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 | Posted by Ben Decker | March 5th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Tweet This |
As many of you have seen, Toyota put on a large-scale video conference with 7,000 employees this morning. This is a great example of using video communication to connect in a business setting.
Here’s a video blog about the critical nature of connecting in business, exemplified by this morning’s Toyota conference:
 | Posted by Kelly Decker | March 4th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Tweet This |
I love gnocchi. Love. Gnocchi. In my humble opinion, it’s one of the most delicious, perfect things to eat. My favorite Italian restaurant Incontro has the best I’ve ever had.
The amazing thing is that gnocchi is crazy simple. It’s mind boggling that potatoes, flour and eggs can combine to make a fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth pillow of pure goodness.
But here’s the problem: Simple ain’t easy. I asked Incontro’s owner, Gianni Bartoletti, how they do it. You’ve got to do the right things with the potatoes, flour, and eggs to make it come together in the right way. Use the wrong kind of potato, not enough flour, too much mixing and you’ll end up with a gummy mess.
Creating a simple message isn’t easy either. We want to cram so much information, riddled with jargon, to make our point. And it’s not as if we are trying to be difficult, it’s just that we have a whole lot to say to prove our company, our products, services and ourselves. We over add and over mix our message, and the core – the most important single idea – gets lost.
Here are a couple of my favorite resources on Simplicity:
So, keep it simple – please. For your next message – think potatoes, flour, and eggs, and mix them up just right to create a memorable experience.
 | Posted by Bert Decker | February 19th, 2010 | 11 Comments | Tweet This |
Although it was painful for Tiger Woods to have his giant size ’statement’ this morning, the key question is: was he believable? Oh, we want facts (is Elin leaving? when is he returning to golf? is he staying in rehab?, etc) but that information we could get from his web page, where he has announced everything else. We want to see him. We want to hear and ‘feel’ him to judge for ourselves.
My book “You’ve Got To Be Believed To Be Heard” is a case in point. Before this morning, Tiger Woods lived a life of deception – lying to Elin, to his friends, and to millions of his public. He was not believed before his statement. He had to be telling a dozen or so lies a day to keep up his dual life. Has his deception changed? If he’s not believed, he won’t be heard.
So the question is can he regain our trust and his credibility? This was a messaging event where we had to see his heart.
Did we?
In a word, yes.
We saw a different Tiger Woods. Here is what he did well:
It’s all about messaging, creating a positive experience that moves the ball in the right direction. He hit a long drive down the fairway.
Here’s is what was missing:
Ultimately, we’ll see. The words, and this communication experience he’s created, are an important first step. As he said, Elin will judge his behavior, not his words. So will we.
A couple of months ago we had him as one of the Ten Worst Communicators of 2009 – mostly because he shut up and did not communicate, much less speak openly. And whenever he did speak, he never really communicated whom he was even before his downfall. Lesson for all of us – if we don’t communicate openly and authentically, we just don’t communicate and will fail to get a believable message across. The Tiger has now talked.
So Tiger Woods is now out in the fairway, and close to the green. Tiger Woods next couple of shots in public will be critical to see if he ultimately makes a par or a birdie. Or a bogie if he does not walk his talk.
| Posted by Bert Decker | February 5th, 2010 | 11 Comments | Tweet This |
The truth is, status quo is a facade. You’re either improving or decaying. Some have put it that you are either growing or you’re dying. True. There is no in between.
What’s your goal as a communicator? To improve specific behavioral skills? To develop your communication skills to the next level? To be a highly-sought after speaker? Or are you at the top of your game – the pinnacle of your capabilities? You think?
We’re all moving along the continuum of effective communicators. Even when you reach your goal as a communicator, the journey continues.
Perfection is a dangling carrot, serving as a motivator to lean forward and do it. Whatever you have achieved, there is always more work to be done. This is especially true when it comes to your image as a communicator. At a Speaker’s Roundtable meeting last year, Don Hutson – a great speaker, good friend and author of The One Minute Entrepreneur said: “The image of a person, company or product is never a constant but an ever-changing variable.”
Your image – and the substance behind it – is indeed an ever-changing variable. And you don’t define it – others do. What you do and how you do it are constantly under scrutiny. There’s no end to the evolution of your reputation. It’s dynamic – interpreted by people in real time, all the time, every second you’re exposed to and interacting with others.
To rest in the confidence that you have secured for yourself a favorable image or reputation is to rest, period. There’s no room for inertia in a highly competitive world of constant motion – not when your objective is excellence. There is no capturing a dangling carrot. To be an excellent communicator, you must continuously solicit feedback. Ask, listen and learn. What they see is what they get. Learn what they see; then make sure what they’re seeing is what you want them to get.
Get on video. Often. Observed behavior changes.
Keep your eyes on the carrot and your ears peeled for feedback, and the communicator you seek to be will align with the communicator others see in you. Over time…
| Posted by Ben Decker | February 3rd, 2010 | 1 Comment | Tweet This |
After writing about Compartmentalized Communicating, I’ve been thinking about how significant storytelling is to the successful communications experience. Nothing makes that human, emotional connection better than authentic, compelling storytelling. It was Hans Rosling’s brilliant presentation of statistics at TED India that has kept this topic on my mind.
As Hans demonstrates, telling a story can deliver your message almost effortlessly through the gatekeeper of the First Brain to the data processor of the New Brain. (More information on First Brain and New Brain is detailed in You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard and a bit in my Compartmentalized Communicating post.)
