi.  Smiling implies warmth, friendliness and confidence.  We like all of those in strangers. 

 

Next ask them about what they do, why they do it, how long they have done it, where are they from etc.  Why? We want to hear about them.  In this process they feel good to talk about themselves and to respond to our questions about their glorious past, present or future.  As they speak, we can often find commonalities that make it easier for us to connect as strangers.  Also, as we learn more about them, we are in a better position to appreciate who they are.

 

When it is our turn, we should be brief and try to draw out our shared experiences if we have found any.  We should also get back to getting them to talk about themselves as soon as possible.  Their first impression about us will be someone who is considerate, polite, interested in them and a “good conversationalist”.

 

When we are on Clubhouse we are live, so there can be no Take Two.  This is a one shot chance to speak to the whole world during that session.  Again, smile when you are speaking.  The audience cannot see the smile, but they can feel it.  Don’t go on Clubhouse without a plan.  Talking about the first thing that pops into your head is why most of the conversation on Clubhouse is rubbish.  Have a small number of bullet points you will discuss so that you can navigate the audience through your content. Rehearse the points beforehand so you eliminate ums and ahs, hesitations, monotone delivery and a thousand other horrible deviations from a good talk. Start with confidence and speak more loudly than normal to overcome the limitations of the platform.  Get a timer and set it to three minutes maximum, so you are forced to be clear and concise.

 

Live in person requires us to carefully choreograph the first few minutes of the talk.  Get there early and check all of the tech.  Have someone else load your slide deck or fire it up for you at the start of the talk.  You want to be standing in the middle of the stage away from the laptop, engaging your audience from the beginning of your impressive introduction by the MC. Start with a teaser opening.  Some comment which will break into the already packed minds and attention spans of the audience and have them sit up and listen carefully to what you have to say. Next, introduce yourself and thank the organisers, before you get into the speech proper.

 

Recorded podcasts and videos can be edited, so our first impression sins can be washed away in the editing suite.  Live streaming though is a different story.  The start of these live video sessions is always a nightmare.  When you are doing it all solo, it is very hard to time the start properly and so it is easy to appear awkward and clunky.  Some systems are live as soon as you hit the record button and others have a brief count down until they start.  Having you all set up ready to go by having someone else hit the start button is best. With Zoom calls etc., you can keep the audience in the waiting room until you are ready to go, so that is more easily controlled.

 

The fake news of the instructor mentioned earlier is that our first impression is formed 55% from dress, 38% from voice tone and 7% from what we say.  You may have heard these dubious numbers bandied about before. Professor Albert Mehrabian, who published this research in the 1960s, added an important caveat to those numbers. This important qualification was entirely missing from the content the supposed “expert” was touting.  Mehrabian said these numbers apply only when what we say is incongruent with how we say it.  Our facial expression and body language have to match up with the content of what we are saying.  If it doesn’t, our audience gets distracted and do not focus on the message anymore.  They are more consumed by how we dress and how we sound.

 

First impressions in any context should be planned rather than left to random happenstance.  This is your personal and professional brand we are talking about here and they are much too important to treat lightly or be compromised.  Beware of non-expert  “experts”. The barrier to entry for offering online learning coursesis zero and often that is the value of the content too.

Mar 22, 2021

When I read this quote from Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon from 1971 that “ a wealth of information would create a poverty of attention” I thought about its ramifications for presenters.  Today, we are firmly swimming against a King tide of information overload, so Simon’s dystopian prophecy has come to fruition.  This is the Age of Distraction for audiences.  They are gold medal winning poor listeners and yet we have to present to them.  We know that storytelling is one sure fire way to snaffle their attention and yet that path is littered with landmines.

 

Very few business presenters tell stories at all in their talks.  They are enamoured with their high quality content.  Which usually means the results of surveys, research or data collation.  Data is rarely strong enough to linger long in our memories.  This is  because usually there is a ton of data, each morsel, each three decimal tidbit vanquishing the one before and so on and so on, until we recall nothing, as Simon predicted. 

 

Business presenters imagining their data is enough are fooling themselves, because their messages are not breaking through that wall of distraction and that poverty of attention.  For the few who do tell stories they are freelancing, going free style with no structure.  They just relate what happened.  What is the point of the story?  Is the delivery getting the key messages in front of the audience in a way that they will remember it?  Are the listeners seeing any relevance for themselves in this story?

