Go big or go home (or go to sleep)

Getting back to some of the many presentations I saw at conferences in the past month.  I am still digesting all the stuff I’ve seen, and I selfishly feel that I have benefited more than I’ve helped others this month.  But in rational moments, I realize that this helps others in the long run.  Very [...]

June 25th, 2007 | Category: Communication skills, Delivery, Parenting, public speaking | Comments are closed

That’s not for you

Training in an (internal) training center where the common area between training rooms had snacks and such. Off to the side were some coffee containers with a big sign on them that said: “Coffee is for the XYZ class only.” Since my class wasn’t the XYZ class, there were bunches of offhand comments [...]

June 19th, 2007 | Category: Business, Customer Service, Leadership | Comments are closed

Whatever you want

This post could have dozens of examples tacked to it.  It’s one of the most common things I see.  And it’s an easy fix.  That’s hard. 
The phrase goes something like this: “What I want to tell you…” or “I just want to say…“  I listened to a group of trainers today utter it dozens [...]

June 14th, 2007 | Category: Communication skills, Content, Delivery, Don't!, Leadership, public speaking | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

I didn’t think it applied to me

In another presentation I witnessed at last week’s conference (and LOTS more to come from that), I watched a rather academic session digress into long-winded narration of PowerPoint.  The slides got worse and worse and the presentation less and less interactive as the experienced presenter reverted to the thing that was most comfortable to him.

Finally, [...]

June 11th, 2007 | Category: Communication skills, Content, Delivery, PowerPoint | Comments are closed

No excuses

In one of the ASTD presentations I was in this past week, the presenter had given the talk earlier in the week.  Evidently the feedback forms had already been turned in and seen by the presenter, because he referenced them several times.

Part of the session was on engaging students (read: audience) in the classroom and [...]

June 9th, 2007 | Category: Communication skills, Delivery, Don't!, public speaking | Comments are closed

ASTD

I heard this quote (no attribution) the other week:

“We spend far too much time on our jobs, and far too little on ourselves.”

I spent a little time improving myself this week at the ASTD ICE conference.  It was quite amazing, and I come back with gobs of notes, ideas, and inspiration.  Now for the time [...]

June 6th, 2007 | Category: Efficiency, Leadership, public speaking | Comments are closed

Comments back on

Sometime in the last month (when I wasn’t posting), comments got hosed on the blog.  A few short minutes with our best friend Google, and an obscure option has been changed to allow comments again.  Can’t explain why they were working before and no changes were made, and I’m not sure what effect this will [...]

June 2nd, 2007 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments are closed