I took accounting in college, got a C, and was grateful to make it through.  It just didn’t come easily.  At 19, I couldn’t envision a time when I would need to read a profit and loss statement.  The best thing about it was it was a summer course so I could study at the university pool, and the boy who volunteered to tutor me was pretty cute.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy courses outside my major, journalism.  I loved biology, for example.  My semester project was to research and write a vegetarian cookbook with original recipes (fairly radical back then.)  I discovered that I detested the lentils and tofu.  It’s a texture thing.  I grew up in the Midwest where we eat steaks and burgers for breakfast.  But I digress.

As I look back, I realize that that I’ve always liked learning through experience.  History is replete with stories of people who did, too.  When Apple’s Steve Jobs dropped out of college he enrolled in a caligraphy course, which he credited with helping him to develop the deep appreciation for design that now characterizes every Apple product.

Some things you can learn in a book, others you can’t.  The other day, a friend emailed to ask me to recommend some books on public speaking.  She was distraught about a business presentation and writing a to do list - did I have suggestions?  I told her to forget the books- and get busy speaking.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m the author of two, soon to be three books, so I believe in reading. But books are just the first step in speaking well.  Get your head out of the book and get up on your feet.  Schedule a talk.  Practice.  Take  a course.  Give another speech.  Take another course.  Join Toastmasters.  Give another speech.  Speaking is something you learn by doing.

Many of our clients love to read.  So do I.  But this proclivity can be an obstacle if you don’t take the next step.  At a certain point, reading one more book won’t help you improve one iota.  

Every leader I’ve ever worked with who is a great speaker tells me they started speaking early in their career - and kept going.  You can learn later in life.  You just need to put some muscle into your plan.  If you do the same thing with the same result, it’s like going to the gym and doing curls with two pound weights; no matter how much time you spend, you’re never going to have Popeye arms.  No pain, no gain.  Raise the stakes.  Then, practice like mad.     

It’s also important to get clear about the difference between “preparation” and “practice.”  Preparation is the thinking and writing and editing of your script and materials such as slides or handouts.  Practice is getting up and saying it out loud.  Many times.  Many, many times.  

Sometimes clients will say, “I’ve been working on this for weeks,” or “I’ve spent hours on this presentation.”  However, upon further examination of the above statements, I find they’ve been dinking around with the slides, rejiggering the bullet points, creating four quadrant process visuals that you couldn’t read with a magnifying glass.  As far as “practice?”  The night before the presentation, at 9 pm, they get in bed to review the slides, until their loving spouse or significant other roles over and begs them to turn off the light.  This, my friend, is not practice.  

So if you love books, keep buying books for heavens sake.  Support your favorite authors.  Just don’t stop there.  As Gloria Estefan sang,

Get on your feet

Get up and make it happen

Get on your feet

Get up and take some action  

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If your audiences could vote with their feet, what would happen?  

Interesting question, isn’t it?  Most of the time you’re speaking to a captive audience.  What if they didn’t have to stay?    

I had the opportunity to stand at a podium and watch the room empty out.  It was as painful as you might imagine.  

This was right after I left television news and started my business. The event was the American Bankers Association Conferenc in Bermuda.  Early in my new venture, I was thrilled to be asked to be the ”warm up act” for the main program.  The session ran from 9 to 12 so that the bankers could get afternoon tee times.  And just to remind those attending the conference what it was really all about, the ballroom had a scenic vista of the oceanfront course.

The keynote speaker (following me) was Howard Fineman, the legendary Newsweek Chief Political Correspondent.  I was a little nervous but okay until I checked in with the meeting planner.  She sheepishly informed me that Mr. Fineman’s schedule had changed- he needed to catch an earlier flight back to Washington - and would I mind if he spoke before me.  Like I had a choice.

Now, Howard Fineman is no Jerry Seinfeld, but he is a very good speaker and he’s collected a lot of inside stories on the legendary political figures he’s covered over the years.  As a new speaker, I was still pretty sure that the audience was not going to laugh when I presented the “10 Steps for Success with the Media,” or whatever I was talking about.  

You know how people try to make you feel better by saying, “How bad could it be?” or “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”  In this case, it happened.

