“We have study hall at the beginning of our meetings.” says Jeff Bezos. Staff meetings at Amazon begin with 30 minutes of silent reading. Powerpoint is easy for presenter, hard for audience “The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a powerpoint … Read more
These are the top 10 TED talks of all time (by total views on TED.com). 1.- Sir Ken Robinson – Schools kill creativity – 13M views 2.- Jill Bolte Taylor – Stroke of insight – 9.6M views 3.- Steve Jobs – How to live before you die – 9.3M views 4.- Pranav Mistry – The thrilling potential of Sixth Sense technology – 9M views 5.- David Gallo – Underwater … Read more
Irrelevant “Yeah sure, I get it… that’s all interesting, but so what?” Jeff Weiner on Irrelevance Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, blogs about a public speaking fail – and three lessons he learnt from the experience. He delivered a speech that he had delivered 15 times over the previous year. When he finished, he experienced … Read more
In my 8 years as a management consultant at Accenture, preparing a presentation was synonymous with preparing the Powerpoint slides. “Hey Neill! Proposal presentation this Friday…” – I immediately opened Powerpoint and started creating slides… A lot of powerpoint is not Great Powerpoint. Great Powerpoint can be a powerful addition to a great speech. As the saying … Read more
Jerry Weissman, in Presenting to Win, says that there are 5 Cardinal Sins in Presentations: No clear point – the audience leaves wondering what it was all about. “What was the point?” No audience benefit – the audience doesn’t see how they can benefit. “So what?” No clear flow – the sequence of ideas is … Read more
Jeffrey Pfeffer says that there are 4 ways that good ideas get shot down: Confusion – “yes, but how does that address US foreign policy and the social responsibility charter and the challenges of globalisation… and the new tax situation?” Fear mongering – “uff… this will be like X back in 2008 when it all … Read more
I had a question from one of the participants, Thomas, last week in the IESE Persuasive Communications Seminar in Barcelona. He asked “If you are caught off guard with a question – how do you react, or how do you turn around a question without answering?” Don’t do the Rabbit The “Rabbit-in-the-Headlights” look, wide-eyed surprise … Read more
I have prepared a series of short videos for my IESE courses this year. This is a 3 minute video describing Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triad, the 3 pillars of persuasion. You need to connect with an audience on each of these three levels if you wish to move them to action. (The video is here on … Read more
I have prepared a series of short videos for my IESE courses this year. This is a 3 minute video describing the 4 steps to great speaking. (The video is here on my blog). 4 Steps to Great Speaking This video is inspired by Jim Rohn and his approach to speaking well. I wrote a … Read more
I was asked by Irina Kremin to give her a tip for speakers. I gave her “The most important question for a speaker”. Video here and summary on Irina’s blog: Best Conference Tips. It was a fantastic experience to spend a weekend with Europe’s Toastmasters organisation. Irina has provided a nice summary of my educational … Read more