Category listings for Meetings

This Teacher Can Teach

	Posted by Bert Decker \| June 14th, 2007 \| Leave a Comment \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | June 14th, 2007 | Leave a Comment | Tweet This

What can a teacher teach a speaker? In this case, how to communicate!

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.

Categories: Communication Skills, Meetings, Speakers
Tags: Care, Million Dollar Round Table, Ron Clark, Teacher

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Rocky Mountain High

	Posted by Bert Decker \| June 11th, 2007 \| 2 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | June 11th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Tweet This

Fix Your Physical Environment

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…

Categories: Meetings, Public Speaking
Tags: MDRT Experience, Public Speaking, Speaking Environment, Taking Control, Using Lecterns

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10 Steps to Better Meetings

	Posted by Bert Decker \| May 22nd, 2007 \| 3 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | May 22nd, 2007 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

Meetings – can’t live with ‘em, and can’t live without ‘em. BNET just did a video interview with me on some key points to communicate more effectively through meetings.

Here are some additional tips we give to our clients at Decker – I call them the 10 Steps to Better Meetings:

1. Cut the meetings you have in half. Cut the time of the meetings that remain in half.

This assumes you are the leader of the meetings. Unproductive talk and time will fill the space of long meetings – The Peter Principle in action.

2. Have an agenda.

Bullets only, direction driven, not "update" driven. It also helps to distribute in advance by email if you have time and access.

3. Be on time.

Start on time. Model your time at the beginning so people know you respect their time. Don’t wait for stragglers, and don’t catch up items for late comers (unless it happens to be the boss.)

4. Be controversial.

Not outlandish, but stimulate robust dialogue. The reason most meetings are boring is because most meetings are boring. As the meeting leader, it’s up to you to make it interesting.

5. Have a focus, a Point Of View.

Meetings should not be primarily for updates and information exchange, but for action, discussion and direction.

6. Use intentional eye communication.

As a leader, look at everyone or they won’t feel included. And when you want someone to speak up more, glance at them. Skillful eye communication can direct and influence without words.

7. Be energetic – voice, gestures.

The Shadow of the Leader. Your enthusiasm will drive others. And if you’re not the leader, the more energy and interest you show the more likely you will become one.

8. Avoid Blackberry Abuse.

Be interesting. If the meeting and you are interesting, people won’t go to their IM’s and emails on their PDA’s. You can have ground rules, but they should be secondary to relevance, vitality, energy and interest.

9. Drive to action steps.

Meetings should create actions, not informational data dumps. Be intentional.

10. End with a bang, not a whimper.

Most meetings peter out. Not only end with an action step(s) , close it off with an upbeat quote, story or video clip. Be creative – and your meetings will be too.

Bonus #1: Record your meetings on video or DVD – put one up in the back of the room to see how you and others interact and behave. Observed behavior changes.

Bonus #2: Buy and read "Death By Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni, a great speaker and consultant. There is a plethora of good advice and concepts in his book that will change the way you run your meetings.

Categories: Meetings
Tags: better meetings, BNET

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The Eye Roll Discount

	Posted by Bert Decker \| February 20th, 2007 \| 2 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | February 20th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Tweet This

Beware the dreaded ‘eye roll.’ You know, when you cast your eyes up and away in silent response to a comment or statement. It is actually a pathology, but more common than we think in everyday communications.

Look at this clip from The Apprentice for a classic case of multiple eye rolls, and the disastrous results on a relationship. Note particularly how it is subtle, and oh so powerful. Like most of our body language habits.

Although many have commented on the destructive eye roll in personal relationships, I think this is one of the most common and destructive uses of negative body language in meeting history! It is probably one of the most effective and yet cruelest ways to say "You’re full of it," and not think you’re saying anything. Yet it is so common you probably have done it, unconsciously, a few times already today.

Once again this is an example of the power of video to let us know what it is, and then how we are really coming across to others by using video on ourselves. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth a hundred thousand. See yourself on camera so you don’t let your unconscious eye roll sabotage you.

Categories: Meetings, Video - Use It

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Three Ways to Control Question and Answer Sessions

	Posted by Bert Decker \| December 22nd, 2006 \| 1 Comment \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | December 22nd, 2006 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

Question and Answers

Q & A sessions can get out of hand and lose their effectiveness unless the speaker maintains strict control of them. Remember, the Question and Answer session is still part of your presentation – use it to further your POV (Point Of View.) It’s the only way you can be sure to have a positive impact – AND keep the experience interesting.

Here are three techniques that are guaranteed to help you stay in charge:

1. Have listeners raise their hands if they have a question – just like we all learned in school. This way, you can choose to answer questions as they arise – if there aren’t too many – or you can ask that the questions be saved for a specific time in the agenda.

2. If a questioner goes on and on, beating all around the bush and back, complicating the question for everyone, interrupt them. If you don’t understand the question, ask for clarification. If you do understand, paraphrase the question for everyone’s benefit and answer it right away to avoid further rambling by the participant.

3. Discourage audience discussion after a question has been raised. The participants are there to hear your thoughts and experiences, not those of fellow audience members. Don’t hesitate to interrupt the banter. Move quickly back into your presentation.

Categories: Communication Skills, Meetings, Public Speaking, Short Bits

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