The Art of Persuasion “She Stood Behind Her Car Door and Aimed Her Gun at Me”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills: Successful Persuasion

In 1991 I moved to Canada from my home country, Ireland. My wife and I settled in London, Ontario, where we would start a new chapter in our lives. I purchased an old Ford Tempo and I felt a sense of accomplishment because at that time in Ireland, a 1.6 liter car was considered a “big” car. It came with power steering, air conditioning, and plastic seats that made you feel like you were wearing cold, wet underwear!

After being in Canada just a short time, I was driving alone in the countryside, listening to loud bagpipe music. Then in my mirror, I saw a blue, flashing police car light. I pulled over and the police car pulled over about 30 feet behind me.

In Ireland, it is common to get out of your car, walk over to the police car, and spin some kind of story or excuse to persuade the officer to let you off with a warning or at least a reduced fine.

As I was walking towards the police car, I was gathering my thoughts together and thinking about what I might say with a friendly smile on my face. I was thinking of using a line I had used in Ireland: “You must have had a great hiding place, I didn’t see you until I saw your lights! Sorry I was speeding, I was listening to some really loud bagpipe music and I lost sight of my speed. Any chance you could let me off with a warning?”

That was the plan. However, when I got about half way to the police car, I noticed that the policewoman was standing behind her door with her gun drawn, shouting hysterically, “Get back in your car NOW!”

As I sat in my car, the police woman gave me hell. She told me to “shut off the awful music” and shouted, “What do you think you were doing? I could have shot you!” I explained to her that in Ireland the typical thing to do is to walk to the police car with the intent of getting there before the police man or woman has to get out of the car. We then try to persuade the police officer to be lenient and consider a warning rather than a fine. The police woman, still furious and obviously upset said, “You are not in Ireland now, never get out of your car when you are pulled over, and by the way, here’s your ticket.”

I thought about trying to persuade her to lower the fine, but I thought that it would only infuriate her more. I drove away having learned a lesson that I will never forget.

Persuasion is an art, but I think you will agree that I chose the “wrong audience”; what typically works with the Irish police “audience” failed with the Canadian officer.

Many sections in presentation skills books tie into success strategies for persuasion. Whether you are a keynote speaker, trainer, preacher, educator, business employee, leader, or executive, you are involved in convincing others to buy into your concepts and take action. The following are some key considerations when you need to change or reinforce opinions or beliefs:

Overview – How do you Persuade Audiences to Buy into your Concepts and Take Action?
• Get their attention
• Provide information in a format that they will comprehend
• Convince them by changing and/or reinforcing opinions or beliefs
• Provide information in a format that can be remembered and relayed to others

Successful Presenters can Persuade Effectively Because they Have:
• Credibility on the subject
• Confidence
• Preparation and practice
• Excellent presentation skills

Audience Analysis is Key to Successful Persuasion:
• What is the audience’s level of knowledge?
• What presentation types will be most effective?
• What supporting information will they best relate to (information sources, statistics, stories, analogies etc.)?
• What do they agree on now (it can be beneficial to start on common-ground)?
• What “hot buttons” should I stay away from?
• Should I visit some of the audience members one-on-one beforehand to build allies?
• Do I know the names of the attendees or should I provide name badges so I can call people by name (people like to hear their own names and this can help build positive rapport)?
• Is humor appropriate for the occasion and the audience (to illuminate points, reduce tension, keep people energized)?
• What emotional content can I incorporate to help persuade (i.e. stories or examples they can relate to)? Example: if I am trying to persuade people to join a public speaking club to enhance their presentation skills and build confidence, I could state, “Have you ever stood in front of an audience with so much anxiety that your heart thumps loudly and suddenly your mind goes blank? Can you visualize the audience cringing as you struggle to recover your train of thought? Do you want to be able to avoid this kind of train wreck?”

Choosing the Correct Presentation Modes Increases your Potential for Success
• Discussion without any audio visual tools
• PowerPoint type presentation
• Flip chart
• Videos
• Props
• Interactive
• Conversational
• Brainstorming

Eliminate the Potential for the Audience to Become Confused
• Develop clear concise objectives – when developing your presentation you should have a crystal clear view of what you are going to persuade. I find it beneficial to take a business card size piece of paper and write on it: ‘As a result of this presentation, I want the audience to understand and/or do the following…’
• Roadmap your presentation so that the information is presented in a logical format and is supported by visuals such as a statistical chart, picture, diagram, video, analogy, etc. It can also help if the visuals can build on a relatable theme. For example, if I want to persuade people to take a presentation skills course, I could use golf as an analogy. The photo of a player teeing off and missing the ball could be used with a headline statement to drive home the point “Failure can get you noticed in a really bad way.” The photo of a grass divot could be a visual for “Expect setbacks, it takes practice. The golf ball falling in the hole could symbolize “Persistence and practice gets results.”
• The presentation should be developed so that the audience have a clear understanding within a short period of time what the objective is and what the specific outcomes are going to be.
• Develop your presentation taking into consideration the level of knowledge of the audience. For example, if you are delivering technical information to a non-technical audience, you may want to present information at a level they will understand, or give them the information piece by piece slowly bringing them into the details and complexity.
• Repeat, summarize, and emphasize your points to aid retention.
• Make sure your “call to action” is clear and achievable.

Build your Credibility and Likeability
• Analyze your audience so that you are incorporating information that they can best relate to. Illuminating your points with stories or statistics that they cannot perceive will lead to confusion.
• Do not turn up with an unpolished presentation; practice, practice, practice (out loud).
• Dress professionally and appropriately for the occasion and the audience. Consider dressing slightly better than your audience.
• If you are being introduced, spend time developing an introduction that will build your credibility on the subject. Practice the introduction with the person who is introducing you when possible. A bad introduction can sabotage your credibility and suck the energy level out of the room.
• Use credible facts and statistics that can help demonstrate you have taken the time to research your subject and that you are an expert. Identify the sources of information.

Dave Hill is a speaker, author, coach, and award-winning storyteller. He was also a finalist in the 2004 World Championship of Public Speaking. Dave works with companies that crave energized workplaces and his passion is to empower employees and leaders.

He is the author of the soon to be published book:
“Applause and Accolades – Attention-Grabbing Presentation Skills: Get Noticed and Promoted“, and his bi-monthly articles receive worldwide acclaim.

Dave is known for his Irish wit, stories, and strong sense of humor, which he incorporates into all his programs and published works.
For more information on Dave’s speaking programs, workshops, and coaching, contact dave@davehillspeaks.com or visit his website at: http://www.davehillspeaks.com.

Articles: http://www.davehillspeaks.wordpress.com
Video clips: http://www.youtube.com/user/davehillspeaks#g/p
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davehillspeaks
Twitter Humor: http://twitter.com/davehillspeaks

Copyright © 2011 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Statistics in Presentations – “I am a Little Teapot”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

Imagine you are 5 ft. 2 1/2 in. “tall” and you are web surfing and find a business article with statistics which state, “On average, tall people get paid about $900 more per year than small people.” As a “vertically challenged” person, imagine your anger as you consider this blatant societal imbalance and unfairness.

You continue to read the article while biting your lower lip with resentment. It goes on to state that there are two notable exceptions, Jack Welsh, the ex Chairman and CEO of General Electric, and Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, who are both 5 ft. 8 in. tall. As you consider this statement, you bite down even harder on your lower lip with a voice shouting in your head, “Since when did 5 ft. 8 in. people get to sneak into my “Small” Category?”

That was me back in 2007, and at the dinner table I ranted at my wife and two kids asking them rhetorically, “Where does that leave me? I seem to be too short to fit into the ‘Small’ category. If my height puts me somewhere between a small person and a dwarf…am I…a Smurf “? It was that point I started my quest to find out where I fitted in society. Like everything in my life, it turned up in a very unusual place, and under very unusual circumstances.

Fast forward a few months, I am in the Sym’s department store with my family to buy a new suit. Shopping is not my “cup of tea” and I was not in a particularly good mood. The suits were arranged on racks according to shape and size and went on for what seemed like several hundred feet.

