Looking from the outside in

Southern California tech veteran Ian Clayton talked with me recently about his three decades of work in IT as well as his secrets to making a great personal presentation.

After starting at Ross Perot's EDS International not long after the On Wings of Eagles rescue mission in Iran, Ian went on to do consulting work with clients around the world like Caterpillar, American Express and Australia Telecomm. In the 1990's, he helped to bring the ITIL framework over from the UK as one of the cofounders of itSMF-USA.

More recently, he has been among the first to anticipate information systems as a service, even before the term cloud technology came into vogue. Ian's presentations are most often around a table of technology executives interested in a new way of looking at things. Which is what he provides them.

Here's Ian's recommendation for applying new perspective to delivering a remarkable presentation:

"Instinctively my idea of a best habit in making a presentation is being able to take an outside-in, you-based position. Speak to the problem or challenge and needs of your audience using their language. Start by making the leap of translating your own views into theirs, and connect with them right from the get-go. A habit I've seen that needs breaking is leading off with a description of the 'what' and the 'how' before explaining the 'why.'" Those are the presentations that seem to take longer, get less stakeholder buy-in and don't help the audience."

Read the full ten-question discussion on "Viewing IT service management from the outside in" in today's TechRepublic. Also watch for Ian's second book, Outside In Service Management, to be coming out this summer.

Going from podium to Web

You've put together a stellar presentation for the big conference and are counting down the days. With a week to go, a tsunami/tornado/oil spill interrupts the plan and the conference is cancelled.

After hearing your practice run, your boss says, "We're going with this! Get Webex on the phone!" No problem, right?

Turning a classroom presentation into an online meeting requires some planning and rethinking. It's more than just making your delivery on a conference call.

A bicycle and a unicycle are two ways to get from here to there that seem similar, but the difference can add some new challenges. What you've done behind the podium may not translate seamlessly over to a web meeting.

Winning priority is the first major difference to consider:

Unlike a physical event, attendance on a web presentation is entirely up to you and your team. You don't have the luxury of being an alternative in a handful of speaker sessions. Your message is competing with all the normal (and ever-increasing) priorities of everyone's workday. Clicking on an invitation is a routine commitment for most people. Each reminder of the value you've promised to deliver is more important than the last, up to the final "one hour from now!" e-mail.

Read the rest of the article in today's TechRepublic.

What blindspots?

Without credibility, arguments vaporize. One of the most undervalued components in credibility is objectivity - being above any hidden agenda or influence. As clear-as-a-bell as it is when we hear someone else speaking, it's still incredibly tempting to overestimate our own objectivity.

Do media spokesmen have more or less objectivity after they've been hob-nobbing (or squirt-gun fighting) over the weekend with politicians at a beach party with the Biden's?

Does a new study that shows Ford is now "the no. 1 automaker in customer satisfaction with vehicle quality" have as much clout when you learn the study was commissioned by... Ford? (It disagrees with the most recent Consumer Reports.)

As an expert in your field, you have a claim to trusted advisor sentiments, but it's dangerous to let your bias speak when you need to remain aloof. When you put together your next presentation, make a point to cite objective, third-party sources that your audience trusts, both in the slides and the dialog. And lob the first salvo at "experts agree," and "research has shown," which are even more lame than no citation at all.

(Batteries not included)

Are you leaving the right things out?

Florida Governor Charlie Crist recently left out the pro-life section he had previously included on his web site.

(He's expected to veto a controversial ultrasound bill.)

Hyundai left out the price on advertisements for its 2011 Sonata.

(You can request an e-mail, but you have to include your phone number and yes, they will be calling you.)

A friend of mine in sales left off his resume the position he held for more than a year as the National Sales Director for a growing technology provider.

(It went bankrupt and he returned to his previous employer.)

Steve Jobs left out the part of his talk about how easily the iPhone 4 connects to the internet.

(Too many bloggers in the audience were eating up the bandwidth of the local wi-fi.)

The main thing to keep in mind about what to leave out in your presentation, resume, business plan or other communication is not what you want to leave out, but what your audience expects you to leave out (or in). That will be noticeable in its absence.

Revolution in Words

The way we use words was revolutionized by Johannes Gutenberg. Replication and distribution of ideas took on a whole new meaning. But the process actually wasn't Gutenberg's idea. It was the Chinese who first had the idea of duplicating a pattern with a press, but limited its use to copying silks and not books.

Is the iPad a revolution, or is it just duplicating a pattern?

Interestingly, Gutenberg died a financial failure, the object of numerous lawsuits for the rights to use the press. But he was successful by all counts in changing the world. His first printed work, the Bible, is the number one bestseller of 2010 (and every year).

~ Game Changers in Presentation History

Johannes Gutenberg, movable type printing press - 1394-1468

The best (top-rated) personal security software

"The best things in life are free."

Sure, it's a cliche ...it's also true.

Every year, some of the best new software applications out there won't cost you a penny. Outlook is the de facto business e-mail standard and it's just plain clunky compared to G-mail.

In the security arena, this month's Consumer Reports again rates two of the best anti-malware apps at 54 (Microsoft) and 65 (Germany's Avira) out of 100. For reference, the top score for any security app is 67 (Symantec).

For the added benefit of a firewall, you can also choose Comodo's free app, just released in April, although CR scores the Comodo suite 30 points lower than the paid competition, and it's not compatible with Avira.

Anti-malware:

- Avira AntiVir Personal 9 (42MB)

- Microsoft Security Essentials (7.2MB)

Security Suite:

- Comodo Internet Security Free 2010 (61MB)

If the spam filter in your e-mail program isn't working well enough for you, CR also points to spamfighter.com as a good free alternative in that area.

Spend the money you save on a few good books.

Ten Breakable Habits (slides from my live presentation)

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Ten Breakable Habits

View more presentations from Prospero Marketing Group.

What's a twitter/Facebook post worth to your sales pipeline?

Are you investing the right amounts of time and resources in new media marketing? What's your measuring stick for getting the right mix? Here's a short survey with several insightful questions from my friends at ic stars for small business owners (and anyone else who is interested in learning more about web marketing trends).

Some of the questions address preferences on the frequency of dialog (i.e. pages or videos per week), or with summary vs. detailed reporting, and how much a qualified lead is worth. You can choose to participate with or without disclosing your company, and your input contributes to making this grassroots research more complete, as well as letting you know how the rest of the participants responded.

Whether you are just curious about the crowdsourced response or would like to find out more about what ic stars is planning to do with the final results, take a look at the survey and think about the significance of asking yourself these timely questions.

ic stars is an outstanding technology training program in the city of Chicago. Take a look at the kinds of things they are doing here.