As Fineman left the stage, the mass exodus began, and it was as if the fire alarm had gone off.  Two thirds of the room emptied before I was even behind the podium.  I felt like a little tiny person with a little tiny speech. I was visibly rattled and utterly convinced that those who were stayed did so because they felt pity.      

I wish I’d had my wits about me.  I considered “fainting” but had no idea how to make it look real.  I could have come up with a room-emptying line and caught the next flight to Boston. “Good morning, before we begin I wanted to announce that Titleist golf balls are 75% off in the lobby for the next 10 minutes.”  Or, “If any of you are interested, Cameron Diaz is giving autographs on the beach.”  

Instead, I just started the talk, as planned.  I cut half of it out but it was still an eternity.     

That got me thinking.  What would happen if every audience could vote with their feet?  What if they always had a choice? Would they stay or would they go?

Pretty intriguing question, isn’t it?

Whether you’re the featured speaker, the speaker following the featured speaker, or the only speaker,  everyone in the audience is exactly like you.  What I mean is, they all walk into the room wishing they were someplace else.  

This is still what scares me and thrills me about speaking.  If professional speakers are honest they would tell you the same thing.  It’s not the fun, it’s the fear. That’s why they work so hard to tell some stories and add a little humor.   All to avoid the humiliation.      

When speaking to a captive business audience, remember your audiences DO have a choice, if only in their minds.  Even if the occassion is a mandatory all-hands meeting, they only have to physically be there.  Mentally they can still check out.  That’s why it’s important to take another look at your material and be ruthless.  Can you make it more interesting?  Tell a few stories, make them smile?   

Last week, one of my clients did just that.  He didn’t have to.  He gave an engaging, personal, 18 minute presentation to introduce us to the sales team.  His stories worked, the photos were funny, everybody loved the T-shirts he passed around, as well as the show and tell props.  It was the perfect set-up and the best introduction anyone has ever given me.  

The effort he put into it paid off.  Not only did he engage them from the start.  He modeled the communication skills he was asking them to develop.  It was obvious he put time into it - exactly what he expected them to do - as they learned to engage customers and prospects.  It set up a great 1.5 day session.      

I’ve never actually met Howard Fineman and he hasn’t a clue who I am, but all the same, I want to thank him.  It was really good to get that nightmare over with.  And it taught me to think about audiences not as bodies in chairs, but as people with ”feet.”

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“Practice does not make perfect.  Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

- Vince Lombardi

 Ray Allen, Celtics

If you haven’t been following the Lakers/Celtics in the 2010 NBA finals (one of THE great sports rivalries of all time) you are definitely missing something.  You sure as heck don’t need to be a basketball fan to grasp this epic story - two titan teams- whose history dates back to the 60’s.  There is simply no matchup in sports better than the Celtics and the Lakers.    

Celtics fans believe (rightly) that as the relatively “new” leader of the team Rajon Rondo goes, so goes the game - and that’s true.  He’s incredible.  However - Ray Allen - the veteran shooter - has been a deciding factor in the Celtics wins (and losses) so far.  In game 2, Allen broke the record for the most 3-pointers in an NBA final game - and the Celtics won.  On the road.  It was incredible.

Why is this important to you as a leader or a professional who has to hit the “court” every day?  As we all know, performance is about perfect practice.  Your “game” will be judged by how well you communicate your big ideas and inspire people to achieve results.  What makes you great is what makes a player like Ray Allen great.  And it isn’t”God given talent.” 

Ray Allen’s remarkable career is a testament to his utter dedication to routine practice.  He can ALWAYS be found on the court before EVERY game, often alone, taking shots.  This dedication, which some might describe as “every day is Ground Hog Day in the NBA” has built his stellar career and positioned him as future Hall of Fame legend.  

Becoming a great “shooter” isn’t about getting it right once in awhile, when it “counts.”  You have to hit the court consistently.  Allen has it all committed to memory (both the mental kind and the muscle kind) and he works it before every single game.   I strongly recommend taking a couple of minutes to watch the You Tube video below - and listen to what he says as he shows you his routine.  It isn’t just about basketball, that’s for sure.

By the way I never apologize for sports analogies.  If there are people- male or female - who don’t get it, then so be it.  The parallels between sports and business are so right on.  Listen to truly great athletes talk about how they do it - and one thing you learn is there’s no such thing as natural talent.  