 

Where do we start with the story?  Do we get straight to the point, do we go to the key take away?  “Hey, get to the point”. We often hear this from bosses and we mistakenly follow that direction with our storytelling.  Why is it a mistake?  We have to grasp the fundamental difference between writing a report, where we start with the conclusion we have reached from our analysis, otherwise known as the “Executive Summary” and giving an oral presentation.  When we launch forth with our recommendation, we open up the flood gates of rampant critique.

 

Many who are listening start thinking that we are wrong, have misfired with our analytical findings and have failed to account for important alternate considerations. Why do they react like that?  We have put forth our main point completely naked and unprotected, so that is all they have to go on.  In the sequence, our explanation of how we came to this conclusion follows next.  Critically, the critics are not really listening now because they are consumed by what they think is wrong with it, so the justification portion gets lost for them.

 

We should instead begin with our context, the background which has informed our conclusion, based on the data and experiences we analysed.  We need to populate this context with people they know, places they can see in their mind’s eye and lodge it in a temporal frame which the audience can process. 

 

The genius of this approach is that while sitting there listening to us warble on, the audience are racing ahead and reaching their own conclusions about the insights to be gained from this context.  Given a certain set of circumstances, there are a limited number of conclusions to be drawn and the chances are very high, that they will have reached the same one you did. When you announce it, the listeners mentally say to themselves “that’s right”.  Bingo! 

 

Now instead of facing an audience of doubters, one uppers and thrusters, you are dealing with fans of your work.  The key is to make the insight download very concise.  When we teach this formula, invariably people want to jumble a number of insights together and run through them.  Each additional insight dilutes the power of the one before it and so on.  It is critical to select the strongest, best insight and only pull the velvet curtain back to reveal that one.

 

The final step is to take the context and the insight and then package it up and place it on a silver tray for the audience to take home with them, when we outline the relevance to them.  Although we have produced an insight, it is an inert outcome.  What does that insight do for us, how can we use it, where will this be valuable for us, when can we apply it? When we receive the insight wisdom with that relevancy formula attached, it makes sense. We feel attending the speaker’s presentation today was time well spent.  We got something worthwhile which will help us navigate the future that little bit better and more easily.   Again, this has to be done very concisely, for the same reasons discussed about explaining the insight.

 

So the formula is context, insight and then explain the relevance.  If we mix it up we are making things hard for ourselves, so resist any calls to get to the point, by being forced to put up the insight like a sacrificial lamb about to be slaughtered.  Hold it in reserve until the scene has been set.  Sherlock Holmes and Poirot, great fictional detectives always revealed the baddie’s name after giving the background of the crime.  It is a well tested, tried and true formula for storytelling, so try it.

Mar 15, 2021

The largest meeting venue in the office complex was big enough to handle hundreds of people and it was packed. This presentation involved all the senior heads of the Department going through their strategies for the coming year. One after another, we took to the stage and spoke about our areas of responsibility. I was one of the five who spoke. My turn came after a particular colleague who was a numbers wiz, a brainy technical expert. He didn't like the way I presented. He went around telling other colleagues I was all style and no substance. I just laughed when I heard that flat earth comment.

Over the years. I have heard versions of the same idea. These comments weren't necessarily being directed at me as a put down by a sharp elbowed thrusting colleague, but toward the activity of presenting in general. There's a fundamental misunderstanding of presenting in play here. Of course, the material has to be high quality, valuable, and insightful. That is a given. If you don't have that basic requirement covered then what on earth are you doing presenting at all? Instead, you should be sitting in the audience, listening to people who know what they're talking about and be kept away from the dais.

My evil colleague at the all team presentation was reacting to the flagrant contrast of his pathetic presentation skills on stage with mine. There was nothing wrong with my content, my substance, because I was representing the Department and so the materials were reflecting the results gained and the plans for the next year. What he didn't like was being upstaged by someone who could command the room, engage the audience and deliver clear messages in a professional way. Nothing he could ever be accused of, so he went for the personal down to assuage his own inadequacies and perceived loss of face.

As we climb the ladder of our career growth, we will be placed in situations where we have to represent our team or company and make professional presentations. It is almost inescapable. If we cannot even grasp the importance of mastering the nitoryu(二刀流) or two sword method of going into business battle with both high quality content and high quality delivery, then we wouldn't be moving very far up the totem pole within our organizations.

I was coaching a senior executive in a multi-national organization. Recently when I asked for the three most important things to be gained from the one-on-one training, the first mentioned was quality content. Uh oh! I had an alarm bell go off in my head because quality content has to be a given. I asked to see the slides to be used for the presentation to the big boss. Uh oh! On the first slide there was lots of content. In fact, a veritable forest of content hiding all the key messages. The other slides were all the same, overwhelming amounts of visual stimulation diluting the points which we were meant to absorb.

