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:

• Do you ever give a presentation in which you’re not presenting data?
• Do you ever give a presentation in which you have no intention of impacting your audience?

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.

The key to successful communicating is realizing that all communication is an opportunity to motivate and inspire, and all communication requires emotional connection to make an impact.

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

Speaking and Twitter dominance

The experience of South by South West (SXSW) in Austin is like the
Wild West – it's the frontier of Social Media converging with traditional conference,
dominated by Twitter. After experiencing it, I've modified my opinions since my last Twitter post here, and more will be coming on that (for a very good post on this subject today see Mark Ivey's blog.)

First, four important (read 'Rock Star') voices from SXSW on the question "Is Twitter distracting, additive or what?" I recorded our conversations spontaneously on my iPhone – here are highlights:

@Armano - (Listen to iPhone recording here)

• Good thing, not a bad thing
• Speaker can broadcast his/her message
• When I tweet in conference, use it as notes
• Tweeting causes disconnect but you store up info and come back to it

@GuyKawasaki – (iPhone recording here)

• Very good for speakers, can reach thousands through tweets
• I like big numbers!
• Tweeters disconnect – It's like taking notes
• Not too distracting for me as a speaker. But embarrassing when I'm speaking and someones sees a live tweet from one of my surrogates…

@Pistachio – (iPhone recording here)

• Tweeters can take over a conference – last SXSW
• Great as back channel, speakers can see what audience wants
• Opens up ways to broadcast our content world wide in seconds
• Tradeoffs – can distract speaker, be rude, discount audience
• Can connect with individuals in room and conference
• One more things for corporations to assimilate, change "laptops down" policy

@ChrisBrogan – (iPhone recording here)

• Important to be able to free flow and multi-task well
• Many conversations can take place at the same time, all can express themselves
• Note taking useful for in house audience
• Real audience is the thousands outside the conference room
• Twitter is like hamburger helper for the conversation – makes a little go a long way
• We'll learn to speak in 'twitter bites' (as Chris Brogan does!)

There's a unanimity of opinion by those who are in the Twitter elite of course, and I share their enthusiasm for the possibilities. But there's another side to the story in the traditional and more bureaucratic business world – which is perhaps 80% (or more) of the business population. They still think Twitter is the answer to the now irrelevant question, "What are you doing?" (The other day I asked the CEO of a billion dollar investment banking firm how he used Twitter and he said "What's Twitter?")

More to come on this important communication experience, and Twitter tips for the mainstream business population…

@BertDecker

Be Aware, and Beware!

There's been a lot of buzz – and new insight – into what to do about people twittering while you are speaking. Olivia Mitchell did an outstanding guest blog on Laura Fitton's Pistachio site, and the next day on Chris Spagnuolo's Edgehopper, wrapping up a busy week with her own summary post. All great food for thought – but let's not get carried away. The "back channel" will only be useful in a small number of communicating environments – at least for the next year or so. Here's why:

The great majority of Twitterers, and bloggers for that matter, are early adopters, and tech/social media savvy. They probably would be lost without their computers/PDA's/phones (I know I would.) However the majority of the business world uses the tools, but don't lose themselves in the process. And I'm afraid that the thrust of the current Twitter buzz advocating twittering during speeches will cause an expectation of good communication that will not be met – and will lead the majority of people (like most of our clients) down the wrong path.

Now there ARE great new possibilities, particularly with high tech audiences like at SXSW, and others. So there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.

Let’s start with the ugly:

• Until there was Twitter, there was only ‘Blackberry Abuse,’ which we blogged on awhile back. Here it was rude for people to go to their Blackberrys (or PDA's/iPhones) during a meeting or speech to IM or check email – but they did it anyway. Because they were bored!
• The solution to Blackberry Abuse was to be INTERESTING as a speaker. Engage and excite your audience and they will be compelled to listen, and watch!
• That’s still the solution to the almost 90% of speaking situations where Twittering would not be appropriate (see below). But we're beginning to see an expectation that people SHOULD Twitter, it’s OK, it will be constructive, and it’s not really because they’re bored. But the majority of Twitterers WILL be twittering because they are bored, because the majority of speakers are unfortunately boring. And so now we have a valid excuse to put our heads down, get our minds on the tweet and not the message, and be rude to the unsuspecting speaker.
• Confusion will reign.

