The post But where do I find the stories…..? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>
It’s now standard lore that in order to make your presentation stand-out, in order to capture your listeners’ ears and hearts, you have to use stories. As I always tell participants on my Public Speaking courses, if you are just giving people facts and information, they aren’t listening. You have to engage them on some kind of emotional journey, and stories are by far the best means of transport.
“But where do I find the stories?” I hear you ask “I’m not a raconteur, I’m not a stand-up comedian”. The answer is, they’re right here, you already have them. What is the most notable success achieved by you or your team recently? That’s definitely a story worth telling. What is your most memorable recent failure, and what did you learn from it? Another story definitely worth telling. You are already an expert in your own area, and events that happen in your everyday working life are stories that others can and will learn from. You just need to shape them into a satisfying structure – which will be the topic of my next blog article.
If you can’t wait that long, contact me about Presenting With Passion
The post But where do I find the stories…..? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>On the first morning of our Xmas fly-and-flop getaway, our holiday rep gathered us all together, to do what holiday reps are paid to do – make us feel welcome, answer our questions, and . . . → Read More: Are they listening – or playing Catchword Bingo?
The post Are they listening – or playing Catchword Bingo? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>On the first morning of our Xmas fly-and-flop getaway, our holiday rep gathered us all together, to do what holiday reps are paid to do – make us feel welcome, answer our questions, and sell us excursions. So far he had ticked many of my Secret Shopper boxes – personal appearance and professionalism: 10/10; friendliness and approachability: 10/10; knowledge and problem solving: 10/10; willingness to go the extra kilometre: 10/10. Now time to turn over the mental scoresheet page, and watch his presentation skills.
Oh dear.
First he dropped into the Nervous Speaker’s Merengué – constant shuffly steps forward and back, side to side. Then he invited us all to play Catchword Bingo as he sprinkled his bag of favourite filler words into most sentences. “Now,” was a regular – “Now, let me talk to you about the water. Now, the tap water isn’t recommended. Now, we provide bottled water, as much as you like. Now, I’ll tell you where to get it from..” and on and on. Pretty soon I found myself counting the “now”s with morbid fascination. I Iost track at 40, and he was only half way through. I never did hear where to get the water, and my partner had to show me later. Other favourite fillers were “it’s all about the…” and “so, guys..”, and ending every other sentence with “okay?”.
The point of all of this is that whatever you think your job description is, it almost certainly contains an element of standing on your hind legs and talking to a roomful of clients/colleagues/reports/managers/customers/random strangers. However good you are at other aspects of your work, poor presentation skills will undermine your ability to influence, sell, champion, advocate, inspire, lead, or disseminate information effectively. Even experienced and confident public speakers can fall into poor and lazy habits, and the more senior you are the less likely to receive honest feedback. You might think you are wowing them – they might be counting the “now”s.
New Year is a good time for a brush up. Check out my free videos on various aspects of presenting and then have a look at what a Presenting With Passion day could do for you and your team.
Then get in touch.
The post Are they listening – or playing Catchword Bingo? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>So we worked with each of their staff presenters, helping them to become as interesting and engaging as possible. We encouraged the speakers to move their presentations to their colleagues away from just dry fact, and to make . . . → Read More: Bread, Ham, Bucket
The post Bread, Ham, Bucket first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>So we worked with each of their staff presenters, helping them to become as interesting and engaging as possible. We encouraged the speakers to move their presentations to their colleagues away from just dry fact, and to make them much more of a story. We also challenged them to stop relying on PowerPoint slides, and instead find other ways of illustrating their information. We didn’t manage to completely banish PowerPoint from the day, but there were far, far fewer bullet points than your average conference, and considerably more in the way of imaginative visual aids.
And then, the day before we went live, I got an urgent request from the Finance department. Could they steal fifteen minutes in the traditionally “dead” slot after lunch to go through the new invoicing system, because people had been making a lot of mistakes and payments were getting held up? Sure, I said, but you have to accept the same challenge as everyone else – no PowerPoint. To my great delight, they grabbed the opportunity, and came up with something truly wonderful. And so on the day, they awed the entire company by demonstrating this new invoicing process using bread, slices of ham, and buckets!
I can’t remember now exactly how they managed to map the process onto this sandwich-and-bucket model, but it was a huge talking point of the day, it got a load of laughs from the floor, and it certainly woke everyone up after lunch. And even more important, it was extremely effective – it was totally memorable, and from that day on no-one ever got the invoicing wrong.
My point – why does Important necessarily have to mean Joyless? Do Business and Fun need to be mutually exclusive?
And my call to action – what can you do to bring creativity to your workplace? Would you like to find different ways to bring Engagement to your staff? Contact me and Let’s Talk about it.
The post Bread, Ham, Bucket first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I was asked to run a series of workshops for a medium-sized organisation (around 75 staff) to boost employee engagement, and to provide an opportunity for everyone to examine and discuss the internal issues that were . . . → Read More: Building Engagement Brick By Brick
The post Building Engagement Brick By Brick first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I was asked to run a series of workshops for a medium-sized organisation (around 75 staff) to boost employee engagement, and to provide an opportunity for everyone to examine and discuss the internal issues that were preventing them from delivering first class customer service.
