Tory Talk Talk
By Graham Davies
The war time maxim was loose lips sink ships. Today it has changed to loose lips on ships sink careers.
George Osbourne initially thought that he could use this to his advantage. He let slip, at some length, that he had heard the maestro of manipulation Mandelson speak his mind about what makes Gordon Brown so awful. How naïve: breaking a confidence only to tell us all something that was obvious.
As George comes from excellent stock, he should have known the rules of tiger hunting. Check there is only one of them and make sure you kill with the first shot. If you don’t, it will have your arm off before there is time to reload.
As it happened, unfortunate George found the response came from a different direction: a similarly plummy chum who believed in quid pro quo.
The exposure of a conservative plot to ram-raid a Russian oligarch’s petty cash tin showed how seedy things can get, even in very glamorous surroundings. The ensuing he said, she said, they said left us all past caring.
George will hang on to his job by his fingernails. However, I hope he remembers a key concept: in any presentation situation you must resist the desire to tell all. Editing for impact is the best way to create maximum effect…and maximum career longevity.
Monday, 27 October 2008
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Brown's day has come
by Graham Davies
Some people are designed for disasters. Gordon Brown is one of them. During the jolliest of times, his demeanour is a cross between that of an emergency surgeon and an undertaker. Even when he is talking about good news, there seems to be an undertone of misery. He is banned from the House of Commons bar during Happy Hour.
But I think we can all agree that he is now the right man in the right job at the right time. He automatically presents himself as the only one with the intellect, experience and core attitude that the country needs. Frankly, we want a prime minister to look miserable at the moment. Somehow, I can’t imagine the solution to banking crisis being as well presented by posh DavenGeorge, fresh from the school debating club.
It is actually very difficult to think of anything that Brown could have presented better over the last 10 days. There was one occasion last week when he was speaking at an awards dinner about a subject that was totally unrelated to the credit crunch. Suddenly a mobile phone went off in the audience very loudly. Usually, this is an uncomfortable embarrassment for a senior political figure. They are usually incapable of the fast verbal footwork that turns the interruption into a positive. However, on the sixth reign Brown looked up, smiled just slightly, and said “I hope that isn’t another bank going down.”
It was a comedy triumph. I have never seen him look so liberated. He is in danger of becoming a serious politician with an effective sense of humour. What a frightening thought.
by Graham Davies
Some people are designed for disasters. Gordon Brown is one of them. During the jolliest of times, his demeanour is a cross between that of an emergency surgeon and an undertaker. Even when he is talking about good news, there seems to be an undertone of misery. He is banned from the House of Commons bar during Happy Hour.
But I think we can all agree that he is now the right man in the right job at the right time. He automatically presents himself as the only one with the intellect, experience and core attitude that the country needs. Frankly, we want a prime minister to look miserable at the moment. Somehow, I can’t imagine the solution to banking crisis being as well presented by posh DavenGeorge, fresh from the school debating club.
It is actually very difficult to think of anything that Brown could have presented better over the last 10 days. There was one occasion last week when he was speaking at an awards dinner about a subject that was totally unrelated to the credit crunch. Suddenly a mobile phone went off in the audience very loudly. Usually, this is an uncomfortable embarrassment for a senior political figure. They are usually incapable of the fast verbal footwork that turns the interruption into a positive. However, on the sixth reign Brown looked up, smiled just slightly, and said “I hope that isn’t another bank going down.”
It was a comedy triumph. I have never seen him look so liberated. He is in danger of becoming a serious politician with an effective sense of humour. What a frightening thought.
Monday, 15 September 2008
The real McCain the real McCoy
by Graham Davies
It was the best of speeches and it was the worst of speeches. Worst in the sense that he made most of the mistakes that is was possible for a public speaker to make; best in the sense that it was a true reflection of the determined character of the man.