Now for the bad:

• In probably 80-90% of most business and conference settings speakers have a message to give – at keynote speeches and large company events – the large audience venues. It is not a groupthink or collaboration (see below for “the good.”)
• You can't read and listen effectively at the same time. This has been well documented by Edward Tufte and others, and I'll personally confirm that with my past 30 years experience in the communication and speaking business. It is cognitive dissonance in action.
• Think of the problem with PowerPoint presentations filled with text, (also well documented in this blog and Presentation Zen and others.) We’ve all had the sad but common experience of reading ahead, as the speaker says, “Now stay with me.” And of course we don’t, and since we can’t read and listen at the same time we have cognitive dissonance.
• And it’s even worse with Tweeting. If you think you can’t read and listen at the same time, it’s even worse to try to text and listen (and read) at the same time. If you have a group listening to a speaker (supposedly) and tweeting about the speaker’s 140 character sound bites (supposedly) and looking at the text and PowerPoints, and reading other Tweeter’s tweets, and looking up urls – chaos reigns in the mind. The speaker has lost control, and there is not only NOT better communication – it is far worse and more fragmented.
• In this large conference/event/speech setting where the speaker has a point-of-view and a message to deliver, the speaker is responsible for the experience. You can’t command “No Blackberrys. No Twitter!” – because people will do what they want to do. But there are other ways – the speaker cannot abdicate his or her responsibility. He or she should be should be interesting, engaging and powerful, using arresting stories, visuals and Black Slides!

A new perspective – the good that will come out of this:

• The growing dialogue and power of Twitter is opening up new ways to communicate, and we are just on the forefront. This is what this recent buzz is leading to, and take the time to read all of the ideas and comments in those blog links below – you’ll get some idea of where it is going.
• Workshops, social media sessions, Jelly!, BarCamps, et al are far different than the traditional more formal speeches mentioned above. Although they won’t replace them anytime soon, they are offering new collaborative possibilities, and it is these where Twitter and the ‘back channel’ will flourish. Likely ALL the sessions at SXSW 2009 Austin in two weeks will be Twitter enhanced, providing a high level laboratory – much should come out of that.
• On webinars and teleconferences there is much more potential for using Twitter, and this back channel becomes very useful where you don't have the speaker present, and need more visual engagement.
• The thousands of smaller meetings and business conferences going on everyday should be living laboratories for experimenting and trying out some of these new ideas of Twitter that have already shown promise.

See Olivia, Pistachio and Edgehopper for dozens of examples of the benefits of Twitter in today's growingly diverse communications experiences. But don’t lose sight of the fact that in most speeches today, Twittering during a speech won’t be of use – but abuse.

"If you’re going through hell, keep going."

He was an all star basketball player and athlete in high school, and got polio three weeks before the Salk vaccine became available. Dan told his story at the Million Dollar Round Table last week, driving on stage in a motorized cart. He told how for the first year he was depressed and helpless, but then he chose to like himself, and chose laughter over heartache. And slowly he came back from no mobility to the use of one arm and a bit of leg power

And the real inspiration came as he described his goals, and what he did to achieve them. He majored in PE, when they said it was impossible. Learned to fly a plane. Became a one armed golfer with a 13 handicap! (Now that is hard to comprehend – when I can’t get below a 16.) And when they said he couldn’t play the guitar because he couldn’t use one of his hands, he proved them wrong – and sang to 8,000 people at MDRT - to a standing ovation.

Dan and Judy Miller have raised three kids and have eight grandkids (here’s a glimpse), and have led a pretty normal life because they chose to. An award winning Principal in Washington State for two decades, he now speaks around the country, inspiring others. In the phrase of his mentor which he repeated many, many times: "Let’s see what you can do."

If you see and hear him, you’ll be motivated to do more. For that’s what a great motivational speaker does.

His message was clear, funny and worthwhile – and it will last:

"Pain is inevitable.

Suffering is optional.

Joy is a choice."

