Month: February 2013

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Z is for the Presentation Zone

Youn woman and man presenting in an office to their colleagues

What does zone have to do with presentations skills? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist and author of Flow and Finding Flow, says that when we are in a state of flow, we are completely immersed in our task and at peak performance. We feel sufficiently challenged but confident in our skills or ability to do the task.

Being in the presentation zone is similar. It is a state of focused awareness with a distinctive lack of self-consciousness. I first heard this described by a colleague who told me when she was training a class she just opened her mouth and content started coming out. She said she “didn’t know where it was coming from.” Of course it was coming from a deep well of experience and knowledge, and because she was “in the zone,” the content was able to pour out unhindered by self-consciousness or inhibition.

When this happens to you, you will notice you are completely in the moment. It is almost as though you are one with your audience. You are totally aware of what you are doing and saying, and you are aware of your audience and how they are responding and reacting. Your words tend to flow smoothly, your face and voice are expressive, and you move and gesture instinctively and easily. It feels good, and if you have the underlying skills and knowledge, you may well be at peak performance.

How do you get into the zone?

Deepen your subject knowledge. Don’t have it? Become an expert. Research, dig deeper, and discuss it with experts. Read even more. Think about related content. Talk about it at every opportunity. Now, narrow down your presentation. Create a clear, concise message about your content. Tie every fact, story and detail to that message. Don’t add anything more. The reason for the deep knowledge is to build your confidence and credibility, and so you can answer questions that come up.

Ace your rehearsal. Rehearse early and often, and not only in your head. Every time you look at your slides, start talking through them out loud. Speak your entire presentation out loud at your desk or in your car, record and listen to it. Get a pilot audience to listen to it. Talk about it over lunch with colleagues.

Prepare for questions. Jot down every question you think you might be asked. Do you know the answers to each one? If not, do some more research for the answers. Have your pilot audience ask you questions, tough ones. Practice your answers. Make cue cards and drill yourself. Keep at it until you are confident you could answer just about any question that comes up.

Walk away. Clear your mind a while. If you start feeling anxious, take a break do something pleasurable and relaxing. Take a walk. Go out for lunch. Play with your children. Listen to music. If you are not fully prepared, you will be refreshed and more ready to tackle preparation. If you are fully prepared, try to stay in a relaxed state, knowing you will be better off with a clear mind.

Take care of your physical self. Eat well. Sleep well. Allow enough time to arrive at your presentation location without stress. Set up your presentation and check your equipment. Meet and greet your audience as they arrive. Focus on them, not on your presentation.

Keep your focus on the audience, not yourself. Remind yourself it is all about them, that you are in service to the audience, there to help them with the content you are going to share. Focus on the idea, the action or the change you are advocating and why it is good and important.

Take your time. Walk to the front with confidence. Look at the audience a moment. Smile. Now begin.

Forgive mistakes. If you make a mistake, let it go immediately. Put it out of your mind by focusing on the next slide or the next point you will be making. If you carry it with you, even a tiny mistake can impact the rest of your presentation, and maybe the next one.

If you have ever been in the zone during your presentation, you know how great it feels. Prepare, rehearse, and ready yourself with the goal of getting and staying in the zone. You will be at your best, your most audience-focused and most confident. What could be better?

Author Gail Zack Anderson, founder of Applause, Inc. is a Twin Cities-based consultant who provides coaching and workshops for effective presentations, facilitation skills for trainers and subject matter experts, and positive communication skills for everyone. She can be reached at info@applauseinc.net.

Web site: www.applauseinc.net

Blog: www.managementhelp.org/blogs

twitter: @ApplauseInc

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Training Versus Consulting – a Story

employees-working-in-an-organization

Recently a student asked me what the primary differences in skills were required between a consultant and a trainer. I thought about it and told her this story…..

When I was working in the OD firm, Block Petrella Weisbord, I was on the consulting side of the business with Tony Petrella and Marvin Weisbord. Peter Block ran the training side, which was entitled Designed Learning. He had created skill- building workshops based on his writing and trainers conducted them all over the world. It was quite a successful business.

I was once scheduled to facilitate some team building at Pepsi. My client and I had met and had set up a 2 day offsite. Unfortunately something came up and I called my client to see if we could re-schedule the session. When I asked him if we could push it back, he said, “John, if we push it back, we’ll never do it. Could you see if you can find another facilitator in your firm? I trust you to find a good consultant.”