Ray Allen was a gym rat all through high school and college.  Even when he was 8, he had to make 8 lefty layups and 5 righty layups before he would leave the court.  So his practice habits were etched in stone early in life. 

At the same time, you can’t be discouraged if you didn’t start speaking well early in your career.  The legendary Michael Jordan’s work ethic is proof that you can catch up.   Coach Phil Jackson, commenting once on his former star player said, “The weakest part of Michael’s game on the offensive end was his shooting and so he obviously mastered something everyone said he couldn’t do…and he did it by shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting consistently.  This guy said - what are my weaknesses - and how do I make them my strengths - and he did it.” 

Every time you get up to speak people are sizing you up as a leader.  Every game counts. That’s why you can never take the practice time for granted.  This week, one of our clients called his coach after a major presentation to say it was just “okay.”  He’d had a “good game” a couple of months before - knocking a presentation out of the park - and then he decided he didn’t have time to prepare and rehearse the next one with the coach - and no surprise - the presentation just didn’t fly.   What Ray Allen knows (and he is admittedly almost OCD about it) is what all of us must learn - if you don’t get out there and practice, you aren’t going to have a good game.  

 

 Ray Allen on how to become a shooter: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Decked out in red midriff-baring tops and hot pants, performing to “All the Single Ladies,” the 8 and 9 year old dancers at a recent competition earned whoops and praise for their skilled moves, imitating the above photo.  Yet when the video hit You Tube, their gyrations launched an internet firestorm.  It sparked a raging controversy regarding the age appropriateness of those sexy Beyonce-like dance moves.   

The girls’ parents were dumbfounded, saying the video was never meant to be viewed by millions of people.  “This is taken completely out of context,” Cory Miller, father of one of the girls, told Good Morning America.  “The girls are doing something they love to do,” he added.  But “once something becomes viral it gets out of control.”  

That got me thinking about you.  Not the situation where your kids post video of you doing the air guitar routine.  More like when your employees, competitors or even perfect strangers decide to post a video of you speaking in a quasi public forum.  Let’s say you’re on a panel, or giving a conference presentation; or even speaking at an all hands meeting.  Someone with good, bad or benign intentions might just decide to create some mischief.  Are you comfortable with that?  Are you even thinking about it?  

I don’t know what percentage of cell phones and blackberries can capture digital video but it’s certainly growing.  88% of Americans have cell phones.  4 billion people in the world carry one.  I can only think of one or two places where I’ve been asked to surrender mine - mostly going into locations related to government or defense.

Ubiquitous video capability has had a fascinating impact on TV news gathering.  TV news crews no longer have to be “on the scene” to get the story.  I understand the arrest of one of three Pakistani men who may have been in cahoots with the Time Square bomber was captured by a neighbor who happened to see the FBI outside the door in Watertown, MA.  Here’s a link to the raw video  

There are ways to protect yourself but it’s confusing.  On You Tube’s web site the first thing they tell you is you can only take down a video if you uploaded it yourself.  Videos can be removed by You Tube for copyright infringement.  Other than that, after several tries, I couldn’t easily find out on line what the policy is.  

What if you don’t happen to like a video of you that someone else loaded?  I hadn’t done a You Tube search on myself in awhile.  I found most of the videos were posted by our marketing director - tips on communication and clips of speeches.  However, there are also excerpts from television newscasts (when I was a lot younger and more of a brunette - but yes, that’s me.)  No reputational harm - kind of fun to see the old news sets - but I sure didn’t post them.  No idea who did.  What if I just didn’t like them?  I’m not sure I would have recourse.  I don’t own the copyright.  This is what I mean.  It’s a brave new world.  

Not sounding the alarm bell here just yet but it’s something to think about.  

By the way, the video of the dance contest is harder to find now.  On USA Today’s site, a message pops up: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by YAK films.”  But you can still find it on ABC Good Morning America’s web site.

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I had failed to pack running shoes and it was going to be four long days without stress- relieving exercise at the Whittemore School at the University of New Hampshire.  The Bates team was there to deliver a Communicate like a Leader program for 25 senior executives.  By day two, my guys were sick of hearing about the exercise thing, so they dropped me at Macy’s on the way to dinner at Outback (we travel in style) to buy some Nikes.  Macy’s carries 1,973 styles but nary a thing you could remotely consider appropriate for a workout unless you like the look and feel of sexy four- inch black strap pumps on a treadmill.   The ONLY fitness category offering was the new fangled Sketchers “Shape Ups™ that Joe Montana has been so sincerely touting on TV. 