The store assistant escorted my wife, son, teenage daughter, and me. We came to the suit rack and it had categorization tags, “Tall and Athletic”, then “Tall”, “Tall and Portly”, and we eventually got to my category. Under what seemed like a dim and dusty 40 Watt light bulb was a categorization tag…”Short and Stout”. It was then my teenage daughter with a big smile on her face, and without missing a beat, shouted out, “Daddy, you’re a little teapot…tall and stout”. Let the record show that my category in society is not “Small”, it is not a “Smurf”, I am…a “Little Teapot”.

This is an anecdote illustrating that statistics can be annoying and questionable. It leads into an important point for presenters and their use of statistics.

What is the major benefit of using statistics in presentations?
1. They are one method of providing supporting information for your points, helping to build your credibility, and enhancing your presentation.

What are the success strategies for using statistics in presentations?
1. Utilize an attention-grabbing statistic to start a presentation. This can be an impactful way to open a presentation, particularly if it has some “shock” value.
2. Unclutter your statistics. Round off the numbers where possible.
3. Limit the quantity of statistics you use at a time or you will lose your audience. Frequently a single one can be effective to support a point. A maximum of three at a time is often recommended to minimize the potential for confusion or boredom.
4. Incorporate graphs, charts and other visuals to illuminate your statistic and drive home your points.
5. Use analogies and anecdotes to specifically help people relate to the statistics.
6. If the audience can relate to the statistics and/or the anecdote you are using, they will have better comprehension.
7. Use statistics that are specific, credible, and within the norm.
8. Use recognizable statistical sources where possible. For example: “The US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated, “Nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among private industry employers declined in 2009 to a rate of 3.6 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers – down from 3.9 cases in 2008.”
9. If you try to convince people to act based on a statistic that is on the far end of the scale, the audience may feel you are trying to manipulate them with loosely applicable or questionable facts.
10. Do not use statistics that are incomplete, exaggerated, or wrong, or you can end up eroding your credibility.
For example: In 2007 the New York Times questioned some of the statistics that Mayor Rudi Giuliani had used in his speeches. He was put in a defensive mode and ended up “clarifying” some of the statistics he used. The article is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/us/politics/30truth.html

How to use statistics to incorporate humor
Make sure the statistic is noticeably exaggerated or wrong so that the audience understands that they are being entertained rather than being given some credible facts:
Examples:
1. Canadian research shows that if a bear charges at you and you run at it, the bear will run away 9 out of 10 times. I wonder how much they pay the poor intern to find out.
2. They say that you are 3 times more likely to be killed driving to a store to buy a lottery ticket than to actually win the top prize.

Dave Hill is a speaker, author, coach, and award-winning storyteller. He was also a finalist in the 2004 World Championship of Public Speaking. Dave works with companies that crave energized workplaces and his passion is to empower employees and leaders.

He is the author of the soon to be published book:
“Applause and Accolades – Attention-Grabbing Presentation Skills: Get Noticed and Promoted“, and his bi-monthly articles receive worldwide acclaim.

Dave is known for his Irish wit, stories, and strong sense of humor, which he incorporates into all his programs and published works.
For more information on Dave’s speaking programs, workshops, and coaching, contact dave@davehillspeaks.com or visit his website at: http://www.davehillspeaks.com.

Articles: http://www.davehillspeaks.wordpress.com
Video clips: http://www.youtube.com/user/davehillspeaks#g/p
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davehillspeaks
Twitter Humor: http://twitter.com/davehillspeaks

Copyright © 2011 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Understanding Your Personal Sense of Humor – “The First Irish Rocket Ship”

Dave Hill Discusses Humor

My youngest brother is an example of someone who has developed a strong, zany sense of wit. The understatement of the day is that he is personable and finds the funny and crazy side of day to day happenings.

One of the best examples of him in top form was when we were visiting the Guinness Brewery in Ireland several years ago. While in one of the main brewery buildings, we noticed a group of tourists with a guide who was telling them the historical details of when the brewery started producing Guinness in1759. Behind the guide was a huge copper vat, a piece of old brewing equipment that would have been used over 100 years ago. It was a large, bulbous vat tapering off at the top into a narrower section. On the upper part of the narrow section was an observation port that looked a bit like a ship’s porthole. This might have been something the brewer used to observe the brewing process or to add ingredients, such as hops.

Before you could blink an eye, my brother was standing in front of the crowd, blocking the view of the guide behind him, and he had taken over the historical talk. The crowd stood in fascination as he told them that the copper vessel was in fact the first Irish spaceship and the window at the top was where the astronaut sat on a deckchair drinking Guinness during takeoff. The crowds of tourists were frowning at first, wondering what had happened to the guide and who this stranger was. Then they realized that they were being taken for a ride by an Irishman with a wacky sense of humor. As he continued his Blarney (Irish slang for nonsense talk) he got them rolling in laughter and his historical depictions got wilder and wilder.

We then worked our way up to the drinking section of the brewery where there is a glass cube-type structure high above the city of Dublin; there were people from all over the world to chat to, and pretty smiling barmaids handing out free Guinness. They call this area the Gravity Bar. For any Irishman this was like dying and going to heaven, and my first words to the barmaid were, “Are you an angel?!” She smiled, chuckled, shook her head in fake annoyance, and started pouring nice creamy pints of Guinness. Life is good!

Finding Your Unique Sense of Humor and Nourishing It:
Making a decision to commit to learning the process of developing and delivering humor is a step you will never regret. It takes dedication and a lot of trial and error, and there will be times that you say to yourself, “That was funny, why did the audience not laugh at that?” and there will be times that they laugh at things that you consider innocuous and you think to yourself, “OK, now why did they find that funny?” The day you step in front of an audience to try out humorous material and you get them rolling with laughter, is a day you will never forget. Imagine you have just delivered a humorous story, the audience is laughing, and you consciously have to let them continue to laugh before you speak your next line. You are focusing on keeping a straight face and you feel the elation from success. As the laughter starts to dissipate you continue, and the audience erupts into an even bigger frenzy. The humor you develop can be honed and you will find that much of it can be used over and over again with different audiences, and can be used to illuminate different points.

One of the initial steps is to gain an understanding of what makes you laugh. If you are delivering material that you do not find particularly funny, why should you expect your audience to laugh?

The following are some of my day to day chuckles, humor, or motivational occurrences that I have been writing down anytime they come to mind. I have been writing them in Twitter (davehillspeaks) which forces me to catch the essence of the vignette in a 140 character online forum. It is important to understand that the “seed” for humor typically starts off at the chuckle level. It can then be turned into humor through careful wording choice and incorporating enhancements such as vivid visual descriptions.

The following exercise is to help you identify what kind of things you find amusing and why. Another thing to watch out for is what you find somewhat offensive. Only use humor that you are comfortable delivering, and what is appropriate for the audience and the occasion.

1) Circle the ones you find amusing and write down why.
For Example – “My dog had cancer surgery. My mother in law said that $840 was a lot to spend on an old dog. My mother in law is 80…and needs hip surgery!” The reason someone might like this is because they can relate to an elderly person making an off the cuff remark that can be viewed another way.
2) Circle the ones you find inappropriate or eyebrow raising and write down why.
For Example – “My Canadian-Hungarian wife has a Christmas tradition of baby Jesus bringing gifts. In Ireland it’s Santa Claus. Is Jesus-Claus a compromise?”
3) Start capturing your own daily chuckle observations.
This process will help your brain become alert to life’s humor that you might not otherwise notice. The importance of this should not be underestimated and it requires very little effort. You just need a system to capture the essence of your observations to start this process. I use tiny Post It Notes that are in my wallet, in my car, and on my kitchen table for immediate note taking. I then transcribe them into other filing systems, including Twitter.