Bert wrote an excellent post on The Power of Story. It’s spot on. I’d like to add value to it with this complementary post offering a few unique resources, each providing a different perspective on storytelling.
The Moth. A non-profit organization dedicated to the art of storytelling. With performances selling out in less than 48 hours with absolutely no advertising other than word of mouth, the demand for storytelling speaks volumes.
“One of the hottest events in town… The Moth is an evening of
unashamedly old-fashioned storytelling…
the performances are enthralling,
funny and moving, with a typical New York intensity.”
- The Times (London)
“The success of The Moth is one example of
the phenomenon of storytelling that is gaining momentum
nationwide. In The Moth’s case, these narrative
sessions are fast becoming an institution.”
- The New York Times
“We celebrate the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection.” – from The Moth’s Mission Statement
Experience Project. The world’s largest living collection of shared experiences, with over 24 experience categories. Launched in 2007, boasting nearly 3.5 million experiences shared, this is place where individuals share their stories in an anonymous, comfortable and supportive place. A unique website revealing the human hunger to share and read stories, this website is also a useful tool for communicators to search for stories and ideas from categories such as Education, Entertainment, Politics, Business, Relationships, to name a few. From confessions to inspirational stories, the Experience Project is an excellent resource for exploring the stories that connect human experience.
Problogger.net: Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog. This popular blog by Darren Rowse (@problogger) highlights for the blogging community what Decker emphasizes for communicators. In researching the historical data for his blog, Darren learned that story blog posts were among the most popular over the last five years. His bullet point list of why stories are valuable for bloggers applies to all communicators, aligned with Bert’s The Power of Story blog post earlier this year.
The common thread of these three sites is clear. People love stories; stories connect them to each other in the most basic human way. Stories are bridges between our humanity and the objective of our presentations. Something so significant should be shared.
Photo credit: zinkwazi
| Posted by Ben Decker | January 26th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Tweet This |
“I’m good at sharing facts. I don’t have to use emotion very often, but when I do, I need to speak at the emotion more.”
This came from a client in a recent Platinum Session, referring to the commonly-held belief that engaging emotions is an effort we make only for those presentations intended to motivate and inspire. For this client, he viewed the majority of his presentations as just providing information.
It’s human tendency to compartmentalize. We segment ourselves in all sorts of ways, including ideas about how we should communicate. It seems natural to separate motivational and inspirational focused speeches from data delivery presentations. However, what’s “natural” is not always best. A fragmented mindset can backfire when it comes to communication.
I asked this client a couple of questions:
By definition, a presentation intends to make an impact by conveying information. You can’t make an impact if your data doesn’t reach its destination (the receptive minds of your listeners). Though we might categorize presentations into different types, communication – by definition – involves both emotion and information.
Bert wrote about this in You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard. People buy on emotion and justify with fact. You can’t connect with the mind – the New Brain (Cerebral Cortex) – without first getting past the gatekeeper – the First Brain (Brain Stem and Limbic System). The First Brain is the seat of emotion and emotional response. Data destined for the New Brain travels through the filter of the First Brain. The First Brain is where the human connection (likability, credibility and trust) is measured. Without getting past the First Brain, the information intended to reach the New Brain hits a brick wall. No matter what type of presentation you are giving, if you want to produce results, you need to be human. You need to incorporate your emotions. You need to connect with the hearts and minds of your audience.
Hans Rosling is a master at bridging the gap between data delivery and human connection. On his Presentation Zen blog, Garr Reynolds wrote an excellent post detailing how Hans does this. You need only watch a minute or two of Hans in action to understand why he’s so esteemed.
Hans takes data, statistics and trends (information that could easily be a “just presenting data/data dump” presentation) and engages the hearts and minds of his listeners, delivering the data right through the heart and into the mind. Through storytelling, humor and an uncanny ability to perceive and respond to the emotional pulse of his audience, Hans glides right through the First Brain and lands extensive amounts of statistical data into the New Brain, making a memorable impact.
It’s easy to get buried in data and compartmentalize communication into different categories – some requiring emotional connection; others not. But when we do this, we fail to recognize the significance of connecting with our listeners. This is when we need to step back and remind ourselves: Communication without emotion is just data dump. It’s disconnected; it doesn’t effect change; it doesn’t make an impact. The data has no value if it doesn’t reach its destination. Successful communication incorporates the whole self – heart and mind – to connect with others in a basic human way. The human connection is the communications experience – not the data.
Photo credits: Café psicologico
| Posted by Bert Decker | January 20th, 2010 | 5 Comments | Tweet This |
Put your politics aside for a moment – a new communications star was born tonight. Unless you live under a rock, you now know of Scott Brown, who won the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday.
I hesitated blogging on Scott Brown’s acceptance speech because I just got back from Las Vegas and it’s late and it’s too political – but after seeing him on Tivo I couldn’t resist. What Barack Obama did in 2004 in his speech at the Democratic convention, Scott Brown just did in 2010 in his victory speech – burst upon the national scene.
Here’s why:
But above all, his victory speech created a communication experience, and not just for the enthusiastic, and very large, crowd of supporters. For the viewer the image of confidence, strength and purpose was powerful. Although there’s a lot of water yet to go under Scott Brown’s bridge, right now, like him or not politically, he is a force to be reckoned with.
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