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.

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).

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.

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.

Why a green datacenter? I ask Tech VP Anthony Abbattista of Allstate Insurance

Here's a new article out this week in TechRepublic where I talk with the VP of technology solutions at Allstate Insurance about the new green datacenter in Rochelle, IL. This new project makes use of several innovative technologies on a large scale ($50 million), and is up for a national award with the Green Building Council.

What's that noise?

The company without the vast array of resources to fix your problem may be the best choice.

Having HD/Blu-ray doesn't make the sappy banter any more worthwhile to watch.

The TSA should not be diplomatically ignoring everyone named Umar.

Congress should not be making decisions about the Fiesta Bowl.

Fifteen minutes at 2 a.m. may be more productive than an hour at 2 p.m.

The kid without the Nintendo is often the most interesting to talk to.

What's distracting you?

Twixt Christmas and the New Year

Today in this part of the country, the muffled stillness of deepening snow emphasizes the quiet pause after Christmas and before the commencement of the new year. Here's a timeless description of these between days from a collection of essays by British historian Hilaire Belloc. He talks about the importance of ceremony during this week to "modern men" in a "terribly changing time." This is part of that essay, first published in 1928:

"Now, you must not think that Christmas being over, the season and its glories are at an end...

In the midst of this season between Christmas and Twelfth Day comes the ceremony of the New Year, and this is how it is observed:

On New Year's Eve, at about a quarter to twelve o'clock at night, the master of the house and all that are with him go about from room to room opening every door and window, however cold the weather be, for thus, they say, the old year and its burdens can go out and leave everything new for hope and for the youth of the coming time...

While this is going on the bells in the church hard by are ringing out the old year, and when all the windows and doors have thus been opened and left wide, all those in the house go outside, listening for the cessation of the chimes, which comes just before the turn of the year.

There is an odd silence of a few minutes, and watches are consulted to make certain of the time, and the way they know the moment of midnight is by the boom of a gun, which is fired at a town far off, but can always be heard.

At that sound the bells of the church clash out suddenly in new chords, the master of the house goes back into it with a piece of stone or earth from outside, all doors are shut, and the household, all of them, rich and poor, drink a glass of wine together to salute the New Year.

This, which I have just described, is not in a novel or in a play. It is real, and goes on as the ordinary habit of living men and women. I fear that set down thus in our terribly changing time it must sound very strange and, perhaps in places, grotesque, but to those who practice it, it is not only sacred, but normal, having in the whole of the complicated affair a sacramental quality and an effect of benediction: not to be despised.

Indeed, modern men, who lack such things, lack sustenance, and our fathers who founded all those ritual observances were very wise."

Here's to a fantastic New Year in 2010.

Ten Breakable Habits (for a remarkable presentation)

Here's an excerpt from this week's TechRepublic with a preview of my new book on presentations, coming out on February 12th. If you're looking for an easy way to get your next presentation to the next level, these are the first five of my ten recommendations for do's and don'ts:

1 - Stop: Being an information resource.

Start: Being the funnel, filter, and guru.

Put away the teleprompter. Presenting is more than giving a speech. You're changing data into information, knowledge, and with a little luck, wisdom.

2 - Stop: The train - there's no track.

Start: With the end in mind.

Invest the amount of preparation time in your presentation that will make it a winning experience for you, like an athlete whose first goal is self-improvement.

3 - Stop: Trusting the human ear.

Start: Polishing your shoes.

Don't keep it simple; make it simple. Transform a complicated thought or process into something that is easy to see and appreciate.

4 - Stop: Explaining your slides.

Start: illustrating your ideas.

The images you use will create lasting impressions if they connect with your words. We're a visual culture and need the combination of content and visual emphasis.

5 - Dont: Focus on everything.

Do: Build around a unique value proposition and an unrefusable offer.

The ability to define your message in terms of a UVP and UO is the central piece of making your presentation remarkable. Keep your other points ancillary to these two.

For a list of all ten breakable habits, see the article in TechRepublic's "10 Things" column here.

You can find more details on the book at www.tenbreakablehabits.com.

Christmas Cheer and Marketing - Good, Bad and Ugly

In the early darkness of the morning after Thanksgiving it begins. The promotions leading up to Christmas are a harbinger of the general economy and the December campaign can bolster those lagging year-end figures, particularly in retail.

So effective marketing in the competition for those final discretionary dollars of the year is critical. Although the zeitgeist is one of generosity, the board of directors is looking up from the balance sheets and saying "You know that last dime? We need it." Are there marketers out there who are successful in appealing to both the rock and the hard place?