Some reasons you might have a preference for specific vignettes might be:
1. Relating to the content through your own experiences – Example: On the airport rental-car bus & the idiot driver was peering at his computer & swerving. I asked him if I could change my rental car to a hearse.
2. Making fun of yourself – Example: I told the presentation skills class to avoid walking through the projector light. Tried to demonstrate, but I was too short to block the light!
3. Visual images are strong – Example: Canadian research shows that if you run at a bear, it will run away 9 out of 10 times. I wonder how much they pay the poor intern to find out.
4. Wordplay (the meaning of a word in used in a different context) – Example: My son & his friends make a human wall to block the soccer ball during a shot at their goal. He is 1 ft shorter & more of a curb than a wall!
5. Absurd – Example: A friend went into Wal-Mart at 5 am. She turned into an aisle & saw a man naked from the waist down, trying on camouflage trousers. Weird!
6. Ridiculous – Example: My dad asked my brother to plant the lettuce plants. He was furious when he found them in one hole with the elastic band still attached.
7. Healthy embarrassment – Example: Today I was given a gold star by my dentist for “most punctual patient”. I had arrived a day early. Turned 50 in Feb, every day is exciting!
8. Paradoxical – Example: Irish religious/positive thinking perspective on flights getting delayed and getting stuck at the airport…”God wants me to drink beer!”
9. Element of surprise – Example: Bali coffee plantation 2008 – drank coffee & saw caged Civet cat-size animals. Learnt my coffee came from excreted Civet coffee beans – Yuck.

Discovering Your Unique Sense of Humor – Which of These Make You Smile & Why?
1. My Canadian-Hungarian wife has a Christmas tradition of baby Jesus bringing gifts. In Ireland it’s Santa Claus. Is Jesus-Claus a compromise?
2. Sitting outside on my doorstep enjoying the sunny morning & watching my leaves blowing and rolling onto my neighbor’s lawn – go leaves go…!
3. Christmas season is here & wife impulse shopping drives me crazy. To stay out of trouble I apply the “don’t ask, don’t tell” shopping policy!
4. Bali coffee plantation 2008 – drank coffee & saw caged Civet cat-size animals. Learnt my coffee came from excreted Civet coffee beans – Yuck
5. The southern air hostess asked what I wanted to drink. I said water. She repeated 3 times not understanding. A nearby teen shouted waa-terr!
6. Cooked my 1st turkey for Thanksgiving & friends in 1994. Was carving 2nds & asked my wife “Did you stuff the turkey?” I had cut into a bag of giblets!
7. Cashier girl at the wine store asked me if I wanted sex. I was dumbfounded. I then noticed she was pointing to the paper bag wine “sacks!”
8. Sister in law was doing a Skype video call to her mum in China. In view of the webcam I mischievously modeled her bright red bra – trouble!!
9. Told the presentation skills class to avoid walking through the projector light. Tried to demonstrate but was too short to block the light!
10. At a 3 day cancer charity walk there was a competition for the most decorated tent. The winners had lots of colored bra’s hanging outside!!!
11. At the grocery store checkout I had a bladder as big as Canada. The little old lady in front of me searched in her giant purse for coupons!
12. 1990 trip to India – went on a guided open top jeep tour looking for Bengal Tigers. Noticed that our guide only had a stick as a “weapon”.
13. My big old Irish Setter dog gets confused. Walked past a car with open doors. She thought it was our car & tried to jump in to go for a ride.
14. Southwest Air steward gave gate #’s for connecting SWA flights as we landed. He chuckled, “If you are with another airline…we don’t care!”
15. My short son came home happy after his school team won at basketball. He exclaimed that he & his two tall friends the “twin towers” scored.
16. Employee was told to check/delete files from an old PC. Photo of a naked woman popped up. Was trying to delete it as her male boss walked in.
17. Wife did clean-up community service. She lifted up a big flat piece of wood & saw a huge curled up snake. Texas outdoors is too dangerous!
18. Friends sent a family-photo Christmas card in 2009. Ecstatic kids, euphoric parents, & male dog sitting, showing off his…… “excitement”.
19. On the airport rental-car bus & idiot driver was peering at his computer & swerving. I asked him if I could change my rental car to a hearse.
20. A friend went into Wal-Mart at 5 am. She turned into an aisle & saw a man naked from the waist down, trying on camouflage trousers. Weird!
21. Saw a 40+ year old man jogging in a really tight black leotard. He was running “weirdly” & I told my daughter he needs a bathroom really soon!
22. My daughter saw the paper-cut I got at the corporate office. I said, “I hope you realize the suffering I go through to pay for your college!”
23. Rescued a baby squirrel from the grasp of a cat. The squirrel bit me & my wife sent me to the doctor. Doctor laughed & sent me back home.
24. At my son’s soccer game the Texas parents were wrapped up in blankets, sleeping bags & duvets. Looked like a scene from hurricane Katrina!
25. My big old Irish Setter dog was snuggled up on the couch at 6am. I brought her dog treats (breakfast in bed). She considers me fully trained.
26. Nights are cool & I saw a Facebook discussion where women were exhilarated about wearing flannel pajamas. Turn up the heat & wear lingerie!
27. My son & his friends make a human wall to block the soccer ball during a shot at their goal. He is 1 ft shorter & more of a curb than a wall.
28. Canadian research shows that if you run at a bear it will run away 9 out of 10 times. I wonder how much they pay the poor intern to find out.
29. My great grandfather spent his life in a wheelchair & had 7 children. My funny mum joked, “He certainly got out for his exercise, didn’t he?”
30. My elderly mother has a chrome frame installed around her toilet to help steady herself. She jokes that it is “her special Olympics toilet”.
31. Built a sub-fence to keep my big dog from the muddy bits. 3 trips to the hardware store & $$$. My dog went outside & bounded over the fence!
32. Work trip to Brazil & found very smart engineers. I gave them the ok sign to show my appreciation. Was told to stop…it is a rude gesture!
33. Soccer son is with his team. I ask my cruel daughter to call him off so we can get her to ballet. She shouts “Eric..we need to go to ballet!”
34. Today I was given a gold star by my dentist for “most punctual patient”. I had arrived a day early. Turned 50 in Feb, every day is exciting!
35. Memory of being 11 Y.O. in the car with dad. Car was in first gear/high revs & noisy. He sheepishly asked, “Do you know the facts of life?”
36. Memory of my mum dozing in the rear seat of our car between our 3 Y.O. son & 5 Y.O. daughter. My son asked, “Why does Granny have a mustache?”
37. Did an exact parallel park with my car. “I should get a prize for that,” I said thinking my wife was near me. Random stranger smiled/red face.
38. My frugal Irish dad bought a hearing aid. It was annoying to see him put his hand to his ear & turn it on mid-conversation to save batteries.
39. My wife spent 20 years training me to replace the toilet roll when just the tube remains. They now produce tubeless TP. I need retraining!
40. Memory of Sunday drives as a kid with my chain smoking parents. My siblings would take bets on whether the dog or I would get carsick first.
41. Southwest Air flight & the pretty hostess found out it was an 80 Y.O. man’s birthday. She sang happy birthday “Marilyn Monroe to JFK” style!
42. Irish religious/positive thinking perspective on flights getting delayed and getting stuck at the airport…”God wants me to drink beer!”
43. Shopping with my wife & I saw a stand of wigs. I put one on to surprise her & give her a laugh. Checkout girls saw me & laughed (red face)!
44. In 1971 my brother won a Raleigh Chopper bicycle in a competition. He slid on cow dung, went over the handlebars & had $5,000 in dentist bills!
45. After our wedding in Canada we saw a picture of a gay parade in the newspaper with two gay men wearing the same dresses as our bridesmaids!
46. Lake dock 2001 – our four year old son had Cheerios in one hand & fish food in the other. He inadvertently ate the fish food & threw Cheerios to the fish.
47. My son came home from school late & angry. He was getting ready to cycle home & found that a not so smart kid had locked both bikes together.
48. Low caffeine morning. Dropped an apple into my mug of coffee. It fit perfectly! Paperwork & my favorite shirt were hit by a caffeine tsunami.
49. Fire school panic – with SCBA air tank whistle alarms blowing, we dragged the dummy out of the burning building with a rope around its neck!
50. With the kids’ ice-cream in the car I had to do my annual shirt shopping since my $20 coupon was expiring. 10 mins +12 shirts = man shopping!
51. Built a homemade roof-rack for 3 kayaks out of PVC & metal piping. If you see a Honda CRV with 3 kayaks on top, move out of the way quickly!
52. Playing hockey & saw feathers on the ground. Showed them to another player & told her the heat is causing my feather underwear to fall apart.
53. Elderly woman friend was leaving her store at night & could not find her car keys. She went outside & found her car had been idling all day.
54. I heard one stewardess say to the other, “I will work for Southwest Airways for 2 years & then I should have enough money for rodeo school.”
55. Proud of the fact I can pack in 5 minutes for a week long trip. I got dressed on my last day to discover a pair of my son’s tiny underwear.
56. I took off my $400 eye glasses so I would not scratch them while helping my son catch a lizard in the shrub. I stepped back & stood on them!
57. Memory of my son sneezing with a mouth full of spaghetti. Visualize a long piece of spaghetti simultaneously hanging out his mouth & nose!
58. The light was on in the kitchen window & the moths were landing on the screen. The lizards were chasing & eating them. No need for a TV!
59. I heard the dental hygienist asking a 16 Y.O. girl about boyfriends. Parents could pay extra to find out what their teen daughter is up to!
60. While in Ireland I convinced my 13 Y.O. son to hand feed grass to a cow. As he nervously held out his hand I screamed, “Look out, its a bull!”
61. My wife has over 100 Tai Chi self defense moves. It’s hilarious to see my 13 year old son “disabling her”, tickling her with a single finger!
62. As my wife shopped for shoes I wandered off. I found some blond wigs & tried one on to give her a chuckle. The cashier saw me & she laughed!
63. At work I let a group of women get on the elevator first. I lost focus & the doors closed without me. I heard them laughing all the way up!
64. Our car gets mud and grass from our soccer kids. My brother flew in to see us, opened the car door & said, “Do you carry sheep in this car?”
65. My son was seven & I was angry with him because he would not eat his corn on the cob. He sobbed & said, “But daddy, I have no front teeth!”
66. At our Catholic wedding we each lit a candle symbolizing eternal marriage. Church candle was blown out by priest & extinguished our candles!
67. Low caffeine moment driving to the auto shop to get the muffler fixed on my wife’s car. Three miles from home I noticed I was driving my car!
68. My dad asked my brother to plant the lettuce plants. He was furious when he found them in one hole with the elastic band still attached.
69. A dove was sleeping on the sidewalk in the morning sunlight. It flipped open one eye to see my Irish Setter dog’s smiling face 1 inch away.
70. A local kid was asked to attach a watering hose one dark evening. He grabbed the black hose & it wriggled. It was a large, black rat snake!
71. Had a full bladder driving back from a restaurant. Made the error of telling my teenagers. They shook 1/2 full water bottles to torment me!
72. Came out of the nurse’s office after having a flu shot. I mischievously scowled & limped. The woman waiting outside looked at me in a panic.
73. My Hungarian mother in law speaks broken English. Dinner went on the table and she stated, “If you don’t like it… you can leave!
74. I cut my scalp playing hockey. Doctor stitched me & said, “Come back on Sun. before 3 pm, because that’s when the mower mishaps arrive!”
75. The teacher was telling the class about burning coal. He asked, “what else do we burn?” My funny teen daughter shouted out, “We burn witches!”
76. My dog had cancer surgery. My mother in law said that $840 was a lot to spend on an old dog. My mother in law is 80…and needs hip surgery!