As this was an engineering company, with a high proportion of technically trained people, LEGO Serious Play 
was an obvious choice of tools.
In case you haven’t come across it before, LSP is an amazingly efficient and practical facilitation technique that really works – at all levels. LSP provides an intuitive shortcut that helps participants to quickly and fully engage their imaginations, and enables them to speak and share ideas with confidence, commitment and insight. It is a truly effective way to explore issues in a radically different way, and it gives everyone an equal chance to participate and be heard. And best of all – it’s great fun!
LSP practitioners talk about LEGO turning “lean-out” meetings – everyone leaning back in their chair, doodling, checking emails, looking at the clock – into “lean-in” meetings – everyone leaning forward, busily doing, talking, listening, actively engaged in the whole process.
Which has been my experience too. The response was brilliant, the level of engagement over the whole series of workshops was staggering, and the list of valuable suggestions for improvement runs over 10 sheets of flipchart paper!
I predict a lot more LEGO in my future…..
Is LEGO Serious Play what your next planning meeting needs? See my LSP website page for more details.
The post Building Engagement Brick By Brick first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Channel a Confident Speaker
For many years I have been encouraging those who suffer from performance nerves to “fake . . . → Read More: Fake It Until You Become It
The post Fake It Until You Become It first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Channel a Confident Speaker
For many years I have been encouraging those who suffer from performance nerves to “fake it”. That’s not to say I am encouraging anyone who is speaking in public to be inauthentic. My whole approach is about helping people be more themselves, more genuine, more open. But when you’re about to walk out in front of an audience, and you’re feeling nervous or anxious, one of the simplest things you can do (after some deep, steady breathing) is to stand up straight, stride out boldly, plant your feet, look your audience in the eye, and smile like you are pleased to be there. I encourage presenters to “channel” a confident speaker they admire, or even themselves on a good day when they are on top of their game.
Scientific Proof
I’ve always known, and those who try it confirm it, that as soon as we start to “fake it”, as soon as we present the outward appearance and body language of a relaxed and confident person, we start to feel better, more self-assured, less nervous and anxious. And now, finally, we have confirmation from the world of academia that this was not just our imagination. Cuddy’s research demonstrates that the posture we adopt actually does affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and has a measurable impact on how we feel, and how we are seen by others. Furthermore, there is a long-term cumulative effect from doing it regularly.
We used to say “fake it until you make it” – but now Cuddy teaches us to say “fake it until you become it” – because you will.
Presenting with Passion – for the speakers at all levels
Whether you are a white-clenched-knuckles first-time speaker, or an old hand who needs to brush up their speaking skills, I can help you become a passionate and engaging speaker that audiences can’t take their eyes off. Click here for further information.
Then contact me.
The post Fake It Until You Become It first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post Talk To Me first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Do the Maths
I was immediately reminded of a recent similar situation in a corporate environment, albeit on a much larger scale. I had been asked by a medium-sized company to help them develop a better culture of Internal Customer Service. As part of my usual preparation I sent out a brief survey in advance of the sessions, to get a snapshot of current attitudes. It went out to around 60 employees. Two of the key questions they were asked to score were:
- “I and my immediate colleagues go out of our way to help other departments”
- “Other departments make it easy for me/my section to do my/its job well.”
On analysing the data, the first of these was scored at an average of around 80%, and the second at around 55%. So more or less everyone felt they were offering considerably more help and support than they were getting back. Now, I’m no mathematician, but even I can work out that in a closed system, this can’t be physically possible.
Mutual Support
Presenting this information back to them proved a wonderful launching pad for conversations about the gap between intention and perception. Realising that there was no one objective truth, but that everyone felt much the same, was the first step towards improving communication and creating a better understanding of each others’ needs, so that everyone could start to feel truly, mutually, supported. The journey to better internal customer service had begun…
Creative Facilitation
Sometimes people just need a space to talk to each other, in order to solve workplace issues. Creative Facilitation from Let’s Talk can offer the support you need to enable true communication between people and/or departments. Click here for further information.
Then contact me.
The post Talk To Me first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Our North Pole Training Associate, Mr Kringle, specialist in Snowciology and Psycho-baubles, has developed a special Xmas psychometric yule-tool. Find out which of the 8 Reindeer Personality types you match with the Let’s Talk Sleigh-Team-Role Preference Profiler.
Which of the following sentences best describes your approach to work?
1) I like to whizz through my . . . → Read More: Which Reindeer are you?
The post Which Reindeer are you? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Our North Pole Training Associate, Mr Kringle, specialist in Snowciology and Psycho-baubles, has developed a special Xmas psychometric yule-tool. Find out which of the 8 Reindeer Personality types you match with the Let’s Talk Sleigh-Team-Role Preference Profiler.