Ironically, the shear brilliance of Sarah Palin’s speech gave McCain licence to play safe. This is just as well, because ‘safe’ is the only item on his public speaking menu. He also suffers from an incurable disability: an almost total inability to use his facial muscles. His face looks like it has been nipped, tucked and bolted back on again with an extra layer applied by Madame Tussauds. The only time he breaks through the botox barrier is when he smiles. Unfortunately the smile is so stiff and forced that you are not sure whether it is showing amusement or constipation.
The speech was certainly noticeable for what he did not say. He never said the two words that could be fatal to his campaign: George Bush. He has become the President whose name they dare not speak.
It was also nearly 45 minutes into the speech before McCain mentioned God, which must be an all time record for a Republican Politician.
The opening was a torrent of bland pleasantries. We only saw a hint of warmth under the waxwork when he responded in his clunky but spontaneous way to some heckling. The core message, that America needs change but change with a safe pair of hands, was a good one. Mind you, it was rather disturbing when he said that they also needed to get back to basics. Essentially this meant that he was not only stealing ideas from Obama but also John Major as well.
However, the determined solid fighter did shine through when he again told his story about being a prisoner in Vietnam. It may well be a familiar story but when you see it told by him you can get a measure of his genuine character. He comes across as a hard but sensitive man who can fight when he has to but can also compromise when he has to.
The last ten lines of the speech was a sequence of highly polished one liners that were clearly provided for him by a team of writers. They worked so effectively so that he had to keep talking though an ever increasing storm of applause and cheers. The smile he came out with at the end said to me “I’ve survived five years of Vietnamese torture and I am even more pleased to have survived fifty five minutes of public speaking.”
McCain will never enjoy public speaking and he will never be more than adequate performer but he is the type of guy who can grit his teeth and get through something because he just has to. This might be the type of guy that would make rather a good President.
by Graham Davies
It was the best of speeches and it was the worst of speeches. Worst in the sense that he made most of the mistakes that is was possible for a public speaker to make; best in the sense that it was a true reflection of the determined character of the man.
Ironically, the shear brilliance of Sarah Palin’s speech gave McCain licence to play safe. This is just as well, because ‘safe’ is the only item on his public speaking menu. He also suffers from an incurable disability: an almost total inability to use his facial muscles. His face looks like it has been nipped, tucked and bolted back on again with an extra layer applied by Madame Tussauds. The only time he breaks through the botox barrier is when he smiles. Unfortunately the smile is so stiff and forced that you are not sure whether it is showing amusement or constipation.
The speech was certainly noticeable for what he did not say. He never said the two words that could be fatal to his campaign: George Bush. He has become the President whose name they dare not speak.
It was also nearly 45 minutes into the speech before McCain mentioned God, which must be an all time record for a Republican Politician.
The opening was a torrent of bland pleasantries. We only saw a hint of warmth under the waxwork when he responded in his clunky but spontaneous way to some heckling. The core message, that America needs change but change with a safe pair of hands, was a good one. Mind you, it was rather disturbing when he said that they also needed to get back to basics. Essentially this meant that he was not only stealing ideas from Obama but also John Major as well.
However, the determined solid fighter did shine through when he again told his story about being a prisoner in Vietnam. It may well be a familiar story but when you see it told by him you can get a measure of his genuine character. He comes across as a hard but sensitive man who can fight when he has to but can also compromise when he has to.
The last ten lines of the speech was a sequence of highly polished one liners that were clearly provided for him by a team of writers. They worked so effectively so that he had to keep talking though an ever increasing storm of applause and cheers. The smile he came out with at the end said to me “I’ve survived five years of Vietnamese torture and I am even more pleased to have survived fifty five minutes of public speaking.”
McCain will never enjoy public speaking and he will never be more than adequate performer but he is the type of guy who can grit his teeth and get through something because he just has to. This might be the type of guy that would make rather a good President.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
PowerPoint Palsy
By Graham Davies
PowerPoint encourages exhaustive detail that in turn causes audiences to twitch with exhaustion. There is always just one more bullet that you can add on to that slide…and always a few more slides that you can create.