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on understanding your personal sense of humor. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let us help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave Hill – Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, Video clips, Articles, Contact Info, etc.)
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Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills –The Humor Rule-Of-Three – “I Stood Trapped Between Mummy Bear & Her Cub”

Dave Hill Discusses the Humor Rule-of-Three

Crrrraaaaack! The sound of a breaking tree branch exploded into the silence of the night. We were camping in the Canadian wilderness. My girlfriend whispered, “Did you hear that?” “Yes,” I answered. “Are you afraid?” she asked. “No,” I lied. Then she said the seven little words that every man hates. “Go outside and see what it is.” I nervously opened the zipper of the tent armed with only a little flashlight. There to my right was the cutest little baby bear you have ever seen. “Growl, growl, growl,” its little bear cub voice called out. I was just thinking to myself that this will make a great humorous speech story when the loud angry sound of Mummy Bear roaring, “Growl, growl, growl!” came from my other side. Mummy Bear was on my left, Baby Bear was on my right and I, “dinner”, was in between.

Do you know how some people can face danger and do incredibly brave things with adrenaline pouring into their bloodstreams? That never happened to me! I flung the flashlight at the mommy bear, causing her to rear up even higher, and ran and climbed a tree shouting out, “A bear, a bear, run for your life!”

The bear shook the tree angrily, validating the saying that when Mummy Bear ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. While the tree was swaying like a pendulum, my brain was saying, “Climb higher!” My stomach was saying, “Jump and run!” And my bladder was saying, “Evacuate!” As I was evacuating, I fell from the tree, rolled towards the fireplace, and instinctively grabbed a piece of wood to use as a weapon. Out of my mouth came a blood curdling scream, “Ahhhhhhh!” My girlfriend peered through the zipper of the tent just in time to see Mummy Bear and the cub run into the forest.

Christine is now my wife, and she still wonders how someone my size can be so brave to take on a bear. Between you and me, when I picked up that piece of wood, I felt fear, I felt anger, I felt…the searing red hot embers burning into the palms of my hand from the still smoldering piece of wood!

The Humor Rule of Three – Simple and Highly Effective Ways to Develop Humor:
The humorous speech excerpt above is from an award winning speech I delivered in 2008 to an audience of about 200 people. I will use this speech as an example of the effectiveness of the humor rule of three. The focus is on the sections that are in bold above.

So what is the Humor Rule-of-Three and why is it so Effective?
The human brain finds it easy to process information that is presented in groups of three. For example, in a race they shout out, “Ready, get set, go!” From a presenter’s point of view, you often see PowerPoint presentations showing information in groups of three bullet points.

The humor rule-of-three sets a pattern that follows the formula set-up, set-up, twist, or set-up, anticipation, twist. What gets laughter is that basically you are fooling the audience’s brains. The first two setups get the brain rationalizing in a certain direction. The brain, which is thinking ahead, automatically tries to come up with the third item before you say it. When your twist is totally off in another direction, the audience responds with laughter.

The humor rule-of-three in the speech excerpt above is demonstrated in the four sections as follows:

Example 1: (Set-up #1) Mummy Bear was on my left, (Set-up #2) Baby Bear was on my right, and I, (Twist #3) “dinner”, was in between.

Example 2: (Set-up #1 Do you know how some people can face danger and (Set-up #2) do incredibly brave things with adrenaline pouring into their bloodstreams? (Twist #3) That never happened to me!

Example 3: While the tree was swaying like a pendulum, (Set-up #1) my brain was saying, “Climb higher!”(Set-up #2) My stomach was saying, “Jump and run!” (Twist #3) And my bladder was saying, “Evacuate!”

Example 4: (Set-up #1) I felt fear, (Set-up #2)I felt anger, I felt…(Twist #3) the searing red hot embers burning into the palms of my hand from the still smoldering piece of wood!

The bear attack story showing these four examples and the audience’s reaction can be viewed on my YouTube Video Channel (5 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuuWYBSnfHY

A video clip illustrating the rule-of-three in three different stories can also be viewed on my YouTube Video Channel (2 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c4z1TKgFy8&playnext=1&videos=ET5k_3EM39M&feature=mfu_in_order

How to Practically Use this Technique:
The rule-of-three is one of the simplest and most effective humor techniques to use. As I am writing out my stories and honing them, I am looking out for areas where I am describing multiple items, where humor would benefit from the 1, 2, and 3 structure. Once I identify sentenses where this is possible, I then spend a lot of time determining what would be an effective twist.