Which of the following sentences best describes your approach to work?
| 1) | I like to whizz through my workload fast | You are a Dasher – for you it’s all about speed, not efficacy |
| 2) | I rely on non-verbal communication | You are a Dancer – elegant and enigmatic |
| 3) | I spring into action | You are a Prancer – you will get on in leaps and bounds |
| 4) | I work my way up with cunning | You are a Vixen – tricky, though probably quite foxy |
| 5) | I am somewhat cold and distant | You are a Comet – you have the potential to be meteoric |
| 6) | I like to charm everyone | You are a Cupid – you can be wounding |
| 7) | I am ready to rumble and shake people up | You are a Donner – definitely a big noise |
| 8) | I light up the room whenever I enter | You are a Blitzen – a creative spark with a tendency to be flashy |
…and for those wishing to develop their management capability, we have a brand new training offer –
“Getting ahead by a nose – leadership wisdom from Rudolph”
Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
The post Which Reindeer are you? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>It’s called “Will it Make the . . . → Read More: The Boat That I Row…
The post The Boat That I Row… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>It’s called “Will it Make the Boat Go Faster?: Olympic-winning Strategies for Everyday Success” and it’s Ben Hunt-Davis’ story of how the British Men’s Eights Rowing Team navigated the long hard journey to finally winning Gold at the 2000 Australian Olympics.
Ben describes in lively detail the trials and tribulations of achieving his lifetime ambition, and more importantly the strategies the team used to achieve their long-thought-impossible dream. He then lays out simple techniques that teams of all sorts, sporting or otherwise, can use to achieve their goals – though it’s worth bearing in mind, “simple” does not necessarily mean “easy”.
In the end, says Hunt-Davis, teams only need 2 things to send them off on the road to success…
- an agreed common goal
- a code of conduct – an agreed set of desirable and undesirable behaviours
…and everything else after that, all the hard work and commitment, becomes much easier to keep in focus.
You can find details of this book, and a dozen more that I have found incredibly useful and inspiring, on my Recommended Reading page
Teamwork
An effective and efficient work team powers through chores because everyone is committed to the bigger team goals. A team-building day from Let’s Talk can be the springboard you need to enable your team to really fly. Click here for further information.
Then contact me.
The post The Boat That I Row… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Tea Drinking
If you’ve ever been called to jury service, you’ll . . . → Read More: Putting a Man on the Moon
The post Putting a Man on the Moon first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Tea Drinking
If you’ve ever been called to jury service, you’ll know that there can be a great deal of sitting around and tea drinking. Some of it is while you are in the “holding pen” waiting to be called to serve on a trial. A deal of it is during actual trials – every time there is a legal point to be discussed, the jury are ushered out of the courtroom and have to wait while the wrangling takes place. Sometimes for hours.
Man on the Moon
It would be very easy to see the whole thing as a colossal nuisance, a huge timewasting inconvenience, a great intrusion into my life. All of which it is. But, take a step back, look at the bigger picture, and it quickly takes on a very different aspect. Like the legendary story of the NASA janitor who was famously not just mopping the floor, but “putting a man on the moon”, I realise that I’m not just lounging in a waiting room reading my Kindle – I’m actively participating in a system that ensures each of us, if accused, has the chance to be tried not by a judge with an political agenda, not by secret police in secret courts, but in public by twelve ordinary people just like me. That huge privilege is well worth 2 weeks of my life to preserve, by any account, and I’m proud to play my part.
Important and Fun
Which leads to a related line of questioning, m’lud (sorry, habit now!). What are the other things we have to do, in work and in life, that we resent doing, that feel like a drain on our time, that seem only to have been sent to keep us from the important and fun stuff? I’m sure you could list yours – I know I can mine. But then take that same mental step back, and look again. It doesn’t take long to find a new perspective showing that many of these are the very things that enable the “important and fun stuff” to actually happen.
Secret Pleasures
Those boring chores, whatever form they take for you, are inevitably a crucial part of putting your particular man on his unique moon. Undertake them with pride and mindfulness, they might almost become a secret pleasure.
Teamwork
An effective and efficient work team powers through chores because everyone is committed to the bigger team goals. A team-building day from Let’s Talk can be the springboard you need to enable your team to really fly. Click here for further information.
Then contact me.
The post Putting a Man on the Moon first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>This week a group of GPs-in-training fromt the West Midlands Deanery were the latest to go through the experience.
Now remember, these are people who work in an environment where even a tiny error . . . → Read More: The Doctors Will See You Now….
The post The Doctors Will See You Now…. first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>This week a group of GPs-in-training fromt the West Midlands Deanery were the latest to go through the experience.
Now remember, these are people who work in an environment where even a tiny error can have monumental consequences, and it becomes second nature to them to be careful, thoughtful, and risk-averse. So I really wasn’t sure how they would respond to me spending a whole afteroon encouraging them to stop thinking, go with the flow, accept random choices, and make mistakes with joy and abandon.
The results were nothing short of delightful. This room of serious, studious doctors played with glee and delight, and created some fabulous and inventive moments. But more importantly, they absolutely got the connection between the games we played, and the skills of listening, attending, accepting, responding with awareness, and sensitive teamwork that would be so useful to them in clinical practice.
Two best quotes from the day – “As GPs we need to spend time listening more to patients, and responding and acting on their words, as opposed to using our own words” and “Lot’s of fun – did not stop smiling all afternoon. Thank you!”
Applied Improvisation
I believe passionately in the transformative power of Applied Improvisation to build better teams and grow inspiring leaders. Please take a look at my newly-launched website Improv Inititiave for more information.
