Rehearsing Your Strategic Story I do quite a lot of influential presentation coaching and training. Bringing a theatre person in to work on how to 'stand and deliver' in front of an audience makes sense and I enjoy sharing some of the things actors know about performing. But what really interests me and seems to benefit my clients most is the way we can apply things learned in the theater to strategic storytelling. I was called in to work with a group of senior partners in a large architecture firm and Ms. Choi, who was enthusiastic about my theater-based approach, was anxious that there might be some skeptics in the workshop. Most business folk harbor legitimate concerns about training that is "alternative and fun" and a waste of their time because they aren't able to link what they learn to practical workplace tools. And then there is the fear factor. "Is the theater lady going to make us act like melting ice or bacon frying in a pan?" The workshop moves through five stages, none of which involve melting or sizzling but do challenge participants to get on their feet. We begin exploring the impact status and a collaborative mindset has on building rapport by playing some improv theater games. One standard improv game has participants in pairs build a story together by beginning each contribution Yes! And... instead of Yes, but... , thus accepting their partner's contribution rather than blocking it before adding something of their own. This allows the group to experience how unproductive it can be to constantly point out what won't work rather than building upon what will. During the debrief, the architects identified how they could use what they learned playing the game in pre-presentation brainstorming sessions and when responding to client suggestions/concerns as a way of keeping conversations positive and avoiding deadlock disagreements. The next section, Strategic Storytelling, offers a technique that actors employ to find what is driving their character in a particular scene. Simply put it is an equation: Facts relating to the character as supplied in the text of the play + what the character is literally doing in the scene you are rehearsing = what motivates the character in that scene. I've adapted this as a tool for identifying what a client needs to feel in order to act on the message of a presentation, having participants list only facts (no opinions or assumptions) about the decision maker and viewing each of these facts in terms of the action they want that person to take. For example if the decision maker has only been in her role for 3 months she is probably going to need to feel something very different before she signs off on major design changes, than if she had been in her role for the past 3 years. Because it has such practical applications and because so few people even list basic facts about the person/s they want to influence, workshop participants and coachees alike find this tool offers great insights. "I have never really thought about my client this way before and it was alarming how many assumptions I had to cross of my list," one senior partner confessed. During the final half-day participants deliver the open and close to the presentation they've chosen to work on and I offer suggestions about movement, facial expression, eye contact, etc. The inclusive, fun nature of the first day's content had participants supporting one another and nodding appreciatively when they saw how a change in posture or a warm smile shifted audience perception. They had become an ensemble, had scripted a story that was strategically designed to influence rather than just inform and were taking my director's notes and putting them into action quickly and fearlessly. But what about performance post rehearsal? The firm's Chair very generously cc'd me on a message he sent to his partners outside Asia: "In the last year we have totally changed the content and delivery of our presentations. Our Clients have REALLY noticed it and are REALLY enjoying it. Over 35 of our staff have been trained and have now introduced a completely different culture to our offices." Be sure that tools are what you take outside the box!

