Call to Action Overload

What NOT to Do When Presenting

3/19/2010 2:00:00 AM

When we think about doing a presentation on a conference call, video conference, or what have you, it’s easy to think of things we should do right. That’s only the half of it though. We should also think about what not to do when we present. And I think I found a few good “not to dos” from the blog, SpeakingAboutPresenting.com.

Slow Down – I know. It seems weird that we wouldn’t want to slow down if we’re talking too fast. “Slow down” misses the point--conveying information—and confuses garbled speech with speedy speaking. We can talk fast as long as we’re clear and concise. In fact, if we don’t speak at our normal speed, the message might be clear, but our presenting of it will seem unnatural.

Throw Away PowerPoint – Well, this is actually close to being right. The traditional PowerPoint presentation with its similar looking slides and an ammo-box worth of bullet points is a no-no, (yes, another “do not do” in our presentations). But this doesn’t mean get rid of slide-based visual support altogether. Use it sparingly, with a few words or a succinct phrase, with many pictures or graphics, and don’t let it be the focus of our presentation.

Save Questions for the End – This is a good way to find out what our participants have learned at the end of our presentation, but it also causes us to miss some opportunities along the way. Why don’t we allow questions every ten minutes, or have a chat or twitter backchannel running the whole time? Questions can tell us if we’re on the right track, need to expand, need to move on, or even change the scope of the subject matter. Questions don’t usually do that though, if we have them at the end.

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Tags: Business Communication

Should You Say Thank You?

3/17/2010 2:00:00 AM

I don’t know about you, but I from a very young age it was drilled into me to say “please” and “thank you,” (and “yes, Sir” and “no, ma’am” and etc.). So it can be difficult for me to not use “proper etiquette” at times when its use is not proper. For example, at the end of a presentation… should we say thank you?

In a post on the PowerPoint Tips Blog, I read how it’s apparently NOT a good idea to say thank you after speaking to a Toastmaster club. They feel it can diminish the impact of an ending, as well as it can be a bit presumptuous. But even in the post—which she put bits of Toastmaster forum talk—there were arguments for and against a thank you, in and outside of Toastmasters.

Isn’t saying thank you to end a presentation a lot like thanking someone for their support? But aren’t you then assuming they have been, or will support you? At the same time, is not saying thank you insulting to participants who gave you their time and attention?

It may just be my upbringing talking, but I think you should basically always say thank you. Regardless of who is there, why they came, who else is speaking, or what you’re trying to accomplish, the audience gave their attention… so thank them at least for that.

The only time I wouldn’t say thank you is for that grand, high impact ending that I don’t want to diminish. But when the audience starts clapping, that’s when I thank them.

What do you think about a thank you after a presentation: always, never, or “it depends”?

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Tags: Business Communication

Answering Questions Well

3/15/2010 2:00:00 AM

Have you ever asked a question and gotten back a quick, canned response? It’s kind of annoying isn’t it? Especially after a conference call, presentation, or lecture, giving good answers is important as they cement everything covered. And here are several things to consider before answering those questions.

The most important part of answering is listening to the question. If you don’t listen carefully, odds are your answer won’t be as good as it could be. Pay attention to what someone is saying, but make sure to read how they’re saying it as well. There could be deeper meanings to even a simple question.

After hearing the question and before giving your answer, it’s a good idea to restate the question out loud. This not only helps you focus on what was said, but gives the questioner a chance to make sure that what they wanted to ask was what they actually asked. Restating the question also gives you time to think, and who knows, the answer could even be found in the question!

There is a cycle to Q&As, a kind of back and forth. I found this nice summary of Jerry Weissman by Olivia Mitchell that can help us answer questions effectively every time:

Ask for questions
Recognize the questioner
Listen effectively
Acknowledge their concern
Rephrase the key issue
Answer

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Encouraging Questions

3/12/2010 2:00:00 AM

Questions are a powerful part of any conference call. Since we can’t see our participants, we have no idea if they are with us, against us, or just plain lost. Asking them is one way to find out what we want to know from them. Getting them to ask questions lets us find out what they want us to know.

Olivia Mitchell has some good tips to help us encourage questions from our participants. But let’s look at four things that are a part of asking a question:

Form the question
Is it reasonable?
Remember it until time to ask
Have the courage to ask it

As moderators of a conference call, we need to be aware of, and address each of those aspects if we want people to ask questions.

Some things we should do to encourage questions are simple. For example, in tailoring the presentation to the participants, it can’t be too simple or complex for them; otherwise they’ll be too bored or lost to ask anything. Or, we need to tell our participants when and how they can ask their questions.

