2012 Public Workshops for Stand Up, Speak Up & Persuade

Stand Up, Speak Up & Persuade is coming to a capital city near you!

Innovative Business Skills Australia (IBSA) is hosting Stand Up, Speak Up & Persuade through out Australia

• Brisbane – July 24th 2012
• Darwin – July 25th 2012
• Sydney- August 1^st 2012
• Canberra – August 2^nd 2012
• Melbourne - August 7th 2012
• Adelaide – August 9th 2012
• Perth – August 17th 2012
• Hobart - August 30th 2012          

Five things good speakers always do

Here are five things that good speakers ALWAYS do.

    

1. Set an objective

Good speakers have a clear objective and a strong message. You know you have heard a great presentation because you can walk away from their speech knowing exactly what it is you need to do.

 

Good speakers use repetition and sound bites to ensure their message sticks, and they finish with a ‘call to action’ that reinforces their objective.

   

2. Have a prepared plan

Good speakers don’t read from their notes or put their whole presentation on the screen. Good speakers prepare an outline based on facts and stories and use their notes as prompts only.

 

This way they can deliver their speech in a conversational tone and be flexible to be able to respond to the audience when needed.

 

3. Consider the audience

Good speakers realise that no matter how important they think their message is, it doesn’t mean squat if the audience can’t relate it to it.

 

You want to be a better speaker? Then find your audience’s burning issue and make sure you address it up front.

 

4. Use stories

Good speakers explain and embellish by presenting stories. They realise that stories increase engagement, create an emotional connection, allow them to deliver their message in a  conversational style,convey empathy and enable them to persuade with passion.

 

5. Write their presentation first and then ask: “Do I need to use PowerPoint?”

Good speakers know that passionate people persuade, not PowerPoint. Often they will present without PowerPoint. They may use a prop instead, or a simple diagram on a white board. Or, they might just look you in the eye and talk to you.

 

   *****

 

These are the five elements that all good speakers have. But like great singers, they come in a wide variety of colours, shapes and sizes. So it’s up to you to find your unique style.

 

What other skills do great speaker have? Please share your thoughts

 

WIIFM!

Every time a group of people collect to hear a speaker they are all thinking the same things. And the list generally consists of: Please don’t bore me! I wonder what’s for lunch? Did I lock the back door when I left home this morning? Gee, that guy in the second row is cute! How long is this going to take? Please – make it relevant to me and my problems. The only three things that you can influence as a speaker are the first and last two.

Here are 3 ways to tailor your message to suit your audience when preparing for your next presentation.

1. Do your homework
It makes sense – the more you know about your audience the more you can tailor your information and deliver it in a way to suit them.
Questions to ask yourself include: What is their level of knowledge on this subject? What is their learning style? What is their attitude towards me? What motivates this audience? What type of job do they have? What other priorities do they have?

2. Meet and greet
Meeting and greeting audience members as they enter the room achieves two purposes. First it reduces your nerves as you are able to move, chat and focus on them rather than you. Secondly you are able to gauge the mood of the group and get a feel for their needs and priorities.

3. Address the elephant
As a speaker you need to have a strong objective and be clear about what you want the audience to do, say, think or feel. But all this will fall on deaf ears if you don’t address the burning issues that the audience has.
I remember years ago when I first started my business, walking into a room full of angry looking people sitting with their arms crossed and scowls on their faces. I started by saying “Hmmmm – you don’t look happy to be here. Who was forced to attend this training today?” I wasn’t surprised when every hand shot up. This enabled me to focus on why they weren’t looking forward to the training and to address their concerns rather than plowing on and pretend everything was fine.
*****
Someone once said “People don’t care about how much you know ’till they know how much you care.” By focusing on the audiences needs you are ensuring that your presentation is relevant and of value.

Structure – making your presentation palatable.

Good presentation structure is like a fine meal. Your introduction serves as an entree – something to tantalize the taste buds and have you looking forward to the main course. The main course is the ‘Meat and three veg’ component. This is the substance of your presentation. And as for the dessert – well, this is the conclusion – something to leave a nice taste in your mouth and to be memorable.

Here are 3 tips to ensure a strong and easy to follow structure when preparing for your next presentation.

1. Write your introduction last
Your introduction requires tremendous thought. It is here that you establish the importance of the topic. What it is that you will be speaking about Why it is important and Why the listener should care.

Don’t forget, you also need a ‘grab’. This should be the first 10 – 30 seconds of your presentation. Something to capture the audience’s attention; a startling statistic, hypothetical question, story or quote that provides a memorable sound bite.