The feeling is seductive: “I’ve created loads of slides, with loads of words on them, so I must have prepared properly. In fact, that is all I have to do. The exact words that I need to say will just come to me when I am actually speaking.”
Some presenters are actually proud of their reputation for length and detail. They wear the mark of the serial PowerPoint criminal as a badge of honour. They feel it is the fault of the audience if they can’t quite find the message inside the maze of slides. This type of presenter is quite happy to facilitate the tyranny of PowerPoint: a one party state where Big Brother Is Boring You.
This is submission to software. The presenter is surrendering his central role to the words on screen. He is abdicating from his role as a leader.
A presentation only works where human-to-human contact is maximised. Slideware can get in the way.
I once saw a presentation delivered by a high ranking IBM executive. Some technical foul-up occurred just before he started, so that he was forced to present Commando (i.e. without slides). Mysteriously, his laptop started working again about a minute before he finished. Showing remarkable mental agility, he managed to immediately access and display his summary slide. This acted as a superb overview, bringing together and focusing everything that he had said in the previous 15 minutes.
He then experienced an audio-visual epiphany. He paused, looked at his laptop, looked at the audience, looked at the screen, back at the audience, paused again and said, in a dramatic whisper:
“Maybe that’s the only slide I needed in the first place.”
I managed to restrain the urge to leap up from my seat and shout, “Hallelujah! Amen, brother!”
In the bar that night, his was the only presentation that people were talking about. The previous eight presenters had used over 150 slides and about 700 bullet points between them. I asked some of the people in the bar which of the day’s slides they could remember. And they could only remember the IBM guy’s 3-point summary slide.
This is the best way to use bullet-point slides: just one notch above total disappearance.
By Graham Davies
PowerPoint encourages exhaustive detail that in turn causes audiences to twitch with exhaustion. There is always just one more bullet that you can add on to that slide…and always a few more slides that you can create.
The feeling is seductive: “I’ve created loads of slides, with loads of words on them, so I must have prepared properly. In fact, that is all I have to do. The exact words that I need to say will just come to me when I am actually speaking.”
Some presenters are actually proud of their reputation for length and detail. They wear the mark of the serial PowerPoint criminal as a badge of honour. They feel it is the fault of the audience if they can’t quite find the message inside the maze of slides. This type of presenter is quite happy to facilitate the tyranny of PowerPoint: a one party state where Big Brother Is Boring You.
This is submission to software. The presenter is surrendering his central role to the words on screen. He is abdicating from his role as a leader.
A presentation only works where human-to-human contact is maximised. Slideware can get in the way.
I once saw a presentation delivered by a high ranking IBM executive. Some technical foul-up occurred just before he started, so that he was forced to present Commando (i.e. without slides). Mysteriously, his laptop started working again about a minute before he finished. Showing remarkable mental agility, he managed to immediately access and display his summary slide. This acted as a superb overview, bringing together and focusing everything that he had said in the previous 15 minutes.
He then experienced an audio-visual epiphany. He paused, looked at his laptop, looked at the audience, looked at the screen, back at the audience, paused again and said, in a dramatic whisper:
“Maybe that’s the only slide I needed in the first place.”
I managed to restrain the urge to leap up from my seat and shout, “Hallelujah! Amen, brother!”
In the bar that night, his was the only presentation that people were talking about. The previous eight presenters had used over 150 slides and about 700 bullet points between them. I asked some of the people in the bar which of the day’s slides they could remember. And they could only remember the IBM guy’s 3-point summary slide.
This is the best way to use bullet-point slides: just one notch above total disappearance.
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Dump the Queen's English
By Graham Davies
"To boldly go where no man has gone before" is the most split infinitive of them all, but it has also made the opening sequence of Star Trek probably the most quoted in TV history. Hamlet's unforgettable slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are part of an equally incorrect mixed metaphor.