So, I scrambled to find someone. All of our consultants were booked for those 2 days. The only person who was available was a trainer for Designed Learning. He was a skilled trainer and a good person and he quickly agreed to conduct the team building at Pepsi. I gave him all of the information about the team, their goals, the planned agenda, and issues to be aware of across the team.

I talked first with my client following the team building. He was excited and pleased about the session and felt that they had made progress. He was complimentary about the facilitation and thanked me for finding a strong replacement. And then I called my training friend to hear how it had gone. To this day, I’ve always remembered his words, “ John, don’t ever ask me to do that again. I was scared to death. Your world is so different than mine. I constantly had to decide when to intervene, when to offer my input, when to change the agenda. In my world, everything is orderly. I know exactly what’s going to be going on at 10:38am. I have a planned script and everyone is looking at me for structure and instructions. In your world, nothing is really planned. I had to make decisions on the fly, to think out loud, and I was always anxious about losing control or making a fool of myself.”

In that moment, it dawned on me some of the differences between training and consulting. He was a wonderful, skilled trainer but he was out of his element conducting team building. I would have been the same way if our roles were switched and I went in to teach his workshop. I would have struggled. Very few of us are equally balanced and have both sets of skills. I enjoy the anxiety of not knowing. He enjoys the predictability of knowing. My guess is that it was a good experience for him to get out of his comfort zone. He probably learned a lot. But I’m sure that he relished getting back up in front of a class once again……..in control, leader’s guide open in front of him, and in charge.

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For more resources, see the Library’s topics:

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John Dupre is an organization development consultant who designs innovative ways to involve people in building more productive and satisfying workplaces. Read more about him at http://www.johndupreconsulting.com/

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NY Times Hacking: What it Means to You

hooded-computer-hacker-stealing-information-with-laptop

Are you prepared for a cyber attack?

On Thursday morning the New York Times announced that, over the past four months, Chinese hackers have been perpetrating a campaign of attacks on the paper’s computer systems.

Here are more details from the Times article, written by Nicole Perlroth, that broke the story:

The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings.

Security experts hired by The Times to detect and block the computer attacks gathered digital evidence that Chinese hackers, using methods that some consultants have associated with the Chinese military in the past, breached The Times’s network. They broke into the e-mail accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the reports on Mr. Wen’s relatives, and Jim Yardley, The Times’s South Asia bureau chief in India, who previously worked as bureau chief in Beijing.

Not the first

The Times is not the only major news outlet to be attacked this year. The BBC’s Farsi-language service in London was disrupted not two days after the company announced huge growth in the audience for its Persian TV service, and the international news service Reuters actually had hackers succeed in publishing a false announcement stating Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister had died.

While many signs indicate that the attacks against news outlets and government-associated companies could be politically motivated, essentially cyber-spying, what’s to stop hungry and morally-deficient corporations from doing the same to the competition?

It’s up to you

Even if you don’t think it does, your organization’s computer network holds information that is plenty valuable enough to steal. Design specs, release dates, shipping schedules and vendor contacts are just a few of the items that your competitors would very much like to have in their possession.

How about those dirty or incriminating emails (someone’s got them on their machine!) that could be used for blackmail or simply aired to trash your reputation?

A dedicated and skilled hacker could literally have access to every piece of information that crosses your network for years without ever being detected. Every credit card number, company cards and customers’. Every email, Tweet and Facebook message sent from a company computer, personal or work related. Every discussion with customers. Every new idea. Every disagreement. Every. Single. Thing.

Cybersecurity and crisis management

If you haven’t already included cybersecurity risks in your crisis management planning, you’re well behind the curve. We’re not talking installing an antivirus on all of the computers, either. According to the Times, attackers installed 45 pieces of custom malware on their systems, only one of which was identified by the Symantec antivirus used by the newspaper.

One of the best things you can do to help reduce the impact of cybersecurity risks is get your IT and PR/crisis management departments talking. Together, they should be able to put together a plan of action for preventing, detecting and defeating cyber threats, as well as the business crises that are likely to accompany them.

It’s also crucial to put aside time to educate anyone with access to your network regarding safe internet use, signs their computer has been compromised and the common methods used by hackers to get their foot in the door, many of which are not tech-based at all but rather revolve around social engineering, or the art of manipulating people into performing actions or releasing information they otherwise shouldn’t.

Incidents of cyber attacks are skyrocketing as our world relies increasingly on the Internet for even basic functions. Protect your organization from cybersecurity risks, start preparing today.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]