I suggested that each of these slides be broken up and the same information be spread over three slides. If there was a need to show, a build or a contrast, then only show the left slide of the slide at first. Then grey that information out and bring up the middle of the slide and so forth and so on. In this way, we funnel our audiences’ attention to just the section we want to highlight and cut down the distraction. This executive was open to the advice and actually told me what I was looking at was the “slimmed down version of the deck.” My mind boggled, wondering what the original looked like.

While my mind was under assault from this revelation, another bomb was dropped. Today, all of their presentations are being done online. Okay, fine, however, this executive’s colleagues, who are also senior leaders in this massive organization, do not switch on their own cameras when they present. That little morsel just stopped me in my tracks. What?

I get it. Because you are presenting slides, the platform relegates you to a tiny box on screen and does the same to your audience. Does that mean though, as a leader in the organization, you lead by turning off the camera? Getting people who are working at home engaged during business calls is tough enough, without fostering a no camera culture of hiding. There is a slippery slope here to the wondrous joys of multi-tasking in the background of calls and no longer paying attention to what is being said or shown during the session.

Yes, we are trapped in a tiny box, but we have to do our best with what we have. We need to look at that camera lens, get the lens right up to eye height and use 20% more energy than normal to work in this visual medium. These are absolute basics. And beyond that, we need to be using gestures and even more energy to engage the audience.

Let's master nitoryu presenting and be strong on content and delivery quality. No matter the limitations of the medium we are employing. If we are leaders, we have to set the pace and the standards. There are no excuses.

Mar 8, 2021

Clubhouse is a new app that enables audio discussions with people who share a similar interest, coming together from around the world.  The conversations are not retained and the content disappears each day.  There is no distribution of the content either, because of that removal function.  Unlike say a written blog which can sit on your website continually adding value to your brand.  Also, there is no repurposing capability, because there is only one format and that is not transportable.  Your written blog can become a podcast or the script for a video. Nevertheless, you are live, unfiltered and global all at the same time.  We are putting our personal and professional brands out there for all to calibrate, evaluate and conclude about. Because it is new, we may be blind to the position we have inadvertently put ourselves in.

 

What is biggest problem with Clubhouse?  It is what people are saying and how they are saying it.  Because it is an open mic situation, some people reveal they are babblers.  Maybe the isolation factor of so many people working at home is driving this need to just talk, talk, talk.  For the listener though, the impression is this person is not smart, clear, concise or considered.  Would you want to connect further with them or do business with them?  Probably not.

 

Being highly articulate and thinking on your feet while live is a bigger ask than giving a prepared talk.  There is no opportunity to rehearse the content and the delivery.  Being a live platform, Clubhouse precludes that facility. When you write something, you may be very credible and authoritative, but in a live environment you don’t have anywhere to hide.  If you can’t get to the point or your point is a bit pointless or mundane, then judgments kick in and your personal brand can take a hit.

 

There is also no visual aspect to support what you are talking about.  In formal presentations you can show things on stage or refer to slides on screen, to help drive the key information you want to get across.  Now we are down to just voice, so how expert are you at painting word pictures.  Most speakers are scanty in accessing the word picture opportunity when presenting. 

 

Clubhouse also needs storytelling skills.  These have to be concise, because otherwise you become too long winded and hog the limelight. Nobody is going to appreciate that and your reputation suffers accordingly. High interest gripping stories packed with vivid word pictures, filled to the gunnels with value would be the way to go. Using the variety in your voice options, including modulation, pauses, and word highlighting, add to the ease of following what you are saying.

 

How many people with all of these skills have you heard on Clubhouse so far? Hiding amongst or blending in with equally hopeless speakers on Clubhouse isn’t the answer. What should we be doing? Make sure your Clubhouse profile is done well. Get a good photo of yourself so the people can see what you look like. Make it a professional look in business battle dress if you're a professional. Or something groovy if you're a pony-tail, black Armani, t-shirt creative.

 

You have a lot of space to write about yourself. So when people check you out, you want to come across as an expert or authority in your field. We want to connect with experts and winners, not wannabes.  Make sure the first three lines are really powerful, concise triumphs of marketing, because that is what appears in the feed.when your name comes up on screen.