You don't need good grammar to communicate well. The key to success is to make your message memorable.
"Gillette: the best a man can get". No verb, no sentence and no doubt about the message. Even grammatically correct phrases can be misleading. Charles Kennedy recently referred to the liberal democrats as “The Third Party". I assume the other two are Fire and Theft.
You can't abandon grammar entirely. But use it as a platform, not a straight jacket. The best political speeches contain phrasing that is hard to forget (mind you, John F Kennedy's "Ich bien ein Berliner" actually means "I am Jam Doughnut").
Don't worry about grammar, worry about grabbing them. Colourful phrasing stimulates the memory. You want to be remembered for your message. Your message is what you would say if you only had 10 seconds in which to say it. It is the core, the essence of your speech, what you want the audience to remember above all else.
You should spend more time formulating the message than on any other part of your preparation. If you don't have a clear message, you don't have a clear presentation.
In a business speech, the message must clearly encapsulate what your audience needs to know. You don't need Churchillian poetry, but you need clear, concise, plain English. "John Bull Building creates unique homes for families who value space, light and quality".
In politics these days, memorable phrases are commonplace. Even from William Hague: "The powers of this country are being taken away slice by slice with our own Prime Minister wielding the knife."
If you can mix your metaphors so effectively, then your business presentations will become a whole new kettle of ball games.
By Graham Davies
"To boldly go where no man has gone before" is the most split infinitive of them all, but it has also made the opening sequence of Star Trek probably the most quoted in TV history. Hamlet's unforgettable slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are part of an equally incorrect mixed metaphor.
You don't need good grammar to communicate well. The key to success is to make your message memorable.
"Gillette: the best a man can get". No verb, no sentence and no doubt about the message. Even grammatically correct phrases can be misleading. Charles Kennedy recently referred to the liberal democrats as “The Third Party". I assume the other two are Fire and Theft.
You can't abandon grammar entirely. But use it as a platform, not a straight jacket. The best political speeches contain phrasing that is hard to forget (mind you, John F Kennedy's "Ich bien ein Berliner" actually means "I am Jam Doughnut").
Don't worry about grammar, worry about grabbing them. Colourful phrasing stimulates the memory. You want to be remembered for your message. Your message is what you would say if you only had 10 seconds in which to say it. It is the core, the essence of your speech, what you want the audience to remember above all else.
You should spend more time formulating the message than on any other part of your preparation. If you don't have a clear message, you don't have a clear presentation.
In a business speech, the message must clearly encapsulate what your audience needs to know. You don't need Churchillian poetry, but you need clear, concise, plain English. "John Bull Building creates unique homes for families who value space, light and quality".
In politics these days, memorable phrases are commonplace. Even from William Hague: "The powers of this country are being taken away slice by slice with our own Prime Minister wielding the knife."
If you can mix your metaphors so effectively, then your business presentations will become a whole new kettle of ball games.
Monday, 10 March 2008
Audience Analysis
By Graham Davies
Most people start preparing for a presentation by thinking, "What shall I say?" What they should be thinking is "Who am I saying it to?"
Any communication is only as good as your understanding of the people you are trying to communicate with.
Even through you may have presented your product dozens of times before, the presentation must be tailored to cater for the specific needs of this audience. Everyone likes to hear something which feels bespoke rather than off-the-shelf.
Find out as much as you can about the audience. These are the basic questions you must ask:
· Who are they? (Salesmen, accountants, managers, children, convicts)
· What is the age range and the nationality split?
· How big is the audience?
· Do they expect to have an extended Q & A session?
· Will they be having any other presentations from other people before or after you?
· How long do they expect your presentation to be?
· What do they already know about your subject?
· What do they need to know about your subject?
· What are the main business concerns that this group has?
· Will there be any particularly important decision-makers present?
· Is there a way of ensuring the attendance of a crucial decision-maker?