2. Pick a plan
Jerry Weissman in his book ‘Winning Presentations’ identifies 16 flow structures. Here are my five favourites:
1. Problem/ Solution
Organises the presentation around a problem and the solution offered by your company.
2. Rhetorical Questions
Asks, then answers, questions that are likely to be foremost in the minds of your audience.
3. Features /Benefits
Organises the presentation around a series of your product or service features and the concrete benefits provided by those features.
4. Case Study
A narrative recounting how you or your company solved a particular problem for a client.
5. Physical
Organises a cluster of ideas according to their physical or geographic locations.

3. Conclude with a call to action
So… what IS your presentation objective? What do you want them to do, say, think or feel? Now is the time to ask “Will that be cash or charge?”
My favourite ways to ask for action include:
“So, where do we go from here?” (then tell them)
“What do we need to do differently come Monday?”
“To summarise, there a three important things you need to know…”
“So… what are you going to do now? What changes can you make to ensure…?”
*****
Good speech structure enables us to take the audience’s hand and lead them on a gastronomic journey that leaves them sated and nourished, rather than stuffed with empty calories and a nasty bout of indigestion!

Clarity is King!

A definition:
“Clarity – free from obscurity and easy to understand”

There you go – isn’t that what we all strive for in our communication with others? And yet simple doesn’t mean easy.

Here are 3 ways to develop clarity when preparing for your next presentation.
1. Focus
The last two newsletters were about setting an objective and knowing your audience. The next step is to get a large piece of paper and write down EVERYTHING you know about your topic. I like to mindmap my topic. This enables me to do a real ‘brain dump’ of all the information I have collected and I find the mindmap then highlights the gaps I may have in my information so I can conduct more research if required. Have a look at www.mindmapping.com.au if you would like to know more.
Once you have completed your info dump, the next stage is to get a big black marker and cross off everything that is not related to your objective or relevant to your audience. This step is hard but essential. If it does not relate to your audience or your objective it is irrelevant and will only clutter your message.

2. Eliminate jargon
Within an industry jargon can be useful. It enables us to speak in shorthand and convey technical information rapidly. Jargon can also alienate, confuse and humiliate your audience, and is one of the most common barriers to effective communication. At best your audience will not understand, at worst they will feel angry that you have excluded them with your language.

3. It’s a bit like…
Stories, analogies and metaphors work. Why? Because they allow an individual to relate your information to their current experience. They also trigger different parts of the brain and in doing so, become more memorable.
*****
Clear communication should not require massive effort on the part of the listener. Stick to the guidelines above and you can’t go wrong.

Thinking on your feet

People fear questions. Fear of looking stupid, fear of speaking on the spot and fear of the loss of credibility when they don’t know the answer.

Invariably they overstuff their speeches with excess information hoping to avoid question time and end up being highly defensive when an audience member requests clarification.

Here are 5 ways to answer questions confidently when delivering your next presentation.
1. Do your homework
Last year I coached a Senior Detective from the South Australian Police Force. He was one of the Police Officers you see delivering the media update on ongoing investigations. I was helping him develop skills to think on his feet as he was constantly getting thrown by questions from reporters.
The first step is preparation. If the topic is in the public domain – Google it! Read blogs and comments on news sites. Find out what the public views (both negative and positive) are on the topic. This will highlight any concerns or misconceptions they may have and you can prepare a strategy to answer them. Brainstorm. Look for any holes in your argument. Prepare answers to these questions should the arise. If presenting internally, run your topic past your peers and key opinion leaders and gather their views.

2. Be aware of snipers
Snipers are audience members who wish to undermine you. It is important not to humiliate the sniper as you do not wish to create an enemy. If their question is completely off topic you can politely deflect their question (see point 5) if they ambush you with a question outside of your area of expertise the best way to handle them is to say:
“I don’t have the information I need at hand to answer that question at this point – and I don’t wish to mislead you with the incorrect information, so I will need to get back to you on that point”

3. Slow down
Nerves often cause us to rush in without properly clarifying the question. Try and slow down the interaction. When you are asked a question; Smile and look like a listener. Lean in and concentrate on when the person is saying (and, what they aren’t saying!) and then clarify, clarify and clarify. Tease out the meaning behind their question, ask for an example and then reflect back to the audience member to ensure that you have understood them correctly.
This serves two purposes: First it gives you time to think and secondly it ensures that you focus in the issue at hand

4. Have a structure strategy
There is a wonderful saying: “A well presented opinion will beat a poorly presented argument” Toastmasters International provides three ways to present your impromptu answer.