In my efforts to maximize the effectiveness of a story, I often spend hours trying to find a suitable twist, I am thinking about the sentence 1) when I am walking my dog, 2) when I am driving my car, 3) when I am… (You fill in the blank with a humor twist! What would be an absurd thing to be doing while thinking of a humor twist?). To focus in on finding the most effective twist, I look at the sentence and I see movement (walking, driving) as a common trend. I now would try and structure the sentence so that the movement would be in a natural progression to move the audience’s brains in a certain direction (walk, jog, run). The sentence would now easily evolve to something like this:

“In my efforts to maximize the effectiveness of a story I often spend hours finding a suitable twist, I am thinking about the sentence 1) when I am walking my dog, 2) when I am jogging, 3) when I am running…”
I am now going to focus the twist on something that will relate to running. The kind of things that I will consider include; running from the IRS, running to the bathroom, running to the pub before it closes. None of these are exceptional, but with enough analysis time, something will eventually emerge.

The time invested in this process may seem excessive but when you get the audience’s laughter it is well worth the effort. Once you find sentences that work, you can add them to your library of tried and tested humor which can be used more than once.

Final Note:
Example #3 above is one of my favorite as it also included a play on words which complimented the rule-of-three humor. Once I identified that I was going to have three organs giving me “advice”, I stumbled upon the double entendre use of the word “evacuate” with relation to the bladder.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on incorporating the humor rule-of-three into presentations. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave Hill – Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, Video Clips, Articles, Contact Information, etc.)
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Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills – Get Noticed and Promoted – “Little Did I Know That the Gremlins Were Going to Participate”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

Imagine you are in New York City awaiting a subway train that will bring you to a venue where you will deliver your first formal presentation in front of a crowd. You are standing on the platform nervously holding your notes and you are focused on memorizing the bullet-point content. You have numbered the note cards because a friend told you that nervous speakers sometimes drop them and are so panicky that they cannot work out what order they should be in when they pick them up. You have recently joined a public speaking club to try and become an exceptional speaker. Your job is in the financial insurance industry, and strong presentation skills are the recipe for success.

As you stand on the platform a few feet from the edge, a subway train screeches to a halt. Commuters pour off the train like highly focused soldier ants. There is jostling and hostility as frantic people squeeze their way on and off the train. It was then that the unthinkable happened. As you were glancing at the note cards awaiting the last of the crowd to exit the train, someone grabs a few of your cards and disappears into the mass. As you stand there with confusion and panic on your face you wonder, “What has just happened here”? You step onto the train to get to your destination, and dread sets in. You now have incomplete notes to guide you through your presentation.

The person on the train was my youngest brother Brian, it turned out that this was just to be a minor hiccup in his public speaking endeavors, he progressed quickly, got noticed and promoted, and now lives the “high life” working for a major insurance carrier. He concluded that the person who “stole” some of his note cards at the subway station in New York that day may have thought that he was handing out flyers or coupons! His outgoing personable demeanor and proficiency in presentation skills gets him invited to speak at his company’s conferences throughout North America. He has even been part of a group that has had the privilege of teaching presentation skills at the United Nations (UN).

In the 13 years I have been immersed in public speaking, I have learned that one of the most important criteria for presenters is to be prepared and to have the confidence to deal with the unexpected, i.e., things not going quite as planned. It’s critical to understand what can go wrong and also to be able to deal with the unusual “snags” that you couldn’t possibly conceive (think subway train incident!). Preparation and confidence are the two main components that can help keep the Gremlins at bay. The more you present, the quicker you will learn what can go wrong and how to prevent it or deal with it.

What are some of the stumbling blocks that I have experienced or witnessed?
1. Recently I was presenting a 1 hour seminar to about 100 people at a technical conference. My presentation was being delivered in a university auditorium. I had a lavaliere lapel type microphone which worked exceptionally well. During my presentation I had a question and answer session and some other audience interaction exercises. Unfortunately there was not a handheld microphone and a helper available to go to the person asking the question and make sure the question being asked was being heard by all. I had to make sure I repeated the question back to the audience to make sure they understood the dialogue. See my previous article on success strategies for using microphones at https://davehillspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/exceptional-presenters-get-noticed-and-promoted-%e2%80%9cbefriending-the-microphone%e2%80%9d/
2. Recently I was told to use a new net meeting software program a few days before I was scheduled to deliver a technical training session. I played with it to try and work out any potential kinks ahead of time. I worked with an administrative assistant to make sure it worked smoothly from computer to computer. A set of instructions including a web link to log into the online presentation, were e-mailed to the trainees. Gremlins visited right from the start, some people had not opened the e-mail and were looking at a “blue screen” (they had logged into the “old” net meeting site). In addition, some people who did manage to log in were unable to get the new software to work and could not view the slides.
3. Some time ago I attended a net meeting to listen to a technical training session. For some reason the presenter had given control of the PowerPoint presentation to someone on a different computer. That “helper” was supposed to move the slides as the presenter went from point-to-point. Unfortunately the helper moving the slides was not fully fluent in the presentation and most of the slides did not relate to what the presenter was saying. In addition, the slides would occasionally flick backwards and forwards as the helper tried frantically to find the correct one. See my previous article on net meeting success strategies at: https://davehillspeaks.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/attention-grabbing-presentation-skills-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cnet-meeting-presentations-%e2%80%93-what-happens-when-your-cranky-baby-argues-with-a-top-executive-on-a-conference-call%e2%80%9d/
4. At a recent 1 day workshop on “Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills for Technical people – Get noticed and promoted” I arrived 1 hour early to set up and make sure the audio visual equipment was working etc. I immediately found that the audio system that was supposed to be supplied was not there. Luckily I carry all sorts of backup equipment to deal with these types of issues. My small laptop size speakers were not perfect but they were adequate so the audience could hear the content of some video segments I use to illuminate some of my points. See my previous article on audio-visual success strategies at: https://davehillspeaks.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/attention-grabbing-presentation-skills-–-get-noticed-and-promoted-–-preparing-for-audio-visual-disasters-–-“the-bulb-on-the-projector-popped-and-the-teachers-freaked/

General success strategies for dealing with “Gremlins”
1. Think of all that could go wrong, ask other presenters what they have experienced, and develop some form of backup plan. The sooner you learn about “snags” the better prepared you will be and the lower your anxiety level will be. Back-up plan, back-up plan, and back-up plan, prepare, prepare and prepare!
2. Develop an equipment checklist that also includes success strategies to counteract any potential issues. Keep adding to it when challenges come about. Learn from your mistakes, other people’s misfortunes, and do not repeat them. For example, my checklist now includes “make sure there will be a handheld microphone and a helper for the question and answer session and other audience interaction segments”. Another benefit of this is if the lavaliere microphone fails, I now have a handheld microphone as a backup.
3. Get to your venue as early as possible, set up the equipment, and test everything. If using new technology give yourself plenty of time to learn the vulnerabilities (months before important events if possible). How many times have you seen a presenter come into a conference room 10 minutes before an important presentation and get frustrated, hot, sweaty, and “leaking” anxiety because the laptop wouldn’t “connect” with the projector?

Final note: The importance of gaining an understanding of “Gremlins” should never be underestimated. Anxiety (fear of failing in front of our peers etc.) is one of the main hurdles for many speakers. Understanding that Murphy’s Law prevails (“If something can go wrong… it will”!) and being prepared with a plan, and the confidence to deal with it, are what you are aiming for. Exceptional presentation skills will get you noticed and promoted, it’s worth the effort.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on preparing for “Gremlins” when delivering presentations. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Getting the Exceptional Workplace – “Opening the Door to Effective Brainstorming”

Dave Hill Public Speaking Article

In 2009, I was on a worldwide team that had to update an industry engineering standard. The standard was highly technical and it covered keeping people safe from major accidents in industries using toxic, flammable, or explosive chemicals. At one of the early meetings, engineering technical experts flew in from all over the world to participate in the kick-off meeting. One of the large energy companies was hosting it in one of their conference rooms at the corporate office. We arrived early in the morning and went to security to meet our contact. He brought us to the security desk where we had our identification checked and were given security scanning badges.