 

Be very cautious about which rooms you participate in. Find your topic of interest, and then see if there are regular gatherings of other folk with a similar proclivity. Listen to the quality of the contributions first and decide if this one is a keeper or not. You might have to spend some time sorting through the dross, but there is no shortcut available as yet. If you can find a group of like-minded people who have something worth listening to, then keep attending.

 

Eventually the host will invite you to elevate to speaker status. Part of that decision is based on your profile and your regular interest in the content. When you get asked to speak, start strong with a confident voice, be polite and thank the host and the other participants for this chance to talk.  Being complimentary of comments from some of the other prior speakers is also a good idea. This shows community, humility, and consideration.

 

Having mapped out in front of you the key bullet points you want to cover, also set a timer in front of you for three minutes. This makes your contribution punchy, valuable and concise. It will be evaluated highly because of the “please, no fluff “ rule. If you find yourself suddenly waffling, then stop speaking and give someone else a chance to contribute. You usually get more than one chance to speak, but don't overdo it. No one wants to listen to some thrusting blowhard, who loves the sound of their own voice. Go into Clubhouse with a plan just as you would with any presentation.

 

The difference with this medium is you can crash and burn globally, rather than just in front of a limited room of 50 people face to face. It is still your personal and professional brand out there at risk though. So take steps to eliminate or reduce that risk factor.

Mar 1, 2021

This pandemic will blow over soon and we can all get back to normal.  What will that “normal” look like though in the presenting world.  CFOs have pulled their green eye shades down and sharpened their pencils and realised the company can save a truck load of dough by attending business and industry conferences virtually, rather than in person.  I am on the Board of the International Dale Carnegie Franchisee Association.  Normally (that word again!) we would travel to our Owner’s Meeting in some pleasant locale and gather the faithful from around the world in June.  We had to do it virtually last year and had the biggest turnout of participants ever and saved a fleet of truckloads of money for the Association and the Franchisees.

 

Will we do them virtually now?  That is a good question and like a lot of organisations, is a hot topic under discussion.  Companies won’t be so keen to spend big money on internal meetings anymore, because the economics is unassailable.  Face to face won’t necessarily go to zero and the perfidious online platforms will continue to plague our lives into the future.  The term “hybrid” is getting tossed around with expansive abandon, as we explore constructs such as some people online and some in the room arrangements.

 

How do we present in these situations?  There are people in front of us and people beaming in from their homes, workspaces, cafes, the beach or wherever takes their fancy.  As the presenter are you in the room or online?  Are there multiple presenters, so there is a mix of presenter locations underway?  The complex business of presenting is only going to get even more complex.

 

This is really the Age of Distraction and those beaming into the sessions are completely free to escape from us with no compunction, shame, accountability, or grace. Bosses worried about leading people without line of sight, once the great diaspora to our homes took place. They should be more worried about company meetings being held online and how much engagement is going on with the troops. The bottom line is it is not only not going away, it is about to become more diabolical. Technology will evolve, but the burden on the presenter just escalates exponentially.

 

After a year of everyone being on Zoom, Teams, WebEx or whatever, do I see people mastering the medium? Sadly, I don't. I still see people who are still placing their laptops on the desk in front of them, rather than raising the height of the camera to eye line. I found the box set of the Harry Potter movies I bought many years ago for my son is the perfect height for elevating the camera and elevating my ability to release audiences from peering up my nostrils.

 

Do I see people engaging with the camera? Or with the faces arranged about five to 10 centimeters below the camera on the main screen? Everyone is looking at the faces on the screen when they are talking, rather than talking to the camera. Yes, it is perplexing to have that gap. Yes, it is a flaw in the tech, because your brain automatically directs you to the faces rather than to the lens. It means though that when we are in the presenter role, we have to override our brain and keep telling ourselves, keep looking at the lens, keep looking at the lens, keep looking at the lens.

 

True, we can't see the reactions, but that is not so different to presenting when the stage is flooded with lights and the audience are in a deep pool of darkness in the distance and you can't see anyone's face. 

 

The other basic thing still missing, even after everyone has become a veteran of online meetings, is energy in the presenters. The screen mediums rob us of about 20% of our on-screen presence. So, we have to at least ramp things up by that factor, to just tread water.  Given people are easily prone to multitask in the background, we need to lift our energy even further to engage them. Do I see people doing this after 12 months of experience? No, they babble on in a flat dull voice, with no presence and little energy. The presenting role is set to become even more fraught. If we haven't even mastered the basics, how are we going to handle substantially greater complexity? Time is short. “Tech waits for no man”. We have to shift our mindset and shift it right now.

 

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