Then contact me.
The post The Doctors Will See You Now…. first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post Customer Service to Crown it All first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Once all the measuring and mould-taking for my new crown was done, I was sent along to the Dental Technician for colour matching. By the time I left, I had formed two very distinct impressions about this man:-
a) he was clearly a very talented, dedicated artisan, who spent at least 25 minutes photographing, sketching and notating the smallest mark and detail of my teeth so that the crown would look natural. The results I saw a week or so later confirm this impression.
b) He had the poorest customer service skills I have experienced in a long time! With a grudging grunt of a greeting, he left me standing by his desk, not even offering me a seat, while he drank his tea (again, without offering me any), worked on another job, and had conversations with his colleagues. Then he answered the phone, still leaving me standing at his desk, and without a word of apology went for a long rummage in a filing cabinet to answer some query. If I hadn’t actually physically blocked his return path, he would have continued to ignore me, sat down in his seat again and carried on his work.
All of which got me thinking. Of course, I wasn’t this man’s customer. His customers are Dentists, and I presume he either offers them great customer service, or skills and prices that are so good they are willing to overlook his behaviour. Perhaps it never occurred to him that I was a customer too, one who was spending a large amount of money for this service. I was just the object to be sketched and photographed.
Which brings us to the question – who are your customers? Presumably you know the answer to that. But who are your customers’ customers? Are you also giving them the service they expect? And even more pressing, how do you ensure that any third parties you use give your customers the experience you would like them to have?
Customer Service Training
I have been delivering customer service training for public and private sector clients for 15 years. Click here for further information.
Then Get in Touch
The post Customer Service to Crown it All first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>One friend was a little wary of the morning session. . . . → Read More: No, not the fence!
The post No, not the fence! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>One friend was a little wary of the morning session. She hadn’t been on skis since having a couple of lessons about 15 years earlier, but reassured us, and herself, that it would all come back like riding a bike. Alas, this turned out to be a case of optimism far exceeding ability. She cheerfully rode the button-lift to the top, pointed her skis down the hill, and promptly lost all semblance of control. As she rapidly picked up speed and flailed her way downwards, she noticed the orange fence to her left marking the edge of the slope. Her eyes were drawn hypnotically to it, and as if of their own volition her skis started to turn irresistibly towards it. With a cry of “No, not the fence!” she gave herself up to gravity and the inevitable, and crashed spectacularly into the nylon mesh. Fortunately, it performed as designed, and she was unhurt, save for severely bruised pride as the staff untangled her and escorted her firmly off the piste.
Unwittingly, she had offered us a perfect demonstration of the phenomenon of Target Fixation. This is something that, amongst others, pilots and motorcyclists are taught about. I had learned of it during my parachute training. If we allow ourselves to become fixated on obstacles we wish to avoid, we send unconscious signals to our body, and end up flying, driving, or in her case ski-ing, into the very object we are trying to miss. To counter this, we are taught the mantra “look away, steer away” – your body will follow your eyes and mind, so you must look where you want to go, rather than where you want not to go.
I think there is a lesson here that goes well beyond skis, motorbikes, planes and parachutes. In our working life, we very commonly map out our plans in terms of what we want to avoid – “I don’t want to upset my customers”, “I don’t want to expose us to too much financial risk”, “I don’t want to over-extend our resources”, “I don’t want to raise too many expectations”. This is just another form of target fixation, and as we get hypnotised by the potential hazard that looms in our consciousness, we are drawn into over-caution, paralysis, and a seemingly paradoxical slide into the very thing we were trying so hard to avoid.
As with riding a motorcycle, the trick is looking where you want to go, not at what you wish to avoid. Set positive goals – “I want to delight our customers”, “I want to manage our budgets”, “I want to invest our resources wisely”, “I want to make sure we can deliver what we promise” – and you will find it much easier to focus your efforts on achieving them.
The post No, not the fence! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I have launched a new website at www.improv-evangelist.co.uk.
To show my profound belief in the power of Applied Improv to transform the way individuals, groups and organisations operate and co-operate, I am offering, from now until March 2013, at my own expense and absolutely . . . → Read More: The Improv Evangelist
The post The Improv Evangelist first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I have launched a new website at www.improv-evangelist.co.uk.
To show my profound belief in the power of Applied Improv to transform the way individuals, groups and organisations operate and co-operate, I am offering, from now until March 2013, at my own expense and absolutely free of charge, to run a workshop session for organisations anywhere within the UK.
It sounds almost too good to be true, even to me, and I’m the one doing it! But it’s a genuine and serious offer, because I truly believe the time is ripe to spread the word.
Please go and have a look at the site, book yourself a free workshop, and pass the information on to anyone who you think might benefit.
Updates soon!
The post The Improv Evangelist first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>A couple of weeks ago I was leading an exercise during a rehearsal with my Improv group. In this exercise, people are placed in a diamond formation, like this, all facing in the same direction.
They then have to move around the room as a group, with the person at the front leading. So when they are all facing . . . → Read More: Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently
The post Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>
The Diamond Dance
A couple of weeks ago I was leading an exercise during a rehearsal with my Improv group. In this exercise, people are placed in a diamond formation, like this, all facing in the same direction.