The conference room we were meeting in was located in an inner sanctum deep inside the highly secure corporate office. The first level of security was a turnstile inside the building and all twenty five of us had to individually swipe our badges to get it to operate. At the next security area, there were double doors and a one foot square security badge scanner that we once again had to swipe our badges to get through. As we were walking down a corridor, our host had to make a bathroom stop and instructed us to follow the signs to the inner conference room. After a period of time, we arrived at another set of double doors where the trouble started. We checked around the door for a similar one foot square security badge scanner, but we could not see it anywhere. After about five minutes of holding our badges up to anything that would resemble a security scanner and not having any luck getting the doors to open, we gave up and decided to wait for our host to reappear. As we were waiting, a little old Hispanic lady came by with her cleaning cart, mops, toilet rolls and cleaning sprays. In broken English, she asked us why we were grouped here. We explained that we could not find the security scanner to open the double doors. She frowned and said in a heavy accent, “Just push, just push to open the doors boys!” One engineer sheepishly pushed on the doors, and they swung open. There, a short way down another corridor, was our conference room. Twenty-five experienced engineers getting ready to do “brain surgery” on an industry standard, and we could not work out the simple task of opening doors…who would have thought?

Brainstorming can be a very effective means to come up with as many ideas as possible when trying to solve a problem or come up with innovative ideas. To maximize participation and the effectiveness of this type of initiative, there are some basic considerations.

Maximizing the value of brainstorming sessions to generate and evaluate ideas:
1. Brainstorming using about 7 to 10 participants can be effective and manageable from a facilitation perspective.
2. Some pre-meeting work may help the effectiveness of brainstorming.
• Clearly understand the problem being solved.
• Identify any pertinent focus areas.
• It may help to get a small group together beforehand to gather background information for the brainstorming session and to do some pre-filtering. This should be done with the intent of using the brainstorming group’s time as efficiently as possible; however, it should not be done to the extent that it limits the effectiveness. The results of this mini-session can be presented to the brainstorming group to help them become orientated to the task at hand.
• Depending on the type of problem being solved, the brainstorming session can sometimes be broken down into a series of meetings with some proof-of-concept trials between them.
3. A diverse group of participants can maximize effectiveness. The following are some considerations:
• Experienced facilitator
• People with specialized technical knowledge
• Generalists
• “Outsiders” – such as customers
• Multi-functional input
• Different levels of experience
• Different personalities
• Some humorous outgoing people to help develop energy and encourage the group to identify “crazy ideas” while stretching the boundaries of creativity
• Be wary of using people who are known to be high volume, vocal, narrow-minded, and forceful persuaders, as they can diminish the energy and creativity of the group
4. Set an atmosphere that is fun, relaxed, and conjunctive to creative thinking. Some simple ice breaker warm up exercises can help build enthusiasm. Provide a prize for the most outrageous idea to encourage a no boundaries forum.
5. Set the agenda and rules up front:
• Get the participants talking about their understanding of the objectives of the specific brainstorming session.
• Reinforce that there are no bad ideas and there should be no judging or criticizing ideas.
• Think outside your area of expertise.
• Capture the ideas first; evaluate the ideas at the end. There should be no premature evaluations.
6. Write out the ideas on a flip chart or white board to help with the visual correlation.
7. Incorporate visuals and hands-on activities where possible. Plan this before the meeting when possible. Using visuals and hands-on activities can help maximize the creativity, participation, and effectiveness of your brainstorming session.
8. Be aware of the tendency to lean towards obvious good ideas and limiting the brainstorming outcome by just building on them.
9. One of the challenges with brainstorming is getting everyone in the group involved. With the “vocal noise energy in the room” you may find that some people (particularly shy people) may refrain from active participation as their inactivity may not be noticed. Hands-on activities can help overcome this challenge, as it is more difficult for people to take a back seat.
10. It is important that brainstorming sessions are not considered futile exercises where nothing the teams suggest ever gets implemented. This can erode the energy and active participation level for future endeavors. It can be highly beneficial to communicate ideas that that are implemented, to recognize the members of the team that identified them, to identify the benefits to the organization, and to even have a reward associated with accomplishments.

If you have any advice, thoughts, or comments on this subject, please feel free respond to this blog or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com.

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Attention- Grabbing Presentation Skills – “Initiatives to Get Audience Interaction, Enthusiasm, and Energy”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

One of the big challenges presenters have is how to form a bond with the audience and keep them engaged and energized. Have you ever been on a training session where the instructor asks a question and there is no energy in the room and responses are hesitant? Have you ever been on a net meeting where the host asks a question and the silence is deafening? For any instructor, presenter or trainer, it can make you feel uneasy if you do not get feedback from your audience, whether in a conference room setting or on a net meeting. On the other hand, if you have a highly interactive session, you go away feeling that people were interested in your material and had value for it. The difference between success and failure is knowledge and technique.

At a recent monthly technical net meeting, an acquaintance was delivering technical information and I was impressed with the tact he used in getting about 50 people highly involved in his technical information exchange. The net meeting was lively, evoked discussion, and provided value. This meeting was highly successful, considering that many similar meeting prior to this had been relatively subdued.

Here is an excerpt from the meeting notice that was sent out a week before the meeting with the presentation slides:

“Remember this month we are having a homework exercise. The attached presentation slides contain nine scenarios that may or may not require a safety review for the impact of change of; procedures, materials of construction, or operating parameters. Each site should evaluate these as a team in advance, and be ready to discuss not only if a review is required but WHY. I will call out a plant name at random as we review the list, and that team will respond to that particular question“.

In his book titled “Winning”, ex CEO of GE, Jack Welch wrote that one of the biggest wastes of a company’s resources was the lack of candor in meetings. He also talked about the huge benefits of having a culture where people speak up at meetings, get involved, vocally challenge ideas, and feel a passion to do so. More information can be found on this at http://www.welchway.com/Principles/Candor-(1).aspx

As someone who has been researching presentation skills for over 13 years, I am well aware of the need to engage the audience as soon as possible and get interaction building the energy and excitement in the room.

One of the key considerations when using audience interaction techniques is what will work effectively for your specific audience and for your specific subject matter. What may work for one audience may seem flippant for another. The level of entertainment versus the learning value is important. Question such as “how many of you want to be successful and get rich” provides limited value and you as a presenter will have no practical use for the response from this “no-brainer” question. Another important factor is to make sure that your instructions to the audience are crystal clear for any engagement activities.

Some techniques I use for getting an interactive audience:
1. While training people on “Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills for Technical People – Get Noticed and Promoted” I play a video of an excellent speaker doing a technical presentation which incorporates some PowerPoint slides. The video is played early on in the presentation to help the audience envision what they are aiming for. I ask the audience to form several groups and I get them to watch the 5 minute video and discuss amongst themselves the quality of the content of the video presentation, the delivery, and also ask them to imagine that they are that presenter and want them to discuss how they feel (the presenter is confident, knows his subject matter, is funny, and the audience is visibly engaged and energized). After the groups have discussed the key attributes, I ask them to assign a leader who will summarize the groups’ thoughts.
2. I usually start off my presentations with a story that relates to what I am talking about and make sure that the audience can relate to that specific story – use the technique “make a point, tell a story, relate to the audience”. Relating to the audience is one of the most powerful aspects.
3. Get the audience brainstorming on a specific point, then choose the ones you want to “drill down” further to explore them in more detail. The initial brainstorming could be conducted on a flip chart if the writing is visible to the audience. Another way would be to have a projector and assign an assistant to scribe and capture the ideas.
4. Ask the audience (or separate groups) to discuss the pros and/or cons of a specific idea.
e.g. In my keynote speech on “Making Sure Your Meetings Have a Positive Impact on the Bottom Line” I ask audiences to give me feedback on the pros and cons of brainstorming in meetings.
5. A powerful way of energizing a meeting or presentation is to include competition such as a game. Everyone from front line workers to executives has a competitive urge. The important aspect here is to know your audience to make sure the competition/game is appropriate to the attendees, the occasion, and the learning value.
6. A simple way of getting the audience members focused on best choices is to give them a choice of several specific answers and ask them to identify the least effective ones. E.g. which of the following three speech opening techniques would tend to be least effective and why:
• Story
• Joke
• Rhetorical question
• Quotation
• Shock statement
Once they have answered, I have the opportunity to support the conversation and talk about jokes being ineffective if people have heard them before. I can build on the conversation and suggest that people use quotations that are not too familiar so that they will be more impactful than one that people have heard before.
7. When I have a presentation or keynote speech that uses a handout, I may have some pages with sentences that have key words missing. The audience members fill in the words as the information is given to them. The advantages of this technique is that it provides you with a “cheat sheet” so you do not need to remember the content and order of the information and it also helps the audience retain the information (“If they ink it…they will think it”)
8. When I was at the National Speakers Association (NSA) Academy, the Dean had an audience interaction technique that worked well. At the beginning of his training he would get all 15 of us to form a wide circle in the room and he would throw a baseball size lightweight “fuzzy ball” to someone and ask them to tell one thing that they learned from the previous training session. The person would respond and then throw the ball to another person. This would continue until everyone had spoken. The value of this was to help recall information from the previous training session and help put it into our long term memories.
9. Statistics indicate that when audiences hear information, they will remember about 20% after a week, if they listen and see information they will remember about 50% and if the listen, see, and physically work out a problem, or solve a specific problem with “hands on” techniques, they are likely to remember about 75%. In my presentation skills training for technical people, I have several exercises where we take ineffective PowerPoint slides and unclutter them to turn data into uncluttered visual information that audiences will understand. I start off on easy examples and make them progressively more challenging, building on the learnings from each one.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on audience interaction techniques. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention- Grabbing Presentation Skills – Cultural Considerations – “My Ass-tronomical Mistake”