Some companies have seized the opportunity to be Christmas-friendly. In a recent survey of that category by John Stossel, the pole position is held by Bass Pro Shops, followed by Cabela's, Lands End, K-mart and Sears. Other businesses are more inclined to be snowy, frosty, wintry, festive, etc. in hopes of appealing to Obama's "no longer Christian" nation. Retailers will have all of January to figure out whether they offended the right people.

Here are some other pre-12/25 strategies you may be seeing out there lately - see if you think they're effective:

Good
- Megabus is giving away 100,000 free seats on their Facebook page on trips booked for 1/6-3/20.

- Apple has a free Christmas music download set (20 songs) on iTunes.

- ELF Cosmetics is offering free shipping on any purchase.

- Joseph A. Bank is offering $550 suits for $180.

- Cepia's hot new "Zhu Zhu Pets" are under $8.00 each (and the rumors of toxicity are false).

Bad
- Verizon doubled its early-termination fee for smartphones last month.

- Joseph A. Bank evidently clears at least $370 on its normally $550 suits.

- Today, stores sold out of Zhu Zhu Pets within minutes of getting a shipment, pushing the eBay price up to $35.00.

Ugly
- The girls in Gap's seasonal ad saucily tell their parents they won't wear that (old stuff) anymore, and if they don't like it, they can "talk to the moose." (The only sign of seasonal cheer at the brick-and-mortar store reads, "Do the moose. Shake your caboose.") The moose video has already generated some spoofs on YouTube.

- Mitsubishi is running ads with the jingle, "We wish you a Mitsubishi."


On that note, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. God bless us, every one.

______________________

Some of you have asked about the Discovery Channel's "Everest: Beyond the Limit" with John Golden's amazing summit climb described in my 10QatAtime interview with him in October. The update is that the episode was delayed but is now scheduled for Sunday 12/27 - see the link here.

Marketing Obama's Noble Steps

Since the Nobel Prize committee's surprise decision in October to recognize President Barack Obama for the 2009 peace prize, a great deal of discussion has ensued around the reasoning in the decision. The arguments revolve largely around the timeline and general requirements for accomplishments, rather than plans or intentions.

Interestingly, the peace prize is an anomaly among the thirteen Nobel Prizes. It doesn't carry the "tested by time" caveat for qualification, so there is plenty of room for interpretation by the committee on what ought to be considered. The formal award statement describes the decision as recognizing Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," primarily through work toward nuclear anti-proliferation and a new international political climate. Also cited is his role in "meeting the great climatic challenges" in the world, echoing the 2007 award to Al Gore and his climate-change (formerly "global warming") panel. The Peace Prize is again unique among the thirteen Nobels in its presentation, as the only prize given in Oslo rather than Stockholm at the specific, and somewhat enigmatic, request of the dynamite inventor himself.

Curiosity about the field of nominations in which President Obama competed will have no doubt waned by the time nomination records are unsealed in 2059, but the field of past recipients into which he has been inducted is certainly a distinguished cast. Among the honored peacemakers are the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa. Notable achievements from the Cold War days came from both Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Lech Walesa's Solidarity. For his part, Mr. Walesa has been bold to note that on the basis of actual contribution, his award was harder earned. Critics also point out the absence of any recent Republican presidents, whose peace dividends have evidently not made the cut.

The next of what civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson called President Obama’s “noble steps” in the process is to travel to Oslo today to formally receive the award. In addition to the medal, the $1.4 million cash prize has already been promised by Obama to an unnamed charity. Based on the widely-reported costs of up to that exact amount for the President’s recent trip to Copenhagen, the cost of the Oslo trip might be better offset by a “donation” back to the taxpayers who are funding the trip, rather than another perceived federal redistribution.

Seth Godin's Top Ten for Business Laggards

Is your business running on all cylinders in terms of new media? If so, you can bypass this one.

Author and internet übermarketer Seth Godin has written up an intriguing list of ten recommendations for businesses (and organizations or clients) that are web laggards. (It's the sick who need a doctor, right?) Those who qualify have:

- No real website
- No social media
- No permission assets
- No real cash

All ten of them are good, but these are my favorites:

- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.

Here's a link to the rest.

Thanks, Seth.

Ten Questions on Practical Technology Transformation with Antonio Hylton

Any idea where the largest county* in the US is? You might expect it to be in the state of Texas, but that's not it. The number two county on the list also edges out Harris County, TX by just a bit, and that distinction is held by Cook County, Illinois.