They then have to move around the room as a group, with the person at the front leading. So when they are all facing towards the blue person, blue is leading, and everyone behind moves with them, in step and keeping pace. If blue swivels 90° towards red, everyone else swivels too, red is now at the front, and red leads. And so on, so that as the group move apparently as one, the leadership passes seamlessly and wordlessly between the people at the corners. It’s a simple, fun, experiential way to practice good team work, good leadership, good followership, sensitivity and flexibility. When people get really good at it, the fun next step is to put some music on, and turn it into The Diamond Dance – the person at the front leads the moves, and everyone else stays in sync. When done well it looks so good you could almost believe it’s choreographed.
Anyway, on this occasion, the group was struggling a bit. Those leading were tending to either stride off at an odd angle without warning, leaving everyone else behind, or to move too tentatively while trying to look round anxiously and see what everyone was doing, and in the process giving unclear and unsure signals making it paradoxically harder to follow. To compound the problem, the followers themselves had a tendency to hesitate as they waited to see what was coming next. This caused them to drift from their position, disturbing the way the group was set out, and leading to much confusion, and especially muddled handovers during the transitions. In an attempt to overcome this, and to help them co-ordinate better, I heard myself call out “Lead Boldly, Follow Ardently!” And I immediately knew I had hit upon something.
“Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently.” We were only playing a simple, silly game, yet surely, this is a phrase that can improve any team situation. The leader (note, small “l” – you don’t have to be a Leader to be in the lead) of any team effort needs to move boldly forward, giving clear and confident direction without ambiguity, hesitance or confusion. The followers (small “f” for same reason) can help enormously by showing complete and instant and support, responding flexibly to changes, and providing constant feedback. And if everyone is in the right place at the right time, the lead can be passed seamlessly from one to another as needed. When done well, it looks so good you could almost believe it’s choreographed!
The post Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The workshops proved . . . → Read More: Furnishished with Expectations
The post Furnishished with Expectations first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The workshops proved popular, people signed up, the day was set. I carefully planned out a series of fun but structured games and exercises, to illuminate the valuable training platform Improv offers in this kind of corporate setting. What could possibly go wrong?
Then, on the day, I was taken into the room that had been booked…
I gulped. “Ok”, I said, “No problem, can we just push the desks to the side?” Absolutely no chance! Apart from the permissions in septuplicate that would be needed, these beautiful, heavy, bespoke, each-one-a-work-of-art desks from the 50’s were actually fixed to the floor, unmovable because of all the microphones and headphone wires and simultaneous-translation paraphernalia bolted on to every one.
I threw away my carefully structured workshop plan – time to improvise indeed! I ended up doing quite a lot of circle-based exercises around the podium in the middle, small group work in the corners of the room, and a couple of sitting-down games with people actually perched on the desks (don’t tell the Conservators!). I am pleased and relieved to report that the sessions were a success, and the participants reported finding them both fun and enlightening. But it was a close call!
The post Furnishished with Expectations first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Make sure you are fully prepared as the party season gets underway – this latest drafting of European/Laplandish legislation could have a profound implications for your organisation. This festive training day will cover such crucial . . . → Read More: The Santa Clause!
The post The Santa Clause! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Make sure you are fully prepared as the party season gets underway – this latest drafting of European/Laplandish legislation could have a profound implications for your organisation. This festive training day will cover such crucial questions of Christmas legality as:-
• Secret Santa – contravening Data Protection?
• Crackers – are they within the scope of the Terrorism Act?
• Mistletoe – endangered species, or catalyst for workplace harassment?
• Mulled wine – statutory requirements for introducing licensed intoxicants in the workplace
• Carol Singing – contractual obligation or attracting overtime?
• Goodwill to all Men – are women workers covered?
• The Stationery Cupboard – what are the rules of confidentiality?
The course will be delivered by our long-time associate, jovial bearded Mr Kringle. Places are free, but will be restricted to those who have workplace competency-based evidence proving that they have been Good Boys or Girls.
Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
p.s. more monthly webinars arriving in 2012….
The post The Santa Clause! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I first met . . . → Read More: Why Values are Priceless
The post Why Values are Priceless first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I first met Tonya about two-and-a-half years ago, when she was still writing the script, and followed her progress with interest, offering her an occasional sympathetic listening ear, and advice and guidance when she asked for it. I was impressed right from the start with her energy and focus, and her determination to make her long-held and then seemingly impossible dream of producing and performing this 90-minute show come true. So much so, she eventually coaxed me out of my 11 year “retirement” from directing, and convinced me to play a part in helping her achieve that goal.
Two less likely co-collaborators would be hard to imagine. Tonya is Black, strong in her Christian beliefs, and had written a play examining women’s experience within the Church. I am male, White, and a card-carrying atheist (in fact I am a Humanist Funeral Celebrant). Yet despite our very different perspectives on the world it has been an extremely happy and fruitful collaboration. I believe that this is because, despite our very different belief systems, we do share many similar values, and so had no problem working together on a piece that represented and explored those values. Of course, we would disagree and debate about detail, and argue over aspect of structure and staging as we searched for the best way of expressing the story, but always secure in the knowledge that we were both striving to achieve and express the same thing.