Depending on the question you can use:
1. ‘PREP’ (Point of view, Reason, Example Point of view)
2. ‘Past Present Future’
3. ‘Local National Global’
So if the topic is ‘Public transport in Sydney’ you may wish to respond with:
1. “I really like the train system in Sydney as they are fast, timely and cost effective. For example when I was in Sydney last week I caught the airtrain to the CBD and not only did I avoid the peak hour traffic, but the cost was about a quarter of a cab fare. So I think public transport in Sydney is great.”
2. “In the past I never used public transport in Sydney as I always either drove myself or caught a taxi. These days though with the cost of city parking I find it more cost effective and easier just to use the Sydney train system. In the future as the services improve I can see myself relying even more on public
transport.”
3. “Locally the public transport system works well, in fact the Sydney system is probably the benchmark for public transport in Australia. Globally though we fall behind, with cities like London, New York and Hong Kong delivering far superior public transport systems.”
The more you practice these techniques, the better you get. I recommend to those I coach that they practice these techniques when watching the news and hypothesise how they would answer a question on the news story topic.

5. Deflect
Be confidently assertive when handling questions. If the question is completely off topic or not on the agenda create a ‘carpark’ section in the minutes and add it to the next meeting’s agenda. If the answer will blow out your time allocation state that you are conscious of the time and you will be happy to address the question during the break.
*****
Question time should be embraced – focus on telling the audience what you do know. Rejoice in the fact that you have increased their engagement and that they want to know more.

Five things a speaker should NEVER do!

In my March newsletter I shared my top five things a speaker should never do.

They are:

1. Write out a speech in full and read from your notes
2. Wing it
3. Go over time
4. Arrive late
5. Put your whole presentation on PowerPoint and then read from the slides

So there you have it – my top five.

What are yours?

What are words worth?

I love words. One of my earliest memories was learning the word ‘soporific’ from Beatrix Potter The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. “It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is `soporific’” I remember the furore caused when our then Prime Minister Paul Keating called the Malaysian Prime Minister a ‘recalcitrant’ and Dame Judi Dench as M calling Bond a “..sexist, misogynist dinosaur…”

Fabulous stuff!

So, should we be trawling the online thesaurus’ and dictionaries and cramming our speeches full of enthralling, captivating and illuminating words?

Not necessarily. According to advertising legend David Ogilvy author of “Confessions of An Advertising Man” the most persuasive words are simple, action oriented and memorable.

He list his favourites as:
suddenly, now, announcing, introducing, improvement, amazing, sensational, remarkable, revolutionary, startling, miracle, magic, offer, quick, easy, wanted’ challenge, compare, bargain and hurry.

So as yourself, what it is that you want people to remember? Your use of the word ‘recalcitrant’ or the emotional response generated by “I have a dream”?

Building a pitch

It is unrealistic to meet someone and in 30 seconds convince them to hand over the $200,000 you need for start up capital.

As Seth Godin says:
“No one ever bought anything in an elevator. The purpose of an elevator pitch isn’t to close the sale.

The goal isn’t even to give a short, accurate, Wikipedia-standard description of you or your project.

And the idea of using vacuous, vague words to craft a bland mission statement is dumb.

No, the purpose of an elevator pitch is to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you’re with wants to hear more even
after the elevator ride is over.”

Passionate people persuade – you first objective is to gain more time…

Teaching is like training, is like speaking, is like persuading.

I read an article the other day about a SA high school teacher who won the 2011 Australia’s best science teacher award. She doesn’t work at an exclusive private school, she doesn’t have the latest equipment and many would consider her students to be from an underprivileged background… and yet last year 4 of her year 12 students achieved perfect scores.

So what makes her unique and able to achieve these results?

I believe it is her attitude and her ability to capture her audience and make them care about her topic.
She is quoted as saying “The first section of any lesson id pivotal to engage, motivate and interest students. It is not the right time for taking the roll.” She starts her classes with a bang (quite literally in some cases) ensuring her students are always on time. Her classes are interactive, physical and confronting – attention is demanded and maintained.

So how does this apply to your next presentation?
• Get a grab. You have 10 seconds to capture your audience. Don’t waste that opportunity by stating the obvious or discussing housekeeping, start with a bang!
• Sell on all senses. Where ever possible include a physical activity to cement your message and increase retention
• Challenge your audience. The learning zone is situated outside of the comfort zone. Stretch your audience and challenge them with new ideas. Then step back and facilitate the discussion.

Lastly, remember: ‘Passionate people persuade’. Enthusiasm is infectious, show your passion, share your expertise and the audience will follow.