A less obvious tip is validating every question. As you can tell above, it takes a lot for someone to speak up, make themselves vulnerable. Making sure to respond positively—at the least to the fact they even asked at all—is vital for encouraging others to ask something too. Of course you don’t want to say, “Good question,” to each person, but something along those lines will work.

How do you encourage questions? Tell us about your methods.

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Taking On Hecklers

3/10/2010 2:00:00 AM

If you haven’t had one in a conference call—or any speaking engagement—consider yourself lucky. Hecklers or “Stump the Chump” types are disruptive, hostile, and very counter-productive. They can make us lose our train of thought, get emotional, say the wrong thing, or even destroy a presentation. They’re out there, and we need to be prepared for handling hecklers.

Help is here in a blog post I found from SpeakFearlessly.net. They list out eight ways to deal with disruptive people that help you remain in control, and even come out looking better. Here are my favorite “mental judo” moves:

Keep warm and friendly – A caveat to this is to stay “calm, cool, and collected.” No matter what they say, you let it wash over you. This keeps you from losing control and getting emotional, and it gets the rest of the participants on your side.

Make them the “expert” – Judo FLIP! Use their momentum against them by stepping out of their way. Compliment them on their breadth of knowledge, and ask that they “fill us all in.” Their ignorance will soon become apparent—if they rise to the challenge at all. Who knows, they might even have something good to add.

Find Agreement – At some point it becomes less about the subject, and more with who is right. By deflecting and distracting with a “safer” point that you both agree on, you assuage their combativeness, and can proceed.

Though it’s not in the list, we have two very powerful tools at our fingertips with each and every conference call: lecture mode and mute buttons. Lecture mode ensures that only we can speak, and that we control who gets to talk and when. But even if we can’t do global control, we can spot the dissenter on our conference call control dashboard and mute them at any time—or even kick them.

Yes, this might be rude, and maybe it is a last resort, but instead of worrying about a bad apple, let’s consider the feelings and time of all the other participants. They are just as important—maybe even more so—than one heckler.

Have you dealt with hecklers before? Tell us about it, and what you did to disarm them.

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Surgery, Meetings, and Conference Calls

3/8/2010 2:00:00 AM

Of course it was the title that caught my eye: “What does abdominal surgery have to do with organizational communication?” That’s not a question I would normally have asked, and it was strange that someone had. I had to check it out…

And they made a very good point! The gist of the question is based on a study from the New England Journal of Medicine in which one group of patients was told exactly what their surgery would entail, as well as what to expect during recovery. The other group was told nothing. Somewhat surprisingly, the group that knew what was going on complained less, required less medication, and recovered faster.

Like surgery, you’re “blind” during a conference call, and afterwards it’s basically all up to you—with some directions and guidance. So if surgery patients do better when they know all the details, well it makes sense that conference call participants would too.

To further duplicate the study, we should have a detailed agenda that’s distributed long in advance. We should also include the assignments and “take away” information that would have been covered in the conference. This is a bit counter-intuitive—“If we give them that, why bother with a conference call?” This is a good point.

Imagine this scenario: the participant gets the agenda, sees what they’ll have to do, and starts working on it. Worst case they get their part done early, before the conference call, and now we’re ahead of schedule. Now what if they look into their assignment and spot a flaw, a problem, or an opportunity?

Knowing ahead of time also allows our participants to better prepare for the meeting, joining the conference call with solid answers and great questions. And afterwards, they can jump right into their assignments because they weren’t ambushed in the conference call.

Try this method with your next conference call. Tell us a bit about how you prepared your participants, as well as if things were better or worse after the call.

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Tags: Business Communication

Engaging Your Participants to Participate

3/5/2010 2:00:00 AM

Getting participants to participate during a conference call can sometimes be a challenge. We want to engage them, get a little back-and-forth going so that we know better how to reach them, and they in turn feel like they’re a part of the process. So how can we do that?

In a blog post by Olivia Mitchell, I read about some dos and don’ts for getting participation. Some of the things we shouldn’t do were trying to get participants involved before warming them up, not being clear on what we want them to do, and simply springing the spotlight on them.

So what should we do then? An important point is that we need to make sure the participation we’re going for has a purpose. We shouldn’t spend valuable conferencing time trying to get pointless information or interaction out of our participants. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, and the participant’s lack of enthusiasm will reflect this.

It’s important to prepare them. We could mention that, “in a minute,” we’ll be asking for a specific piece of information from them. Then when it’s time, we should go first and demonstrate. This allows them to know exactly what we want to happen, and it breaks the ice a bit.

Most people are a little nervous about speaking out in a conference. With some preparation, demonstration, and encouragement, we can help them forget their nervousness, contribute to the conference call, and take away more than they would have as a silent listener.

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