Dave Hill - Cultural Considerations For Presentors And Travelers

In May 2002, I spent three weeks traveling around Chile and Brazil, doing safety audits of chemical plants. I arrived at a chemical plant in Brazil and I was fascinated that the place was full of beautiful trees and landscaping, with birds and animals making it part of their home. In a way, it reminded me of a private zoo. At the water discharge area, the waste water was pumped through an aquarium which had beautiful tropical fish in it. The visual effects of this chemical plant were awesome and they set the stage for a very positive visit. My main hurdle at this location was that I didn’t speak Portuguese, and the people I was meeting up with spoke broken English. I have never been one to let my lack of languages get in the way of communication, so I used hand gestures, facial expressions, smiles, and a few key words to allow me to get my work done. Everything about the Brazilians impressed me- their use of hydro-electric power, their focus on conserving energy, and their passion and friendliness.

There were two things that went wrong during this visit that still get me chuckling today, and remind me of a key consideration when interacting with people of different cultures.

During my safety audit, I took the time to work on a project with one of the local Brazilian engineers. In Brazil, I noticed that the engineers appear to be high up on the social scale. They were all immaculately dressed in suits and ties, and looked extremely professional. I was brought to the top of a steep grassy hill where the engineer I was working with wanted to show me the location where he wanted to put new processing equipment. There had been a heavy rain that morning, and the ground was very slippery. In fact, it was so slippery that we had to pull ourselves up to the top of the hill by clinging onto the surrounding wire fence. At the top of the hill, the engineer pointed out the area where he wanted to put the equipment and then started to unroll his engineering drawings. While unrolling his drawings, he let go of the wire fence and immediately lost his footing and started rolling down the grassy hill, picking up mud as he fell, with his engineering drawings blowing away into the distance. He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill with his face, arms and suit absolutely caked in mud. I carefully came down the hill clinging to the wire fence. I went over to him and asked him if he was ok, making an “ok” sign with my hand. The engineer was not happy with what had happened and went away to get cleaned up.

I continued my safety audit going from section to section of the chemical plant. Everything was immaculate and the documentation was thorough. It energizes me to see people implementing safety at a high level, and I spent a lot of time smiling at people, thanking them for doing good work and simultaneously giving them the “ok” sign to emphasize my appreciation.

On day three, the head auditor came up to me with a sarcastic smile on his face and said, “You need to stop doing the ok sign, it is an extremely rude gesture here in Brazil”. My face dropped when I considered that I had already done the damage by inadvertently telling about 20 people that they were ass@#!&!’s…even the poor mud-caked engineer.

I made my apologies and there were no hard feelings; they knew that my intent was not bad and they laughed it off. I must admit that I was angry with myself because as someone who has travelled to 75 countries, I should have known better and should have researched the cultural differences before visiting.

This memory reminds me of the importance of understanding cultural aspects whether you are visiting a foreign country or presenting to people of different cultures. In a previous article, I talked about “audience analysis” so you can hone your presentation materials to your audience’s needs and circumstances. Imagine how powerful it would be to know ahead of time what different cultures will be represented in the audience and to incorporate some cultural uniqueness that they can relate to. The other benefit can be to get an understanding of gestures that are considered appropriate or inappropriate, and to understand ahead of time the cultural nuances of the audience. Here are some general examples:

Brazil
• The “O.K.” sign is considered very rude and vulgar; the “thumbs up” gesture is used for approval.
• Clicking the tongue and shaking the head indicates disagreement or disapproval.
• Presentations should be expressive and have some flair.
• Brazilians are expressive and passionate conversationalists. Be prepared to be interrupted.

France
• Use last names and appropriate titles until specifically invited by your French host or colleagues to use their first names. First names are used only for close friends and family
• Academic titles and degrees are very important. You are expected to know them and use them properly.
• The “ok” sign, made with index finger and thumb, means “zero.”
• The French use the “thumbs up” sign to say “ok.”
• Keep your hands out of your pockets.
• Be on time. The French appreciate punctuality.
• The French dislike disagreeing and debating in a public forum, but enjoy a controlled debate, whereby an informed rebuttal is appreciated.
• Presentations should be well prepared, comprehensive, clear, well-written, informative, and presented in a formal, rational, professional manner- appealing always to the intellect.
• The French do not tell or like to hear jokes. They prefer intelligent and satirical wit. Funny stories of real life situations are appreciated.

Ireland
• The Irish are uncomfortable with loud, aggressive, and arrogant behavior.
• A “Reverse V for victory” gesture is considered obscene.
• The Irish respect reserved behavior. Initial meetings should be low key.
• Always be sincere. The Irish dislike pretentious behavior.

India
• Use your right hand only to touch someone, pass money or pick up merchandise. The left hand is considered unclean.
• Do not touch anyone’s head. The head is considered sensitive.
• Feet are considered unclean. Pointing footwear at people is considered an insult.
• Never point with a single finger or two fingers (used only with inferiors). Point with your chin, whole hand or thumb.

Country-specific information is excerpted from the “Put Your Best Foot Forward” series by Mary Murray Bosrock.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on success strategies for presenting to multi-cultural audiences. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention- Grabbing Presentation Skills – Watch Your Color – “How a Day of Humiliation Changed My Career Path”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

In February 1977, I was getting ready to graduate high school in Ireland, and was pursuing a career as an officer on cargo ships. I was still trying to determine if I wanted to be a deck officer or an engineer officer. I was leaning towards becoming an engineer officer, but I wanted to keep my options open as the job market was very tight. One cargo ship company I had contacted to enter their cadetship program was interested in sponsoring me and sending me to college with a full scholarship- as long as I graduated with certain grades and passed the interview and medical tests. I had to travel to England by ferry and train to go to the company headquarters in London.

It didn’t take too long for things to go wrong. The ferry pulled away from the Irish port, turned the corner into the Irish Sea, and immediately entered the turbulent ocean. My parents had fed me a full fried Irish breakfast, and I stood on the upper deck looking over the side of the ship, feeling miserable. The salty saliva built up in my mouth, and it was inevitable that the fish were going to eat well that morning! Before a ship leaves port they give you the safety instructions for lifejackets and lifeboats, but for some reason they never told us that you should never vomit while facing the wind. My projectile vomit hit the wind head on, the updraft caught it, and the next minute I could hear the cries of disgusted passengers evacuating the deck. I had not even graduated high school and I had already entered a world where curse words were being hurled at me. I would like to say that this was the only bad thing to happen on this journey, but it was only a taste of the humiliation that was to come.