The CIO of Cook County's massive infrastructure is the founder of Broadband Technology Associates, Antonio Hylton, and he is transforming the technology throughout a complex set of layers in the organization with his "Vision 2010" plan, including the city of Chicago and a total budget of more than three billion dollars.

In this interview with Antonio, which just came out in TechRepublic magazine (you really ought to be a subscriber), he talks with me about the dangers of technological procrastination and what it has taken to reach the point where he can get the ball rolling.

You can always download the PDF version of these articles from the TR site, as well as add your comments and perspectives to the list.

*the largest county is Los Angeles County, CA

Bravery and Honor - A Veterans Day Story

This story was sent to me by my friend Rudy Rust, who was conscripted into the German army when he was fifteen years old, during WWII. It's about the way men think about bravery and honor, particularly in wartime. See if you think it is relevant to us today.

Bravery & Honor We Don't See Anymore

If you look carefully at the B-17 in this painting, you'll see how shot up it is. It was ready to fall out of the sky. You'll also see there's a German ME-109 fighter next to it. Here's the story behind this picture:

B-17 pilot Charlie Brown (yes, that's his real name) was flying his Flying Fortress with the 379th Bomber Group from Kimbolton, England. His plane, nicknamed "Ye Old Pub" was badly damaged by German FLAK and other artillery. The compass was damaged and they were actually headed in the wrong direction, deeper into enemy territory. As the plane flew over a German airfield, German pilot Franz Stigler was given orders to take off and shoot the British bomber down.

As Stigler neared the Flying Fortress, he couldn't believe what he saw. He "had never seen a plane in such a bad state." The tail and rear section were severely damaged, and the tail gunner was wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes throughout the entire plane.

Although he had plenty of ammunition, Franz flew over beside the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, who was clearly scared and struggling to control his damaged and bloodied plane. When he became aware that they had no idea where they were heading, Franz waved at Charlie Brown to turn 180 degrees around. He then escorted the stricken plane out to and slightly over the North Sea toward England. He saluted Charlie Brown and turned back toward Europe. When he landed he told his commander he had shot the plane down over the sea. He never told the truth to anyone. Charlie Brown and his remaining crew were debriefed and told their story, but were ordered never to talk about it.

More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who had saved his crew. After years of research, he found Franz Stigler, who had never spoken of the incident, even at his post-war reunions. The two pilots met in the US at a 379th Bomber group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive because Franz never fired his guns on that day.

When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler said, "I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting a man in a parachute."

Both Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler died in 2008. Both will be remembered as brave and honorable men.

(l to r) German ace Franz Stigler, artist Ernie Boyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown

Franz Stigler / Charlie Brown

Berlin - The Capitol of Freedom Twenty Years Later

Today marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the precursor to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

As a veteran of the occupied city of Berlin in the end of the 1980's, I would like to salute all of my colleagues and the many who went before us in preserving freedom within the Divided City and ultimately extending it to the East German Capitol and into all of Eastern Europe, liberating millions of people who had lived for decades behind the Iron Curtain.

After 20 years, the Cold War is to my children what WWII was to me growing up. It is history. But it remains a very real history to anyone who drove past the Soviet guards and winding concrete barriers at Checkpoint Charlie, through the "protective" wall that Walter Ulbricht declared "no one had any intention of building." It is a very real history to the many Eastern Europeans who were born during those years and knew nothing else.

By November 9, 1989, almost ten percent of the East German population had officially applied for exit visas. And on that date, they were all granted. After watching West German television (three channels were received by about 80% of the East Germans) for almost 40 years, the contrast of the black-and-white version of life gave way to a colorful reality beyond the ten-inch screen in the corner of the apartment.

Seven years earlier, the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan, presciently declared that Marxism-Leninism was headed for the "ash heap of history," and two years before the wall fell, he made his now-famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate. As one of the thousands of people in the audience along Unter den Linden that day, I must say that although it was powerful, its effect was still unimagined by most.

The wall came down in a quiet revolution, without a shot being fired. But in truth, many shots had been fired prior to November 9, 1989. The American forces in Berlin numbered under 10,000 in the face of 350,000 Russians and 150,000 East Germans. There were 382 American soldiers killed during the Cold War, one of whom, Major Arthur Nicholson, was shot in Ludwigslust by a Soviet sniper the year before our group arrived in Berlin. That same year, the LaBelle disco in downtown Berlin was blown up by Libyan terrorists. While 5,000 people successfully escaped into West Berlin in the 28 years the wall divided the city, almost 1,000 were killed in the attempt along the entire Iron Curtain.