Train Your Brain to Focus Next time you are sitting in a meeting, take a look around. The odds are high that you will see your colleagues checking screens, texting, and emailing while someone is talking or making a presentation. Many of us are proud of our prowess in multitasking, and wear it like a badge of honor. Multitasking may help us check off more things on our to-do lists. But it also makes us more prone to making mistakes, more likely to miss important information and cues, and less likely to retain information in working memory, which impairs problem solving and creativity. Over the past decade, advances in neuroimaging have been revealing more and more about how the brain works. Studies of adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the latest neuroimaging and cognitive testing [PDF] are showing us how the brain focuses, what impairs focus — and how easily the brain is distracted. This research comes at a time when attention deficits have spread far beyond those with ADHD to the rest of us working in an always-on world. The good news is that the brain can learn to ignore distractions, making you more focused, creative, and productive. Here are three ways you can start to improve your focus. Tame your frenzy. Frenzy is an emotional state, a feeling of being a little (or a lot) out of control. It is often underpinned by anxiety, sadness, anger, and related emotions. Emotions are processed by the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped brain structure. It responds powerfully to negative emotions, which are regarded as signals of threat. Functional brain imaging has shown that activation of the amygdala by negative emotions interferes with the brain's ability to solve problems or do other cognitive work. Positive emotions and thoughts do the opposite — they improve the brain's executive function, and so help open the door to creative and strategic thinking. What can you do? Try to improve your balance of positive and negative emotions over the course of a day. Barbara Fredrickson, a noted psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recommends a 3:1 balance of positive and negative emotions, based upon mathematical modeling of ideal team dynamics by her collaborator Marcial Losada, and confirmed by research on individual flourishing and successful marriages. (Calculate your "positivity ratio" at www.positivityratio.com). You can tame negative emotional frenzy by exercising, meditating, and sleeping well. It also helps to notice your negative emotional patterns. Perhaps a coworker often annoys you with some minor habit or quirk, which triggers a downward spiral. Appreciate that such automatic responses may be overdone, take a few breaths, and let go of the irritation. What can your team do? Start meetings on positive topics and some humor. The positive emotions this generates can improve everyone's brain function, leading to better teamwork and problem solving. Apply the brakes. Your brain continuously scans your internal and external environment, even when you are focused on a particular task. Distractions are always lurking: wayward thoughts, emotions, sounds, or interruptions. Fortunately, the brain is designed to instantly stop a random thought, an unnecessary action, and even an instinctive emotion from derailing you and getting you off track. What can you do? To prevent distractions from hijacking your focus, use the ABC method as your brain's brake pedal. Become Aware of your options: you can stop what you are doing and address the distraction, or you can let it go. Breathe deeply and consider your options. Then Choose thoughtfully: Stop? or Go? What can your team do? Try setting up one-hour distraction-free meetings. Everyone is expected to contribute and offer thoughtful and creative input, and no distractions (like laptops, tablets, cell phones, and other gadgets) are allowed. Shift Sets. While it's great to be focused, sometimes you need to turn your attention to a new problem. Set-shifting refers to shifting all of your focus to a new task, and not leaving any behind on the last one. Sometimes it's helpful to do this in order to give the brain a break and allow it to take on a new task. What can you do? Before you turn your attention to a new task, shift your focus from your mind to your body. Go for a walk, climb stairs, do some deep breathing or stretches. Even if you aren't aware of it, when you are doing this your brain continues working on your past tasks. Sometimes new ideas emerge during such physical breaks. What can your team do? Schedule a five-minute break for every hour of meeting time, and encourage everyone to do something physical rather than run out to check email. By restoring the brain's executive function, such breaks can lead to more and better ideas when you reconvene. Organizing your mind, and your team members' minds, will yield a solid payoff in the year ahead. Adding "high-quality focus" is a great place to start. Try holding a no-multitasking meeting and see what happens when everyone in the room gives their undivided attention. Have you ever tried this in your organization? If not, do you think it would fly? Posted from my iPhone using Joomla Admin Mobile!

What happens when your words and body language don’t match? What happens when your words and body language don’t match? Audiences believe the body language every time. But they don’t consciously take the two apart. Our minds are constructed to infer intent from our unconscious reading of other people’s body language. That’s for obvious survival reasons. In other words, if someone starts walking toward me, it’s important for my survival to be able to decode his intent very quickly, and act on it, in case he appears to mean to do me harm. Our unconscious minds are very good at reading the intent of the people who come within our sphere of awareness. And when they’re talking at us, we unconsciously compare words and body language. When they’re aligned, we get the communication. When they’re not aligned, we believe the body language. Which brings me to Ed Miliband. He’s the English Labor Party’s current leader, and they’re out of power now (ever since Gordon Brown turned out to be such an unpopular follow-up to Tony Blair). He’s been licking his wounds for a while, since David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, took over in a clumsy shared power arrangement. But now Miliband has delivered a major policy speech all about how a new Labor Party has got it figured out and is ready to change. That’s a message that should be delivered with optimism and energy. And that’s what Miliband’s words are presumably trying to convey. But his body language, specifically his face, is angry and sneering. He evinces micro-expressions –fleeting sneers and scowls – that are clearly at odds with his message. The result? He got pasted in the press for not being charismatic or convincing. A wonderful example of what happens when your emotions – and therefore your body language – are at odds with your message. Miliband would have done his party better service by keeping his mouth shut – or straightening out his emotions before he spoke. What was he really feeling? We have no way of knowing. He could have been unhappy with anything from David Cameron to his commute to the amount of starch in his shirt collar. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that he showed up with inconsistent verbal and non-verbal ‘conversations’. It’s a great lesson for all leaders who are preparing to communicate an important message. Get clear on your emotions as well as your message. And make sure they’re consistent. Otherwise, you’ll do a Miliband, and you’ll do yourself and your organization no good. Posted from my iPhone using Joomla Admin Mobile!

How To Do Everything Wrong In A Presentation Watch this video... Brutal (and funny)... I know. I was unaware of the book, Habitudes For Communicators, so Dr. Tim Elmore gets high marks for not only cutting through the clutter, but for creating something so funny (because it's true). What's scary is that this video (in all of its humor) is a basic round-up of about ninety-percent of the presentations I attend (I'm sure your experience is similar). The tools are here for us to get better. If you want to make a difference in your world (and the world of your co-workers), please pass this video around, watch it... and then go out and read the following books (in this order): Give Your Speech, Change The World by Nick Morgan. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Resonate by Nancy Duarte. Three books and you can not only deliver amazing presentations, but you can spare the rest of us. (hat-tip: Mick) Posted from my iPhone using Joomla Admin Mobile!