I arrived at the London office and was escorted high up into the corporate building by a porter who was immaculately dressed in a uniform that included white gloves. In a waiting room there were other young people waiting to be interviewed and get a medical test. We were served hot tea by the company “tea ladies” who served tea on the company’s fine china. I remember these motherly type women being very friendly and talkative, helping distract us from our stresses. On the walls of the room were photos of huge ocean going square rig sailing ships. The shipping company had been in business for over 200 years, way back to the sailing ship days. The only disturbing thing I found in this room were little notes on the bottom of some pictures that told of the ship in the picture being “lost at sea with all hands”.

My turn to get interviewed came, and it went very well. I was then brought to another room where the company doctor was doing the tests. It was my first time peeing in a cup, and he was visibly amused when I walked out of the bathroom very slowly and deliberately holding my urine cup filled to the very brim. When you give your first urine sample, someone needs to tell you that you don’t need to fill it all the way to the top! By now, you would think that that was enough humiliation for the day but no…bad things seem to happen in threes.

The last test the doctor had to conduct was called the “Farnsworth Lantern Test”. It is used to test ship deck officers and airline pilots for color blindness. It consisted of a lantern that shone two vertically orientated pinprick size dots of light from behind me. The alternating red, green and white pinprick dots of light from the lantern shone into a mirror located in front of me and I had to read the reflected colors from top to bottom. The color selections were alternated to determine the possibility of color blindness and the ability to see ship navigation lights which are red, green and white. The test instructions sounded easier than giving a urine sample, the lights were turned out, the lantern was switched on, and the medical officer asked me to read the colors from top to bottom. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as my eyes probed the darkness for any lights. The medical officer repeated his request and after a few more minutes of silence I told him in a stress filled voice that I could not see any lights what so ever. He changed the light combination and asked me again to read the colors from top to bottom. Nothing…I could see nothing. The room lights were turned on, and then the medical officer left the room leaving me standing there extremely worried.

I was surprised when he returned with a smile on his face carrying three large telephone directories. He put them on the ground where I was located and told me to step up on them. He explained that the reason I could not see any lights was probably because I was too short for the mirror to be able to reflect the pinprick dots of colors directly into my eyes. The room lights were turned out and I was happy that I could now see the pinprick lights. Unfortunately, my ability to determine the colors of each dot of light was impaired- the reds and greens seemed to float together and as I could not consistently make them out, I was officially color blind.

That day I had suffered the humiliation of projectile vomiting, had found out that I was color blind, was laughed at for filling my urine cup too full, and you would think that that was enough for one day. The doctor shook his head, laughed, and said, “Don’t worry about the color blindness; you are probably too short to be able to see out the ship bridge windows anyway!”

So that was how I made my mind up to become an engineer officer rather than a deck officer, and I am glad to say that even though I got more than my fair share of humiliation that day, destiny made a good choice for me.

Let me use the learnings from this day to lead into color considerations for visual presentations such as PowerPoint. Many people are colorblind, the most prominent being the inability to distinguish the red-green hues. A small percentage of people have difficulty distinguishing yellow and blue hues. Research shows that about 8% to 10% of males and about 0.5% of females have some forms of red-green color blindness.

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article - Color Blindness

Success Strategies for Presenting Using Visual Color:
1. Research colors and make sure that are not prominent for the different types of color blindness (particularly red-green and blue-yellow)
2. Test your presentation to see what the colors look like (remember that they may look slightly different on different projectors). Test your presentation on the projector you will be using if possible
3. My preference for background colors in order of preference is blue, purple and green. Use bold colors
4. Do not use color alone to convey content. Shading styles and other visual cues such as asterisks or line types (dash, dotted, full etc.) can help audiences see and understand the relationships
5. A tool to check how your presentation slides would look to people with different types of color blindness is at http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php
6. Use color sparingly – i.e. don’t overload with too much visual multi-color clutter
7. Find the balance between professionalism and pleasant appearance

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on success strategies for color selection considerations for visual presentations. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Energized Employees Power Profits – Embracing a Culture of Learning from Mistakes – “Engineering Projects – When Things Go Horribly Wrong”

Dave Hill - Empowering Employees and Leaders

Back in July 2000, my wife and I decided to build a large wooden fort in our back garden for our young kids. The cost of a fort “kit” was well over $1300, which was well beyond our means. As a frugal Irishman I would never be able to convince myself to spend that kind of money anyway. The next best thing was to do some reverse engineering and build it ourselves. It would be a great weekend project. On the way home from work each day, I would pass a store that sold garden forts, and they had a beautiful fully assembled one in the front parking lot as a display. Every day for about a month I would stop for about 10 minutes, pretending to check it out, and then covertly take out my tape measure and measure up a few parts and enter them with diagrams into a small note book. The reverse- engineered plagiarized design started to come together slowly but surely, and soon we were ready to buy the materials.

We arrived at the local hardware store in our old Ford Escort station wagon to choose the best pieces of wood from the lumber section and bring them home. By the time the wood was loaded in the car, it was weighed down to a level where the exhaust pipe was nearly scraping the ground. There were big sheets of plywood and a plastic slide tied with rope to the roof, and the 4 x 4 pieces of wood were stacked thickly in the body of the station wagon. We drove home carefully, making sure we did not lose any of our precious cargo. When we arrived home, our young kids were elated with the thought of having a wooden play fort. This was going to be a great weekend….or was it?

That weekend there were noises of bits of wood being cut, nails being hammered, and the grunts and groans of hundreds of screws being inserted into the structure. Bit by bit it started to take shape. At some stage during the assembly, I discovered that I had miscounted the amount of 4 x 4’s I needed for the frame. Since I was in the middle of assembling, I asked my wife to go back to the hardware store and get a 10 ft. length.

The total cost of this play fort was going to come in under $300, and we were having a fine time “barn-raising” as a family, putting it together. It is always a good day when you can apply your engineering skills to some home projects and get to stand back and admire the workmanship and revel in the cost savings.

Then came the bad news; my wife arrived home with the piece of wood inside the car and I could see that she was somewhat upset. She looked at me and said, “I have good news and bad news”. “What’s the good news?” I asked”. “I found a really great piece of 4 x4”. “What’s the bad news then?” She smiled sheepishly and said, “I managed to fit a 10 ft. piece of wood into an 8 ft. long car.” She then showed me that she had pushed the piece of wood all the way into the car so she could get the hatch door closed. Unfortunately, the last push had also caused the piece of wood to hit the front windshield causing it to pop out and break. The cost of the fort was due to be about $300, the cost of the additional piece of wood was $25, and the cost of a new windshield was about $200. The new cost of the fort was now $525!

The fort was finally finished on the Sunday evening. My wife put the finishing touches to it by painting vines on the sides using the light of a lamp she had brought from the living room. Immediately there were shrieks of joy from our kids as they climbed, chased each other, and slid down the slide. The negativity of the broken windshield became a nuisance of the past, and I put the memory in my story file to use at a later date.

As an engineer of nearly 30 years, I have made my fair share of mistakes while doing projects. I have been lucky that I have nearly always been surrounded by positive, uplifting people and have grown to learn that mistakes are normal and part of gaining experience, but most importantly, they are things you get over and sometimes you even get to laugh at them. I have been at meetings where we were wrapping up projects and celebrating our success with a special lunch. Sometimes the meetings would include a segment to encourage people to talk about what went wrong. People would talk about improvement opportunities for the next project. Occasionally, there would be a competition and gag prizes for the person who confessed to causing the biggest mishap. Not only did this help diminish the embarrassment of making mistakes using lighthearted humor, it also provided a forum where people could learn from each other’s mistakes.

A positive forum for learning from mistakes is highly beneficial to any organization. The benefits can include:
1. Creating a culture where people openly admit mistakes and are not afraid to let others know (rather than keeping quiet and hoping that the mistake does not get noticed or lead to adverse conditions such as an accident)
2. Giving us the opportunity to do things differently and benefit from the results- Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
3. Building morale and improving teamwork and camaraderie by diminishing the negativity associated with errors
4. Inspiring people to set far reaching goals and push the limits of technology without the hindrance of career limiting reprimands

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on creating a workplace culture that embraces learning from mistakes. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.