In 1990, the year after the Wall fell, Senator Bob Dole made a speech at Capitol Hill that dovetails with Ronald Reagan's of three years before: "You have won the Cold War. Your underappreciated valor helped topple the Berlin Wall, and bring down dictators the world over... For the past four decades the world behind the Iron Curtain... looked to Americans for hope, and America looked to you to get the job done. Today, the free world says thank you."

And now, twenty years after the fall, Checkpoint Charlie remains a museum. May it stay that way.

(Here's a link to a great slideshow from Google.)

- I've added this excellent five-minute tribute video sent from one of my Field Station colleagues.

The Art of the (Amazon/Zappos) Deal

Here's a memo out today from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about his commitment to keeping his business-as-usual approach, and at the same time using Amazon to take Zappos to the next level.

The deal between the two online retailers was finalized over the Halloween weekend. If you missed it earlier last month, here's a link to my ten-question interview with Tony in TechRepublic.

Ten Questions with a Driven Climber: CIO John Golden

My newest IT leadership interview with CIO John Golden is out today in TechRepublic. Along with driving the technology decisions behind insurance giant CNA, John also went through 23 surgeries to allow him to walk. Then, instead of just walking, he decided his rehabilitation also ought to include an expedition to the top of Mount Everest, and a couple of the other significant peaks in the world along the way.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Thanks to John for sharing his inspirational story and for creating the LiveActive Foundation. Watch for the full version to come out on the Discovery Channel next month.

VW is having fun with video marketing

In "The Illustrated Man," Ray Bradbury describes videos and beer becoming the new ersatz for books and wine.

A year after its debut, YouTube was acquired by Google. Three years later, traffic is at over a billion videos - per day, that is. At the top of the list is: Charlie the finger-biter (here's an article with a complete list of the top ten).

What does this mean for business? The world's biggest company (VW) has undoubtedly made some significant investments in marketing distribution, but what about a shift toward content? What if, instead of investing a much smaller amount in creating a one-page ad (paying the graphic designer, photographer, and copywriter) and then paying Car and Driver to print it, the distribution were free? The savings could go toward a more elaborate message like "we are all about using 'fun' to influence people's behavior," and then depend on the viral spread to get over three million views in its first week at no cost.

Good idea.

The Newspaper Museum

Back in the day, I was one of those entrepreneurial urchins with a burlap sack over my shoulder taking a daily walk through the neighborhood to unload sheets of inked paper on people's doorsteps. I still see a paper on the sidewalk every once in awhile but those days are likely numbered. As Conde-Nast sheds 68-year old Gourmet Magazine this week, Jim Tyree's solo bid appears to be the last hope for the Sun-Times.

Is that kind of shift in the crystal ball for phone carriers as well, to what David Pogue calls "the right thing?" AT&T has announced it will allow VOIP as a service on its iPhones, which will certainly spread to Palm and other smartphones faster than a gps app. Even more than GoogleVoice, this development promises at the very least to change the way we think about minutes and calling plans.

Ten Questions with Tony Hsieh of Zappos

OK, let's dig in our heels and get Q4 off to a great start. Tony Hsieh of Zappos has some valuable insights to offer us that point to his success with Zappos as a result of a simple focus on great customer service, and not being distracted by comparisons.

Whether or not you're selling millions of pairs of shoes and partnering up with Amazon, delivering customer happiness is a goal all of us in business ought to be shooting for. Frankly, this economy demands it. Link here to read the full interview in today's TechRepublic.

Do you trust the mob?

One of my son's (jr. high) teachers told him he wouldn't be able to use Wikipedia as a reference source for his term paper.

The footnote was substantiated with citations, but an open-source reference couldn't be considered entirely legitimate for pedagogical purposes. OK, I can understand where this thinking is coming from, but the truth is I'm tending to trust mob-sourcing over traditional sources on some topics.

It does seem cheatingly easy to have such ready access to information and answers on any imaginable topic. When I was a kid I had to bike to the library (ten miles each way in the dead of winter!), head for the card catalog and start writing down the shelf numbers. Now the question is whether to look it up on your laptop or your phone.

What about the general legitimacy of "crowdsourced" information? Depending on what kind of information you need, there's a litany of different venues popping up where you can get a decent answer very fast, even if you still can't use it in your doctoral thesis.

Especially on questions where you are specifically looking for consensus or a majority vote on the "best answer," the web comes through in a pinch. How to decide when you need new tires? What dogs are good with kids? How do I simplify this equation on my homework? Sources like Yahoo! Answers, Aardvark, or even throwing it out to your twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook network may get you a better answer than your first pair of searches on Google or Bing. Write and tell me if you agree.

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