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Posts Tagged With: "speaking"

100% Success Rate

Posted by Bert Decker   |   June 29th, 2007   |   Leave a Comment   |  Tweet This

Volunteering_2 In my speeches and programs I’m often encouraging people to volunteer – to risk. To speak up for example. You probably often find yourself in the same situation – exhorting the recalcitrant to take a risk.

The 95% Solution

Both psychologists Abraham Maslow and Karen Horney did extensive work on the development of self esteem and self actualization. In her book on human growth Horney in particularly found that when people made the attempt to do something scary and risky – they most often succeeded. In doing my own research with myself and others, I find that the success rate is about 90% to 95% – we do well when we make the attempt.

Karen_horney_1938_2

"Concern should drive us into action and not into depression."

Karen Horney

The 100% Solution

Think of this – if we learn something in that 5% of the time that we don’t do it so well, that makes the ‘failure’ a very large success. So it follows that WHENEVER we attempt something – and LEARN from our mistakes – we will succeed. So whenever we take that risk and volunteer we succeed 100% of the time.

But if we don’t attempt something, we always fail. We lose the opportunity, and regret our weakness, and that moment can’t be recaptured.

So play the odds. Take every opportunity to volunteer, to risk, to speak, to venture forth. Every time you do so you will succeed, and every time you do NOT risk – that you shrink up and get small – you will fail. Encourage your audiences of one or one thousand with "What’s to lose by risking!"


Categories: Musings
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Why Melinda Doolittle Lost

Posted by Bert Decker   |   May 16th, 2007   |   9 Comments   |  Tweet This

Shocking and disappointing that Melinda Doolittle was voted off American Idol tonight. She is a great singer, and was the best on the show (in most everyone’s opinion – not to just my musically untrained ear.)

Way back in her first exciting tryout I put up a post here, and also this YouTube comment, hoping then that she would gain in personal confidence and power in order to match her voice. When she performs, she IS confident and powerful. But in person she shrinks up – and even after her successes in these last 11 weeks she did not own and display the personality of a star – which she is. Grow yes – bloom no. People treat you exactly as you ask to be treated, and Melinda did not step up to be the star she is.

Too bad,  and there’s a lesson for all of us as speakers, communicators and leaders.

Be all of yourself – and when in doubt, act as if.

In speaking, communication rides energy. People are interested in people who are interesting – vital, powerful and energetic. That’s also the way the majority tends to vote in politics, and it seems on American Idol as well.


Categories: Musings, Short Bits
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Controversial New PowerPoint Research

Posted by Bert Decker   |   April 3rd, 2007   |   2 Comments   |  Tweet This

Powerpoint1_wideweb__470x2790 "Australian researchers may have pronounced the death of the PowerPoint presentation."

I don’t think so, but there is a very interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald today that would help about 90% of the in person PowerPoint presentations that are given in business.

Researchers at the University of NSW found that the brain cannot process written and spoken information well at the same time. (Thank you for the tip from Michael Huxley via Guy Kawasaki.) The principle finding among some of the other controversial conclusions is "It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time."

They very aptly add that they are talking about the same written text accompanied by the reading of that text. Which is a great point to examine, and I think rings true.

So stop with using PowerPoints with so much text! Use graphics, charts, pictures, symbols and the like – because they also found in their research that "It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form."

Although a Professor Sweller states that "The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster and should be ditched," I would vehemently disagree. It just has to be used effectively. PowerPoint (or Keynote) is a great tool to AMPLIFY what we are saying, but not serve as our scripts, or substitute for our own communication experience when we are speaking.

All the more reason to use Black Slides.


Categories: PowerPoint Abuse - Avoid It, Public Speaking
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