I tried them on.  The foot actually rolls in these odd shaped things.  You can’t stand still.  The rounded heel to cushy middle prods your foot forward.  It’s like walking on a workout ball.    I paid the $100 and couldn’t wait for my maiden test run; rising at 5:30 in the midst of a Nor’easter, I commandeered the only umbrella from the front desk and set off.   I felt like I was bouncing.  These Shape Ups claim to “improve poster, strengthen the back, firm the buttocks, improve blood circulation, tighten abdominals and get me into shape without setting foot in a gym” and at the end of 45 minutes I felt at least optimistic that was true.  

I don’t mean I saw immediate impact on the derriere (thought I did check the mirror); but I had an inspiration for my morning presentation.  This was precisely the metaphor I was searching for; a perfect corollary to the awkward experience of learning how to tell a good story.

 Whether you tell stories or you don’t, learning to use our five step process can put a crimp on your style at first.  It doesn’t allow you to carry on without a point, and everything you put into the story needs to lead to it.  So it can be awkward to apply the structure but eventually it is a roadmap that accelerates the process of developing a story you can use in a business presentation.

I walked into the classroom later that morning sporting the shoes (with my suit) and proceeded to tell my story; I demonstrated the rolling motion; then I related it to the storytelling process. 

Bates Story Structure  

The                    The                   The                  The                The

Set Up             Build Up             Scene              Lesson         Universal Theme

I wouldn’t be able to give you the entire storytelling course here, but here’s a quick sketc.  The Set Up is the who, what, when, where of your story - where it begins. The Build Up provides a storyline with some characters and interesting details.  This leads to The Scene; a pivotal moment in the story such as a conversation or realization.  This moment leads to The Point- a personal lesson, observation or ephiphany.  But you’re not finished.  You still have to expand that to provide relevance to the audience through The Universal Theme- how it applies to them.  

We’ve been perfecting this structure for several years and I’ve watched how executives who thought they didn’t have a story bone in their bodies embrace it and become confident storytellers.  Think of it like trying on a new shoe.  The foot is the moving part - the actual story.  The shoe is the story structure that keeps it laced up, aligned and moving in the right direction.  

I’m still wearing the Shape Ups as I write this.  I guess I’ll have to report back in a few weeks when I can tell you whether it is living up to the promise.

In the meantime, try on some new stories.  Think about how to structure them to make a powerful point. In no time they’ll be in “great shape.”

Anybody have a full length mirror?   

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“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”  -John Wayne

A couple of years ago a good friend and mentor told me that he thought I needed to get a little more “swagger.”  Not confidence, specifically, he used the word swagger.  It’s a cool word.  Fun to say.  Swagger.  I wasn’t sure exactlly what he meant at the time, but the message was that something needed to be ratcheted up.

Was it, attitude?  Charisma?  Self-Assurance?  Sauntering into the saloon, boots jangling, John Wayne-style, ordering a double and tossing it down?  Swashbuckling onto the ship, Johnny Depp-style, to take prisoners into foreign waters and make them love it?   

I looked it up.  

 swag·ger (swgr)

As an unabashed fan of American Idol, I’m particularly intrigued by one of this year’s top three finalists, Lee DeWyze.  His musical talent has always been obvious but he looked like he was hiding his personality under a bushell.  He was kind of …well…shy.  More than once, judge Kara DioGuardi prodded him.  ”Do you believe you can win this thing?”  Wow, that’s tough on live TV in front of 35 million Idol fans.  But we got what she meant.  You can’t be a superstar unless you believe you are.

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“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”

-General Stanley A. McChrystal, leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan

One of the most widely-emailed stories last week was an above-the-fold, color-splashed New York Times PowerPoint diagram portraying the complexity of American strategy in Afghanistan.  As the NYT observed, it looks more like a bowl of spaghetti than a strategy.  As I read it I thought about the old black and white war movies in which war generals drew battle diagrams in the dirt with a stick.  Boy we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?  

