Thursday, February 18, 2010

REthinking the WORKplace - My Interview with 37signals' Jason Fried on Better Work and Remarkable Presentations


One of the things I point out in Ten Breakable Habits is that the slides are not the presentation, and if adding visuals doesn't improve your presentation, don't use them. 37signals founder (Basecamp, Campfire, Ruby on Rails, etc.) Jason Fried talked to me recently about his web applications business and about what he's learned about presentation delivery over the course of his career as an international speaker.

Here's how Jason describes his speaking style:

"Something I've started doing more recently is speaking without slides, or if I use slides, they are just pictures with few or no words. There's certainly nothing where I'm reading or anyone is reading off the screen. I have a set of ideas I like to use for topics and I just run with them and see where it goes. I much prefer the question and answer part of things anyway. I want to be prepared, but I don't want to over-prepare or think too hard about it. I avoid getting to a place where I'm thinking about what I wanted to say."

You can see the whole interview with Jason in today's TechRepublic article here.

Jason's third book REWORK is due out next month.



Friday, February 12, 2010

Ten Breakable Habits comes out today


If you've been looking for a good book on making better presentations, Ten Breakable Habits to creating a remarkable presentation comes out today.

This is not a book about how to speak more clearly. It's about how to communicate more effectively. It will change the way you think about presenting, and make your next presentation remarkable.

Here are some early reviews:

"In Ten Breakable Habits, Jeff analyzes the traps we fall into when creating presentations but more than that, helps us identify why we fall into them."
- Jason McClay, Senior Consultant, G2G3 Group

"I recommend it to anyone who wants to make their message more memorable, from the classroom to the boardroom."
- Michael Nicoletti, Senior Manager, IBM

"Anyone who wants to discover a better way to communicate effectively can benefit from reading Ten Breakable Habits."
- Joe Ryan, Partner, Open Systems Technologies

Is there someone you'd like to send a copy of Ten Breakable Habits? More people will be giving presentations in 2010 than ever before and this is the extra edge they need. If you're one of the first 100 people to order, you can take advantage of the Buy one-Give one offer and have a second copy sent to one of your customers, your boss, friend or colleague for half-price. There are also quantity discounts available if you're distributing to your sales team.

You can find the order link at www.tenbreakablehabits.com. There's also a free PDF of the summary article that came out in TechRepublic magazine in December (over 4300 downloads so far).


Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Opportunity Knocks


Two of my friends at ic stars, Bea Elizalde and Sandee Kastrul, were featured in this Sun-Times story over the weekend. What a great program with a true pay-it-forward mentality.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Your Two Cents


Remember "letters to the editor?"

It used to be you would type up a letter in response to an article, put a 15 or 20 cent stamp on it, send it in, and watch the next couple issues to see if it was published. It was a kick to see one of your comments get picked up, and ensured your continuing interest in getting the paper. Better yet if something you wrote actually made it to the "mainstream media."

Today letters to the editor are coursing toward the same fate as the daily newspapers they still appear in. With an internet story, you don't have to hope your response is printed. It just appears in the list at the bottom of the story within a few minutes. Along with all the other ways to participate on the web, this is huge.

Sellers like eBay and amazon know dialog is part of their business. They invite you to rate the product and evaluate the transaction and the seller. We've gotten used to this idea. If you wanted to, you could make voting, commenting and providing feedback into an avocation.

What does this mean for the way we communicate in a presentation? Some people are still inclined to give a presentation like a newspaper, ignoring the fact that their listeners are more interested in, and accustomed to, a dialog than being presented with information. Because there's no shortage of information. There's your opinion, and theirs. Remember it's a microphone and not a bullhorn, and your last slide is not the conclusion; it's the beginning of the dialog.