Ron Clark is young, brash and unique. He jumps around the stage – heck he dances around, stands on tables and does the double dutch – so hyper that Dale Irvin even says  that decaf is too much for Ron. But he can teach – and how.

He is too young to be called America’s Educator, but he is. He is too young to have a movie made about him, but he did. He won the teacher of the year award from Disney, was on Oprah, and now has his best selling book out that is revolutionizing teaching in the inner city.

Ron got an extended standing ovation from the Million Dollar Round Table audience of 8,000 this week – not only because we liked his energy, humor and zest for teaching, but because we liked his ideas.

Primary teaching point – as effective a communicator as you might be, passionate about your subject and confident in your approach – you have to have more. Here’s three things:

Content: He started with no knowledge but 5 rules, then 8, then11, and after a couple of years he was teaching the 55 rules. The rules weren’t restrictive, but expansive. Here’s a summary of his book "The Essential 55."

Care: but what was made the difference was his care for his kids. His first class in an underprivileged harlem school was at the bottom of the heap, and in one year he took the 37 kids to the top. Two years later they ALL graduated. Because Ron Clark went to their homes and talked to their parents, came to their turf and hung out, sat in the stands at their games.

Contrast: He did the unexpected, was always interesting and even outrageous, and made every day an adventure – every lesson compelling. He lives the SHARP principles. He risked.

"I’ve been looking all over the world for adventure, and the best adventure turned out to be in my kids classrooms."

"The more specific you can be with expectations the better the results."

"Teachers are competing with iPods, video games, easy drugs, TV, attitude. You HAVE to engage at their level. You can’t do it anymore without a lot of creativity and energy."

Look at Ron on video, and then you might see why he now has the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta – teaching others how to communicate to kids.

I’m in Denver at the Annual MDRT Meeting, and was not sure what to call this piece, so it’s a few things: an introduction to a series of posts on how to inspire like great speakers, insights into why this MDRT Experience is world renowned, and this first one on how you can almost always set up your physical environment to serve your communication purposes.

95% of the time you can change your environment – I’ll give you a few examples.

But first a description of the Reach New Heights theme and the stage set here at the Denver Convention Center for the Million Dollar Round Table meeting. 8,000 people in a big hall – what do you do? Have a resonant theme, and then make it unique. The hall is transformed into a mountain experience, with real pine trees and 4 large screens with changing scenics, artificial mountains and rivers – but the creative masterpiece is a river of light that makes a continously moving waterfall.

I don’t want to take the space necessary for the words to describe one of the best Convention Sets I’ve seen, (although I plan to get a video of it for YouTube later.) But it stimulated my thinking on a teaching point – make your physical environment work for you.

Here’s a few things you can do:

• Move the lectern to the side. Be sure you are the centerpiece of your presentation.
• Move any screen to the side – if you have PowerPoints and don’t use Black Slides (but please DO!), then and the screen is in the center of the stage or meeting room, like most are unfortunately, you can’t be in the center, and are stuck on one side.
• Get a lavalier (neck) microphone. Otherwise you are stuck with the lectern mike, and you’ll tend to lean over as if you have to talk into it, and the lectern (podium) blocks you. And you can’t move.
• Leave the light UP. You want it as bright as possible for audience interaction, but make sure your slides and videos can be seen.
• Don’t speak from the head table (if you can help it.) On Saturday I was keynote speaker at a different convention and they were going to have me speak from the head table. There was a lectern and raised platform across the room, so I said let’s have everyone speak from over there. Far better – for lunch or dinner speakers at head tables the audience has to look at all the faces that are sitting at the head table. And they might be staring back, or falling asleep, or doing anything except be non distracting.
• Use a table instead of a lectern/podium. Your notes and computer can sit on the table better than a podium and you can refer to and control them much better. (I always like to be hands on with my computer support – better than a clicker if you can swing it. And 90% of the time you can.)

Remember, the great majority of the time you can ask for and control your physical communication setting. Don’t let the phrase, "Well, that’s what they gave me," determine how you set your stage!

And if you are speaking from the Main Platform at a major convention – they’ll do it up right like at MDRT. More learning points coming shortly…