Computer generated charts, graphs and bullet points are now apparently a running joke at the Pentagon.  Military communications are dominated by unruly PowerPoint presentations that are stifling real communication.  “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” said General H.R. McMaster. 

I don’t know about you but I’m not laughing.  I’d like to know that when those brave guys and gals go out on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan that everybody’s got the same clear plan in their heads.  I don’t mean to imply that the military considers this a laughing matter.  High ranking military officials have serious concerns that PowerPoint is damaging critical thinking and thoughtful decision making.  But the horse is out of the barn and nobody knows how to corral it back inside.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

Bad PowerPoint is such a running joke in American business today.

Maybe lives aren’t at stake, but your business is. 

The other day one of my new clients came in to prepare for a presentation he was giving in London to about 400 global leaders in his company.  He’d delivered the same presentation to small groups; but it was going on the big screen and he wanted to “check the slides” before he left.  “Minor adjustments,” he said.

“More like a PowerPoint grenade,” I replied.

One structural diagram had so many boxes and messages in the smallest type I’ve ever seen (is there a “nano-point”?) which you couldn’t read with a magnifying glass.  Another had six text boxes each with 12 bullet points.  I’m not kidding. 

Here’s what I’m going to propose.  Copy my article, or just cut and paste the photo and send it around your company today.  Ask for comments.  Get people talking about PowerPoint.  Then send me your comments.  I will post them in the blog.  

By starting the conversation perhaps you can make some changes.  It’s time to start using visuals to make things easier, not harder, to understand.  It’s not too late to win the battle in business.  

Pass the sauce, please.

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I was talking the other day with one of our executive coaches, Margie Myers, about what makes people sit up and pay attention.  She told me about this hilarious cartoon that appeared in the New Yorker back in the 80’s.  It’s called What Dogs Hear.  Being a dog lover I went looking for it.    

When I saw it I realized - it isn’t just about dogs.  Is it?    

Imagine that dog is YOUR AUDIENCE.  (I know, I’ve had some ”dog” audiences too, but I am not meaning to insult dogs or audiences here. Simply trying to make a point.)  They are really trying to listen.  But they can’t hear.  It isn’t their fault.  They’re trying, they really are.  You just aren’t speaking dog language. 

If you want your audience to sit up and pay attention and maybe even give you a big kiss after your presentation, your only hope is to talk to them -about them.   

The other day I took a look at the first draft outline for one of my client’s presentations.

Blah Blah Blah.  It didn’t need a tweak - it needed a shredder. As in a do over. So we hauled out the Audience Agenda exercise from Speak Like a CEO, and I asked him to switch chairs.  That often helps people change perspectives -move out of their own mindset into the mindset of the audience. I asked him to imagine he was the CEO of his company.  What was on the guy’s mind? 

He came up with three questions - 

• How can we seize new market opportunities this year?
• How can we improve our profitability?
• Do we have the right people on the team to do it?

Voila.  An outline for a talk that will get a CEOs attention. I predicct he’ll be all over it like a dog on a bone.

Please don’t be a blah blah blah speaker.  Take time.  Do the 180 thinking.  Write down the issues on your audience’s mind.  Build your talk around that. There, isn’t it simple? 

Woof!

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Suddenly it’s become this thing.  I didn’t used to hear it that often but lately everybody’s talking about how their leaders need to tell stories. 

The reason most people can’t find their leadership stories is because when asked, they can only remember the stories they’ve been telling at neighborhood cocktail parties or around the family dinner table on Thanksgiving.  You know - the one everybody likes about how in third grade you and your brother were chasing each other across a field and climbed over a fence and you stuck your hand on a board with a rusty nail and your mom was mad as hell and youu had to get a tetanus shot.  Or the one about how you skipped World Religion class in college and then got your girlfriend’s notes and pulled three all nighters in a row to study only to fall asleep and wake up 12 hours later having slept through the final.  Fascinating stories like that.   

Those probably won’t work. The reason they won’t work is that it’s going to be hard to make a business point.  But trust me you do have great stories some of them personal but with universal themes appropriate for business. 

Stories are the way to deliver a message.  The reason many leaders pooh-pooh the idea is because they are …afraid.  There, I said it.  We don’t do that in our culture.

The best speakers and leaders tell stories.  They believe events in their own life are worth sharing with others in order to explain who they are as leaders.