This very enjoyable creative process has been a fantastic reminder to me that in any field of endeavour, whether alone or as part of a team, if we want to achieve our best it’s vital that we believe in and support the values embedded in it. I am always aware that if I don’t feel I can commit time and energy to a work project with genuine integrity, it’s a strong sign that perhaps I should be doing something else.
In this case, it’s been enormous and challenging fun, and I look forward to further collaboration with Tonya next year, when we take the show on tour!
The post Why Values are Priceless first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post And that’s why they call it a Play… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The first was a result of being commissioned by my own life-partner, the extraordinary Wanjiku Nyachae. It’s almost impossible to categorise the work Wanjiku does – she is trained as a psychotherapist, economist, arts consultant, coaching and mentoring guru, and all-round relational leadership champion. She had hired me to create a piece of storytelling theatre to help launch an event she had been commissioned to produce for the prestigious Ashridge Business School, as part of their week-long Director’s Potential Programme for senior Daimler executives. The good news is that any fears I might have had about working for the first time ever with (or, even more accurately and worryingly, for) my other half were completely unfounded – in fact it was a great joy. The even better news is that the evening was a fantastic success. I fulfilled my brief by creating and directing a retelling of The Emperor’s New Clothes with three actors and a musician, and it was wonderfully received by the ladies and gents of Daimler from all around the world.
I’d nearly forgotten what liberating fun the rehearsal room could be – the five of us spent our three rehearsal days laughing, playing, inventing and working joyfully together, while effortlessly managing to create a slick, tight, funny modern take on the classic fairytale, relevant to today’s business leaders. We even set ourselves the challenge of leaving the ending open so our audience could choose how the story should unfold, and we could then improvise it for them.
I have blogged before on my conviction that the best training and learning takes place in a state of playfulness. Here was a reminder that it is not only learning that thrives in this environment. I state here without fear of contradiction that all teams, all work, all projects, all creativity and innovation, all improvement, all development, all change – in fact more or less any activity you can think of – unfolds more easily, more collaboratively, more pleasurably, and more effortlessly, in a state of open playfulness. If you need further proof of this, I have added the inspirational book PLAY by Dr Stuart Brown, to my recommended reading list. It’s packed with research and evidence supporting this assertion.
Oh, yes, I said I was directing two theatre pieces. You’ll have to wait for my next blog to find out about the second one.
The post And that’s why they call it a Play… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>. . . → Read More: Another big, fat, useful, mistake…
The post Another big, fat, useful, mistake… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>As part of the training, I run an exercise where I ask the participants to work in groups to come up with a whole load of ideas on a particular topic, write them down on Post-Its, and stick them up on flipchart sheets. The other day I was working in a very small branch, in a tiny room, with just 4 people. There was no space to hang flipchart paper, it didn’t seem worth putting them in groups of just 2, and so I didn’t bother with the Post-Its either. As the company was also suppying branded lined notepads to each person, I suggested they just write down their ideas individually in their notebooks. Another great mistake to add to my long, long list!
It was only when all 4 partcipants started moodily chewing the ends of their pens, staring at me with sullen looks, and muttering that they couldn’t think of anything to write, that I realised what I had done. Standing by big sheets of paper, drawing on coloured Post-Its with fat marker pens, all feel like fun, like play, and encourages creative thought. Sitting alone with a book and a pen, and being watched while being instructed to write things down, feels like school, feels like work, feels like judgement, and immediately shuts down the creative flow in case we “get it wrong”.
Well, on this occasion I was the one that “got it wrong”. I quickly asked them to close their books, and moved instead to a talking and sharing exercise in pairs, to release their flow again. I already know that all the best learning takes place when people are in a playful and open state. Now I have learnt that I must work to maintain that state at all times, even if it means taking apparently superflous and uneccesary steps.
The only useful response after making a mistake is – notice it, put it right, don’t do it again. I did, I did, and I certainly won’t!
The post Another big, fat, useful, mistake… first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I had advertised it as a “Presenting for the Terrified” course. I am approached countless times by people who want to tell me how much they dread having to speak in public, how they wake up sweating at the thought, and of their experiences of shaking, mumbling, blanking, and . . . → Read More: Nothing to fear but fear itself….
The post Nothing to fear but fear itself…. first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I had advertised it as a “Presenting for the Terrified” course. I am approached countless times by people who want to tell me how much they dread having to speak in public, how they wake up sweating at the thought, and of their experiences of shaking, mumbling, blanking, and feeling as if they are going to faint. But the vast majority of these people, when I offer them a place on a course, rapidly find a plethora of excuses not to attend “right now”.
But here were a group of people, willing not only to acknowledge that presenting was a huge issue for them, but actually prepared to take the next step and face their demons – not to mention risking the trip into central Birmingham in the aftermath of a night of riots! I was not particularly surprised that all of them were women. In my experience women are much more willing than men to admit to fears, which of course is the first step to overcoming them.
