Briefly
Practice keeping things simple. Don't provide "background." Ask a simple question in one sentence. Respond to a question with brevity. We often confuse complexity, length, and convolution with intelligence. Actually, they are in inverse proportion.
Blasphemy
I have found that audiences are far better served with provocation and by challenging them with new ideas than they are with commiseration, pandering, and "comfort food" (which many presentations resemble). Of course, the speaker must be oriented toward helping
Responses
I don't know if there are the proverbial "two kinds of people," but I do know there are two kinds of responses to new ideas: Let me tell you why that won't work. Let me figure out how I can
The Meaning of “Work”
When I lived in New Jersey, I would take a Pan Am helicopter from Newark to LaGuardia or Kennedy, fly to Montreal or Toronto, conduct business and sales calls, then return to New York, take the chopper back to Jersey,
OK, I Have A Problem
The best groups I've ever formed or facilitated have members who are uniformly comfortable being vulnerable. My wife commented once, while sitting in with the group's permission, that it was the first such meeting she'd ever attended where no one,
Shut Up and Work
Whenever someone from a client told me that their boss was the problem, I always asked, "So, what do you plan to do about that?" About 90% of the time they told me they were powerless and afraid of being fired,
Trying
Stop trying to make money and start trying to make a difference. The latter usually provides the former, but the former seldom provides the latter.
True Failure and Success
Some people don't take action because they believe being seen as slow to act is less negative than acting and being seen as a failure. I view people who act, fail, learn, and then improve as great successes. In fact, that's
What Are You Thinking?
Major league baseball players often place weights on their bats while in the "on deck" circle preparing to go to bat. The philosophy is that the bat will be lighter without the weights, therefore their swing will be faster and
Learning How to Learn
The problem with higher education today to a large extent is that it is still mired in the prelapsarian mindset of teaching content. In an age of instant investigation via any number of technologies, people are still asked to memorize