Of course they get help.  You don’t want to get up and start telling stories unless they’re going to make a powerful point.  That would be like picking up a scalpel and performing heart surgery without the proper training.  Yes you could use the instrument but the results won’t be pretty. 

Fortunately telling stories isn’t heart surgery.  Everybody learn to do it well.  And everybody HAS stories.  I’ll never forget sitting in a session with our consultant Craig Bentley who told his client, “If you’re breathing, you have stories.”  Yes, your stories are there, hiding in plain sight in the corners of your life.  You just need to stop and look.  Then, give them a little love.  Say, come here story, I might want to tell you.

How do I know?

Well, for one, we teach storytelling in our boot camps and workshops so I’ve seen ordinary people get up and tell gynormous stories that nobody could guess they had in them.  It’s happened a thousand times.  We start by asking probing questions to get people thinking about interesting experiences, they work with a partner who asks more questions to get to the “truth” or lesson in the story.  You wouldn’t believe how much fun it is to hear these stories and watch these speakers blossom right before our eyes.   

If you are wondering whether personal stories really work in business the answer is yes as long as they aren’t inappropriate, x rated or pointless.  And if one of our coaches is working with you we’re certainly not going to let you go tell your team how your fraternity got arrested at 4 a.m. in the middle of the football field because you were reenacting the famous all-night streaking party of 1972.   We’ll be looking for the kinds of stories that show decisions you’ve made, challenges you’ve faced; transforming experiences that express who you are.  You might be surprised to discover how even small, ordinary events can become signature leadership stories that express your viewpoint and make a huge impact on your audiences.

Nobody except perhaps your spouse would be interested your first kiss, but a lot of people would like to know about something you learned in your first job.  They’d also like to hear about awkward moments, difficult choices, failures, successes, interesting people you’ve met, and insights you’ve gained by living and facing life head on.  

As I always like to say to my clients, you’re leading this group or this company FOR A REASON.  Somebody put you here because they saw something in you.  So now it’s time to reveal it.  You owe it to the people you lead to share insights about the values and principles that drive you.    

Your stories about life and career have shaped you as a leader and made you the person you are today.   The trick is to be selective; choose the right events, master a process for examining them, and apply the structure for writing and telling a story to make a point.  

I am constantly amazed and astounded at the things that happen to people.  It’s life!  It’s damned interesting!  You can look at somebody in a business suit and think “he was born in that suit” until you hear his tale of surviving a storm at sea in a rowboat or how adopting a baby from Romanian orphanage or trekking to a remote mountain village with a broken leg.  You always end up in the same place.  Everybody has an interesting story.  And if you share your stories you’ll make a magical connection with your audience. 

You know how a lot of people look at you and think that you’ve been sitting in that big office all your life?    They have no idea that you’ve struggled, failed, or overcome difficult situations personally and professionally.  Honestly, they think somebody just handed you the keys to the office.  As a leader if you can connect with them through your stories you will encourage, motivate and inspire them to work hard and live up to their own potential and I can’t think of a better definition of leadership.

Steps in the storytelling process 

• Think of a challenging situation you have faced, a failure, awkward moment, difficult decision
• Tell the story to a friend, coach, mentor or speechwriter
• Get them to ask you probing questions - what happened, why was that significant, what was the result, how did you feel, why does it matter
• Look for the point inside the story, don’t try to “fit” a point into a story - let it tell you what it’s about
• Record it out loud, then transcribe and edit
• Use a story structure to eliminate unnecessary details and leave only what matters and takes your audience there
• Bring it alive with conversation and colorful descriptives
• Make your point in terms of a universal theme for your audience
• Write it down and save it
• Practice until you can tell it in a fluid, conversational style
• Be sure your point is clear

If all that sounds complicated it’s actually not.  Once you learn the process and have the tools, it’s really fun.  And let me tell you those stories make speaking a whole lot more enjoyable. 

There are disasters.  You see them at conferences and company meetings.  You know, when the speaker starts a story that goes on forever, and everybody starts squirming or checking their Blackberries.  You try to be polite but nobody is that nice. So, you turn to a perfect stranger seated next to you, exchange painful, knowing glances meant to say OH MY GOD PLEASE HELP HIM or LET THIS END.  