If you have read the Presenting With Passion section of my website, you will know that I truly believe that we are all excellent communicators, but that this natural ability is blocked and hindered by anxiety and performance-fear when we stand up to speak in public. This was the first opportunity I had had to dedicate a whole day in the training room specifically to examine that fear in great detail, and experimenting with ways to reduce it.
Together we tried many of the tools I have gathered over the years, not least those I acquired ten years ago as (probably) the most petrified skydiving student in the world! We practiced various breathing exercises, meditation and visualisation techniques, and also some NLP based reframing and anchoring systems. We also turned the spotlight on fear itself and dared it to do its worst!
By the end of the day, every participant had surprised and amazed themselves by standing up and speaking boldly, passionately, and more importantly convincingly to the assembled room with few visible signs of nerves. Of course, you don’t overcome all fear in a day, and you don’t become a world-class orator overnight, but each person in that room had taken a huge and admirable step towards becoming a brilliant Presenter with Passion.
Ladies – and you know who you are – I salute you!
The post Nothing to fear but fear itself…. first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 2) first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>
Team Slot Machines in training. Photo by me.
Our coach this time was the peerless Pete Allum, skydiver extraordinaire with 30,000 jumps to his name, winner of countless skiploads of medals, and all-round skygod held in total awe by skydivers worldwide. Find out more about Pete here). Watching Pete training and coaching a team has been a genuine learning experience. You might be aware that there is much debate and angel-on-pinhead-classification of what differentiates teaching, training, mentoring, coaching, and so on. Pete blows these differences apart. There can be no questioning the technical expertise of a man who really has seen and done it all, as far as this discipline of competitive skydiving is concerned. He has a preternatural ability to analyse video and see in minute detail what each person is doing micro-second by micro-second, uncannily even spotting what isn’t visible on the screen, such as what is happening in a masked area, or what someone is thinking or feeling while in freefall. Humbling to witness.
However, the real revelation to me was his coaching style. Which superficially is so laid back and laconic as to be almost imperceptible at times. Pete has a remarkable ability to listen and watch carefully, and then hone in the genuine issue with laser precision, and very gently suggest the one piece of information that will completely transform an individual’s performance. He never bombards you with too much knowledge, or overloads you with ideas, he just gives you one new thing to try, and a whole world of possibility suddenly opens up.
Like many involved in training, I know I can sometimes fall into the trap of rather liking the sound of my own voice. After all, we trainers and managers tell ourselves, we possess the vital information our trainees or our work reports need, and surely if we explain it at sufficient length and in enough detail, we can fill up their buckets of knowledge to the brim. In truth, we more often end up just overloading their brains and clouding the issue. Ironically, this can actually be made worse by the telling of stories. Elsewhere on this website I rhapsodise on the value of storytelling to give meaning to information and as a way of embedding values. And I still believe that is profoundly true. Unfortunately, and I hold my own hand up to being guilty of this, it can also be an excuse for the “old warhorse” syndrome of following any learning point with “which reminds me of a time when….”. Stories have a time and place, but don’t necessarily belong in every teaching or coaching situation. Pete Allum is a man with more skydiving stories to tell than the rest of us put together, but he saves them for the bar, and even then you have to prise them out of him. In the training room, the focus is the team, not him, and all his energy goes into improving performance, not boosting his own status.
Even more fascinating to watch was the way he withdrew himself slowly from the coaching process. As the days went by he encouraged the team more and more to assess themselves and to be impartial judges of their own performance. By the end of the week he was barely contributing anything, having put in place a simple but effective system of debriefing jumps and planning improvements. True coaching, I realised, was not complete until the coach has made themselves redundant, at least for the time being.
Inspired by my experience of last week, I am now re-evaluating my own training and coaching style. I am searching for ways to ensure that the true focus of what I do is to provide people with just the right amount of information, and simple clear goals, to leverage step-changes in performance. I am checking that I don’t fill up valuable time with “interesting” stories that, yes, amuse people and illustrate points, but don’t necessarily contribute to actual learning. And I am looking for ways to embed not just information, but ways of learning, so that in the longer term my input is no longer needed. Challenges indeed.
The post Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 2) first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 1) first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>
Rookie Team 4Mula exiting the aircraft - photo by me
There are only about 2,000 active skydivers in the UK, which makes it a very small sport with an intimate and close-knit community. There is no great public following with its associated TV or sponsorship deals, and one of the benefits of this is that for comparatively modest fees you can get world-class coaching from an internationally-renowned competitor. Their coach this weekend was Claire “Sparky” Scott, holder of 5 World Championship Gold Medals (see more about Sparky on her website here). This is a bit like your pub football team being able to book Beckham or Ronaldinho for the day!
What I love about watching Sparky at work is the way she treats the teams she coaches. She achieved her own medals through years of sacrifice and hard work as a focussed, determined and incredibly hard-working competitor, and she gained success by dedicating thousands of hours, and tens of thousands of pounds of her own money, to train and compete until she achieved her ambitions and rose to the very top. I don’t believe she can conceive of another way to approach the sport, and so she just treats every single team member as a potential world-champion-in-waiting. The consequence of this is that from the get-go they start to think of themselves in the same way, and very quickly raise their own game. Over the four-day camp you could see the team starting to appreciate the level of work, fitness and concentration required, and really start to apply themselves. They made very noticeable improvements in performance, and left with determination, a training programme and a clear path forwards.
