Creating Tomorrow

Dear Friends,

I am very happy to announce a new project under the banner of the Creating Tomorrow franchise: 360° of Diversity is a project that will allow me to focus more specifically on the challenges of effective diversity management within the changing demographics of Germany’s business world. Together with my cooperation partner, sociologist Lale Otyakmaz, I will be supporting corporations and organisations here in Germany as they strive to make the most intelligent usage of the vast human potential Germany has to offer.

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Dear Friends,

Are you surfing by for the first time  or have you been here before? It doesn’t really matter:

Your opinion counts!

Once you’ve had a look at the most recent Presentation Warrior entry from 24th March (Myth #4: Presenting in the Dark) , please click on the link below and take a few minutes to answer our nine survey questions:

Click Here to take survey

We really appreciate it!

Trina

Dear Friends,

Many of us have at least partially weaned ourselves from PowerPoint during our presentations. There are times, though, when we have to present more complex information, and intelligent charts make it easier for our audience to grasp and remember our message.

It’s still important to keep in mind, however, that as the presenter YOU still have the starring rôle in your presentation and your charts are simply part of your set. They are there to enhance and complete the picture, not to tell your story for you.

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Dear Friends,

I’ve already written about the importance of feedback and shared some tips on the employee evaluation process. As a matter of fact, my most recent segment on BlogTalkRadio deals with the subject and you can have a listen by clicking the icon on the top right.

Right now I want to further accentuate one aspect of the evaluation process that receives too little attention: the reaction of the person being evaluated.

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Dear Friends,

The emerging Diversity Management scene in Germany is still in its infancy. If you live in Germany, what do you see when you walk through the halls of your office building or factory? Do the people all more or less look alike (and just like you) or are several different nationalities, races, religious groups, etc., represented?

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“…Just because someone throws you the ball doesn’t mean you have to catch it…”

(from: Leigh Branham, Why Employees Leave)

Dear Friends,

I know you’ve all seen it happen - and probably done it yourself. While giving a presentation, it seems impossible to prevent your eyes from wandering to the ceiling as though you expected God herself to draw the diagram from the next chart on the ceiling for you. For others, of course, you’d swear their next response was written in invisible ink on the tips of their shoes.

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Dear Friends,

How can you ensure that your storytelling fulfills the purpose for which it’s intended? Here are four tips you might find helpful!

1. Maintain your authenticity. Although you have made a decision to match a specific story with a certain learning objective, it’s important your team see that you are sincere in your storytelling.

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Dear Friends,

When I first started out in advertising, I was told the story of the agency’s successful launch campaign for a major client’s new product. When the agency introduced the idea for the campaign to the client, the client was livid. It wasn’t what they expected, and it certainly wasn’t what they thought they needed for their product to be a success.

The agency believed in their concept and stood behind their innovative idea 100 %.

Their middle ground? They agreed to develop a parallel campaign more in line with client expectations and to pay to put both campaigns into market research.  The client agreed to abide by the research results, and launch the winning campaign.

In the end, the agency version got the highest-ever research scores. It gave the client’s product a massive push into the market, became talk-of-the-town, and went on to win a creative prize in New York.

Oh yea, in the end the client agreed to pick up the research costs.

Anyone who keeps track of recent developments on the leadership horizon has come across the subject of storytelling within the leadership context.

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Dear Friends,

In 1991 I stepped into an agency culture that was very proud of its knowledge and know-how. It also believed in demonstrating that knowledge to its fullest extent in each and every client presentation.

In short: Our presentation booklets were often the size of the New York and Berlin telephone books. Combined.

Our creative product was the actual spearhead of our business, but the crispness of an actually great creative idea was ofttimes overshadowed by the sheer force of the LP version of our strategic arguments.

Don’t get me wrong, some clients were duly impressed by our love of detail and obvious grasp of their entire business (let alone the problem at hand). There was more than one presentation, however, when a key decision maker’s obvious impatience with the extended foreplay grew palpable or his eyes simply glazed over with information overload.

Overwhelming our clients with information didn’t make their decision-making process any easier.

Although you should certainly know your stuff when you head into any type of presentation, and be prepared for possible questions or inquiries from your audience with back-up charts: K.I.S.S. (i.e. Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Here are the most obvious tips for proactive information management during a presentation:

1. Concentrate on your essential message! That makes it easier for your audience to recognize what’s important - for them and you!
2. Don’t overload them with facts they already know or non-essentials! People have limited memory spans, and you don’t want to clog space on their “hard disks” with non-essentials.
3. Adapt what you have to say to the allotted time frame! You don’t want to run out of time at the end of your presentation and be forced to sell your main idea short.

Trina