But don’t let that scare you.  You can learn this.  Storytelling is not a natural born skill but with the right tools, practice and some guts you can do it.  A good story will earn you a reputation as a standout leader in your company and industry.  Not to mention you’ll be able to ditch the PowerPoint heroine for a few minutes and actually have a conversation with people. 

Want to hear about our boot camp and storytelling seminar?  Email me at info@bates-communications.com

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Not long ago, I sat in on a presentation at a business conference and thought I’d landed on Mars.  The program topic was compelling but somehow the presenter managed to take us into outer space.  No one was following him.  I wondered why this is so complicated.  The guy had managed to hide his brilliance under a bushel - seizing confusion from the jaws of clarity.  

Whenever someone says,”I don’t want to dumb it down,” I know we’re in for a long day.  Pour me another cup of joe and pass the half and half.  We have a lot of work to do.  The hard part isn’t making the complex clear; it’s convincing people that they can explain anything if they try.

It’s dangerously bordering on arrogance to think that just because you know something others don’t that they are somehow inferior.  Smart people don’t approach their presentations with the thought that they’re going to have to write for dummies.  Most of the time your audiences are real smart.  They just didn’t go to the same school you did. They haven’t spent years learning what you know.  True genius is being able to explain the complex so that virtually anybody can understand.

Mark Twain once said, “I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.”  It’s work, yes. You have to crank your brain into gear to remember how you learned what you know and explain it to others.  If people don’t speak your language, take a few steps back and recall or develop common language or terms that express the concepts.  Look for opportunities to clarify.  

My husband writes screenplays and consults on movie scripts.  He wrote a book a couple of years ago called the 3rd act, writing a great ending to your screenplay.  The only thing I know about movies is what I like and don’t like.   (chick flicks, yes, excessive violence keeps me up at night).  Over the years, sitting next to him in the movie theatre I’ve learned enough to be annoying (”Honey, is this the second act or the third?”).  But let me tell you — after reading his book you’d think you were ready to go write the next Casablanca or Moonstruck or Good Will Hunting.  He makes it so simple. Even if you’re never going to write Little Miss Sunshine, you enjoy that 2.5 hours in uncomfortable theatre seats (except for the popcorn commercials, loud previews and catchy songs about where to exit in case of emergency). 

So what to do - if you do have a complicated subject to explain?

Here are a few tips.

1. Don’t assume people know what you’re talking about.

2. Never believe that you’re smarter than they are.

3. Look for examples and analogies that make people say, “OH!”  It’s sometimes hard to find it, but when you do you’ll have eureka moment; when it happens to me my eyes well up with tears.

4. Look for photos, visuals, even stuff people can hold in their hands. A picture really does explain a thousand words.  Search Google photos by plugging in a topic and clicking on images.  You’ll get 11,345 of them in about 2.5 seconds. 

5. Define your terms - and I don’t just mean technical terms.  Explain the business lingo, too.  It’s really unbelievable what the human business brain comes up with, isn’t it?  You might know exactly what ”customer centric” means to you, but I guarantee there are 82 other definitions out there in the minds of your audience.         

6.  Test run the presentation on a friendly but discerning person.  I’m not talking about your dog and your 6 year old.  Of course if you can get them to sit in a room for 20 minutes and listen, bravo.  But seek out someone who knows your audience and doesn’t do what you do every day and get their opinion.

7.  Strive to be the expert everyone loves to run into in the hallway.  You win friends when you are everybody’s go to guy or gal.  Help them understand enough to make a good decision and be able to explain why they made it.    

8.  Name your processes, ideas and concepts.  People really like to share the ”tag” for an idea; it’s common language.  We use a tool called the “Audience Agenda System” in helping our clients analyze their audiences.  The process is foolproof; the branding it makes it memorable.

9.  Use humor.  When a topic is complex or you are struggling to explain it, a little fun goes a long way.  You connect with the audience and help them relax by making them smile. 

10.  Read good books that explain complexity, listen to speakers who do it well, and emulate them.  You may remember Steven Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, who wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time .  If he can help nonscientists understand where the universe came from, how it began and whether it will come to an end, then I guess most of us can figure out how to explain what we know.

PS: If you know expert speakers who are very good at making the complex simple, let me know.  I’m starting on my third book and I could use some examples.

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