It should be very easy to find out the answers to these questions. Simply ask the organiser of the event or your contact at the client company. They should be impressed by your desire for in-depth knowledge.
Don’t just rely on your primary contact. Speak to members of your audience several days before hand if you possibly can. Ask them what they would like to get out of your presentation: most people are flattered to be asked.
You may also know someone who has addressed this group in the past. He may be able to tell you about any disturbing audience quirks e.g. a hatred of visual aids or humour.
When the audience is very small (4 people or less) you should be able to find out the names of each person and talk to all of them in advance (or their PA). It is very unlikely that a potential audience member will say to you, "No – I don’t wish to give you any guidance on what I need to get from your presentation."
Only after asking the right questions is it possible to prepare the right presentation for your audience. It is in their interest to help you.
By Graham Davies
Most people start preparing for a presentation by thinking, "What shall I say?" What they should be thinking is "Who am I saying it to?"
Any communication is only as good as your understanding of the people you are trying to communicate with.
Even through you may have presented your product dozens of times before, the presentation must be tailored to cater for the specific needs of this audience. Everyone likes to hear something which feels bespoke rather than off-the-shelf.
Find out as much as you can about the audience. These are the basic questions you must ask:
· Who are they? (Salesmen, accountants, managers, children, convicts)
· What is the age range and the nationality split?
· How big is the audience?
· Do they expect to have an extended Q & A session?
· Will they be having any other presentations from other people before or after you?
· How long do they expect your presentation to be?
· What do they already know about your subject?
· What do they need to know about your subject?
· What are the main business concerns that this group has?
· Will there be any particularly important decision-makers present?
· Is there a way of ensuring the attendance of a crucial decision-maker?
It should be very easy to find out the answers to these questions. Simply ask the organiser of the event or your contact at the client company. They should be impressed by your desire for in-depth knowledge.
Don’t just rely on your primary contact. Speak to members of your audience several days before hand if you possibly can. Ask them what they would like to get out of your presentation: most people are flattered to be asked.
You may also know someone who has addressed this group in the past. He may be able to tell you about any disturbing audience quirks e.g. a hatred of visual aids or humour.
When the audience is very small (4 people or less) you should be able to find out the names of each person and talk to all of them in advance (or their PA). It is very unlikely that a potential audience member will say to you, "No – I don’t wish to give you any guidance on what I need to get from your presentation."
Only after asking the right questions is it possible to prepare the right presentation for your audience. It is in their interest to help you.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
American Business Presenters
By Graham Davies
Americans are exposed to high pressure presentations at an early age: their so called “show and tell” presentations at school. I think that toughens them up.
In general, Americans are better presenters. They are:
1. Well-prepared
2. Confident
3. Concise
Here, 1 leads to 2 which leads to 3.
No presentation has ever failed because of too much preparation. If you know you haven’t prepared well enough, you are right to feel less than confident. And, if you are confident you have selected the right material, you will be appropriately brief.
America is the home of the sound bite and the 10 second commercial. Americans know that they cannot keep the attention pf a business audience for long.
Some European presenters say, with a sneer, “American presenters are too slick, too polished.”
Frankly, this is just jealousy. European audiences have sat through too much PowerPoint Prozac. They would love to see some American Polish.
By Graham Davies
Americans are exposed to high pressure presentations at an early age: their so called “show and tell” presentations at school. I think that toughens them up.
In general, Americans are better presenters. They are:
1. Well-prepared
2. Confident
3. Concise
Here, 1 leads to 2 which leads to 3.
No presentation has ever failed because of too much preparation. If you know you haven’t prepared well enough, you are right to feel less than confident. And, if you are confident you have selected the right material, you will be appropriately brief.
America is the home of the sound bite and the 10 second commercial. Americans know that they cannot keep the attention pf a business audience for long.
Some European presenters say, with a sneer, “American presenters are too slick, too polished.”
Frankly, this is just jealousy. European audiences have sat through too much PowerPoint Prozac. They would love to see some American Polish.
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