All of which made me think of how we treat those whom we train, mentor, coach and manage at work. What would be the effect if we just assumed every single person was a potential world-class-performer in their field, who just needed a little help and guidance to achieve great success? How would it change their view of themselves and their abilities, if what they saw constantly reflected in our eyes was a champion-in-the-making? If we simply presuppose that they are destined to succeed, and let them know that through our behaviour and our words, isn’t it that much more likely to come true?
The post Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 1) first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>The post Set your phone to ‘stun’ first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>I thought long and carefully about how to best structure the session, and came up with some sitting-and-standing-in-place icebreakers, followed by a demonstration role-play exercise using two pre-selected volunteers, and then getting all 140 participants on their feet and divided into groups of three, so they could try the exercise themselves, taking it in turns to be customer, service person and facilitator. It all went surprisingly well, people threw themselves into the exercise, and the room was buzzing. I had introduced my preferred method of getting silence from a large noisy group – a tip I learnt many years ago when working with adolescents and children. Trying to shout over a noisy room to get attention doesn’t work, and ends up wrecking your voice to boot. So instead tell them “when I need to talk to you, I am going to walk into the middle of the room, raise my arm and wait. If you see me with my arm raised, please stop talking, and wait with me.” This works a treat – once the first few people see you, silence ripples out in waves, and participants even start shushing each other. So simple, so effective.
Anyway, everything was going swimmingly, so I started the second half of the session, involving some telephone technique. Once again I used two volunteers to demonstrate, and once again I broke the room into groups of three to give it a try. And then I made what I thought was an innocent suggestion. I said “I find this exercise works best if you stand back to back, so you can’t see each other, just as if you were on the phone. Oh, and it tends to feel more natural if you have an actual phone in your hand. So dig out your mobile phone, and use it as a prop.” BIG mistake! Everyone pulled out their mobiles – and promptly started noticing all the missed calls, texts and emails. Whoops! Focus lost, concentration gone, experiential learning on hold, everyday work rolling in to swamp the moment! We were about to drown in bleeps and keyboard taps.
I very quickly used my “arm up in the air” method to gain attention, skipped the rest of the exercise, and got them back in their chairs for the next part of the session, so no great damage done. But it just goes to show, you can never quite think through all the consequences of apparently simple instructions. And it’s a mistake I shall definitely not be making again.
The post Set your phone to ‘stun’ first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Topics covered will include:-
safe gift . . . → Read More: Elf and Safety Training!
The post Elf and Safety Training! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Topics covered will include:-
- safe gift wrapping and lifting
- reindeer care and risk assessment
- comfort and survival at altitude
- sleigh avionics – gps global aerial navigation
- chimney co2 emissions – minimising, monitoring and reporting
- just-in-time delivery logistics
- young people – managing their material expectations
Turkey lunch will be included. Height restrictions apply. Warm clothing advisable. Pointy hats distributed on the day. To request a place, nail an application to the nearest convenient mantelpiece.
Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
The post Elf and Safety Training! first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Research, not to mention all my personal experience, re-affirms that the best learning takes place when students are in an open, curious and lively state, more concerned with . . . → Read More: Dude, where’s my delegates…..?
The post Dude, where’s my delegates…..? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>Research, not to mention all my personal experience, re-affirms that the best learning takes place when students are in an open, curious and lively state, more concerned with discovery than with “getting it right”. It is not only children who learn through play – adults will always learn better in a spirit of adventure and play than from any amount of rote learning, flipcharts, and slow death by PowerPoint. So I always work very hard on using games and experiential exercises to create a fun but safe training-room environment, in which learners feel they can try things out, challenge themselves and me, and generally adopt a playful but focussed attitude on the material at hand and their fellow-learners.
The disappearance happened on the second day of a 3-day course I have been running for Heart of Birmingham PCT. As part of setting up an exercise, I asked half the class of 32 participants to briefly leave the room, while I gave instructions to the other half. “Don’t go far,” I said, “It’ll only take a minute or two. And no listening!” I added, with a smile. So 16 people got up and stepped out of the training room into the corridor, and I spent a minute or so briefing the remaining half. “OK, come on back!” I yelled. Silence. No response. I walked over to the door, opened it, and looked out. The corridor was empty. They’d snuck off! “Oh dear,” I said loudly in my best Pantomime voice “They’ve all gone. I think they’ve run away. Whatever shall I do now?”. I could hear muffled giggles coming from an alcove just up the corridor. “I can heeeeaaar you! Come out, come out wherever you are” I chanted like a 10-year old. And in a wave of laughter they all came tumbling out of their hiding place, delighted with their own prank. They filed gleefully back into the training room, the whole class laughed some more, and then we carried on with the exercise.
For me, that fact that 16 people who had only met the day before now felt comfortable enough as a group to play a harmless practical joke on their instructor, and hide themselves like delighted children, meant that we had definitely achieved the right level of shared playful openness. Now the real learning could begin.
The post Dude, where’s my delegates…..? first appeared on Let's Talk.
]]>